CLINTON, S.C. - During preseason practice and throughout the 2010 volleyball year, Presbyterian College setter Kilee Ruppe will give fans a behind the scenes glimpse into being a student-athlete at the Division I level. Ruppe will update her journal as time allows during preseason and at least once a week during the season.

In addition to the journal, Ruppe will include pictures of the volleyball team from time to time in the photo gallery. To view, just click on the camera.

Ruppe is a redshirt-senior setter from Spartanburg, S.C.

Journal Entry No. 8 - 9/14/10

It's been a while since the Korner has been updated. The past few weeks have been very busy for us. Last Tuesday we traveled to College of Charleston, drove back that same night, practiced Wednesday, and then left Thursday night for Greenville. We stayed at Lindsey and Presley's houses that night because they were a lot closer to the airport. I'm not sure how it went at Lindsey's house but at Presley's, Liz was terrified of all the American Girl Dolls that were sitting around. We found Presley's favorite N'sync game, found pictures of her with huge feet, and Paige was able to play with Presley's dog outside at 4:30 in the morning. We successfully made it past the security check until Presley went through and thought she could bring a water bottle of sweet tea onto the plane. But somehow, Ashley managed to bring a biology dissection kit onto the plane that she forgot was in her bag. The flight was only about an hour and a half and then we had to switch planes in Chicago.

On the second flight Paige sat in front of me and Belshe and we made her use her "airplane voice" the whole time. Meaning if she had something to say she had to write it down. We finally arrived in Peoria where we picked up three rental vans and drove to the hotel. After unpacking we got to take naps and do homework if we wanted to until it was time for dinner. Flat Top was the restaurant Belshe chose to eat at, which was great because the waiter enjoyed serving us. I also managed to slip him Caroline Cann's number. Friday before we played Valpo Rachel Rutan's family invited us to their home for a pre-game meal. Everything was awesome, especially the food. Valpo was a very good team and we lost to them but came back Saturday morning and beat both Bradley University and Hofstra. Haley Thurmond's family invited us to their house Saturday night for dinner. All of our families went and we all had a great time.

Sunday morning we left from the Peoria airport and arrived in Chicago where we had a three-hour layover. Most of us used that time to do homework, but Kettles instead went to Starbucks twice. Who knows where Lindsey Harris was the whole time because someone let her off her leash. Finally, we got on our last flight and made it back to Greenville. It was a long day of traveling especially after playing volleyball all weekend. Thank you Belshe for being so gracious and letting us come to practice at 6:30 Monday morning instead of 6:00. The extra 30 minutes was a tease.

Journal Entry No. 7 - 9/2/10

Tuesday was our first game of the season against Furman University.  Everyone was feeling a little bit nervous and anxious about it when we first got there.  We lost which was very disappointing, and even though Furman is a very good team we all believe that we could have done better.  The things we need to fix are very easy to change.  We've been working for two practices on those things and now we all feel confident about our tournament in Georgia this weekend.  We leave tonight and play our first game against Mercer tomorrow followed by the Citadel and then UT-Martin on Saturday. 

Other than the loss on Tuesday, this week has been a good week for our team.  5 of us will have or had birthdays this week--Andrea, Presley, Mary, Ashley and I.  A few of the girls also did a beauty pageant and a photo shoot and their pictures are attached.  Caroline Cann lost the pageant.  

Journal Entry No. 6 - 8/24/10

Saturday was a good day for two reasons: 1. Last day of preseason 2010 (last ever for us seniors) and most importantly 2. It marked day 12 of Caroline Cann's losing streak.  She's the only person who gets a partner for the drill "Ace and Replace" and still loses. 

Classes started yesterday (I think Lindsey Harris was the only one excited about that), and so did super, super, early morning practice.  It was a good practice to start off our semester.  The team pushed aside being tired and worked hard to accomplish what we needed to get done. 

After practice (still waiting for the sun to rise) we went to Coach Taylor to do the workout he had provided for us to do twice a week.  We always enjoy our time with Coach Taylor and appreciate how hard he works for us.  We also appreciate Belshe for providing us with the privilege of going to the first day of classes sweaty and smelling good.  We would all hate to have to wear real clothes, look cute, and smell good, especially on the first day. This morning's super, early practice was a lot like yesterday's except for Lindsey Harris had on ridiculous, old school, long socks.  

Journal Entry No. 5 - 8/19/10

Orientation for the freshman started yesterday after our first practice, so while they were doing that the rest of the team did a community service project at the Hospice of Clinton.  The Hospice is hosting a fundraising event this Saturday called Flight of the Dove.  We volunteered to come help them fill bags with items donated from companies for the event.  There were boxes of stuff to be filled so we made an assembly line to get it finished as fast as possible.  Since Belshe is always putting an emphasis on competing we made sure we stuffed as fast as we could to beat last year's time.  Hopefully the team will be invited back next year for a third time.  Later that day during practice number 2, we started off passing with the screw drivers again.  It is still just as weird as it was the day before.  This morning's practice started an hour earlier than all the other morning practices...which was awesome because last night's practice lasted an hour later than all the other night practices.  This morning we split up into four mini teams and played each other to 15 points.  There were two matches and then the losers of each played each other while the winners of each did the same.  Allison, Presley, and I were on a team.  We beat Caroline Cann's team 15 to 12 to knock them to the loser's court.  If we wouldn't have missed three serves it would have only been 15 to 9.  It is really not important who won the final games. 

Even though we only graduated one senior from last year, Kelsey McKee (who we miss very, very much and I am sure Nelson does too) our team has changed in a lot of ways.  Allison and Paige have learned many more new dances (including "Crank dat Lion King"), Liz is no longer a vegetarian so we can eat at Chick-fil-a more often, Belshe has a new son, Calean, who we're hoping will learn how to shag balls soon and most importantly, Amanda Kettles laughs at all my jokes (last year she told me she hated jokes).  One thing hasn't changed though...Belshe still likes 300's.  It has been a great two days of practice and we are all looking forward to tomorrow.  Ashley Dunlap may or may not have gotten hit in the face today...she claims it was the throat.

Journal Entry No. 4 - 8/17/10

Sunday was a very much needed day off.  The team went to Grace, a church in Greenville, and also had lunch together.  After lunch everyone walked around downtown Greenville to get ice cream.  Sunday night was a team bonding night.  To start off team bonding we watched Brandon Miley's quarterback interview.  You can find that under videos on the football team page. 

For the next four hours we went around to everyone on the team and told each other what we valued most about them.  It was obvious that it was a great experience because the next day everyone's facebook  status said how it was the best night of PCVB they have ever had...except for Lindsey Harris... hers said "Can't wait for classes to start". 

Monday was another tough day of practice, but everyone knows how hard we need to work since our first game is in two weeks.  Tuesday we worked a lot on serve receiving and passing.  Belshe had the passers hold on to screwdrivers to help with their platforms.  I know that sounds really weird...because it is.  We also lifted with Coach Taylor in between our two practices.  He gave us an inspiring speech about how we need to keep fighting through preseason. 

At the end of the second practice we all played queen of the court.  We always keep count of how many times we win to see who has the most at the end.  I won with 30 points...Caroline Cann only had 25.  Most of those were because of the times I was on her team.  Belshe said he stopped keeping count of his, but it's funny how he keeps count every other time that he wins.  Presley, sorry for blocking that last ball in your face.

Journal Entry No. 3 - 8/14/10

The end of the first week of practice is coming quick. Thursday we had a pool workout at the Y with Caroline, one of the trainers, which was great. It worked out some of our soreness and gave us a break from practice. Afternoon practice came around and Lisa Shelley was voted "Worst Dressed Practice Player."

We did a lot of position training and while the middles were practicing blocking. During practice, Ashley and I were talking about these blogs I have been writing and she asked me if I would quote her in one. I asked her what she wanted the quote to be and she said "I don't know just think of something really good and write that I said it." So there you go Ashley there is your direct quote!

We had the night off of practice but we had to do a little team bonding. We all decided to go to our favorite restaurant, El Jalesico, to eat dinner. Whoever walked out and didn't pay for your cheese dip you owe Carolyn $4.00. Saturday's practice started out great. We got our intensity back that we were missing Friday. Everyone was in the mood to compete and that's exactly what we did all practice. Everyone recently received new plays and we have been working hard to learn and run them.

Journal Entry No. 2 - 8/11/10

We just finished our first two days of practice and they have been challenging but also rewarding.  Challenging because three long practices a day can be not only physically tough, but also mentally.  Rewarding because we are getting better and at the end of the day the feeling of accomplishment is worth everything we had to go through.  The soreness for everyone kicked in this morning when we all woke up and probably won't go away until late November (when the season is over).  I'm sure Megan Trimpe is also sore too because she has been helping us by having to play in competitions as another setter.  She also chooses to run the 300's and do the other things her team has to do if they lose.

Yesterday morning we had the privilege of starting our day off with Coach Matt Taylor, the strength coach, and it was great.  We maxed out to see how the summer workouts had helped us stay in shape, and also got to do a few other things with him.  We are all just trying to get "Taylor Made" as we call it. 

After that, Coach Belshe gave us the opportunity to pick teams and just play volleyball to get the rustiness out before we started anything else.  Practice the rest of the day went great, but I think we all agreed it was one of the hardest first days of preseason so far that any of us had experienced.  Our day ended in ice baths which was a good idea.  Today was a lot like yesterday's practices except that we had so much more intensity.  I think we realized that when we're as tired and sore as all of us are then we have to find something to carry us.  Our intensity is definitely what carried us today which resulted in three awesome practices.  The day once again ended with ice baths and then we all left looking forward to our pool workout scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Journal Entry No. 1 - 8/9/10

Today was the beginning of PCVB preseason 2010.  We all arrived on campus this morning at 8:00 to check in and get our stuff unpacked.  All morning was filled with hugs, laughs, stories, and lots of excitement.  And I mean lots of excitement...we even clapped for Nelson, our athletic trainer, when he came in to talk about drug testing.  Nelson introduced us to our new team trainer, Lauren.  I hope she's ready.  We also got to meet Mr. Reese, the new athletic director. He spoke to us about himself, where he came from, his expectations, and his vision for not just our volleyball program but also the entire athletic program.  Even though we all will miss Dr. Carlton everyone is very excited about working with Mr. Reese to achieve his goals and our goals together. 

After the meetings we had physicals.  Everyone passed.  With nothing else to do until dinner at Belshe's we had time to eat lunch, finish unpacking, and make Wal-Mart trips.  Earlier this morning Belshe asked if anyone remembered how to get to his house for dinner, Lindsey Harris was the only one to raise her hand.  Her car was the only car that got lost.  The dinner was delicious especially the salad that Belshe claims he made  J.

Going into tomorrow, the first real day of practices, there are a mix of anxious and excited feelings going around.  The last thing Belshe said to us tonight was to be ready to compete this season.  Compete with yourself to be the best you have ever been and to compete with each other to help them become the best they have ever been.