The Cisco Journal – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/8/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 8, 2001
%^$Senior defensive specialist Nikki Cisco was asked to chronicle her experiences when Ohio State traveled to 11th-ranked Penn State for a Wednesday match. The Buckeyes won the match 3-0 (30-19, 30-23, 30-19).%^$
%^$It was Halloween Eve and I woke up bright and early to the sound of my alarm. I have an 8:30 a.m. class on Tuesday, and this particular Tuesday, I just happened to have a midterm. It was one of three I had this week. To complicate things, we had a huge midweek road trip. This is where I really have to manage my time. I finished my first midterm with a sigh of relief and then off to my next class to listen to a lengthy lecture. The next class is a lab and I look forward to that because two of my other teammates are in that class with me, Anne (Botica) and Shelly (Draeger). We have a lab quiz that we will be missing on Wednesday so before practice we all go over to take it early. Once that is over, we can now focus on the big game…Penn State.%^$
%^$I went to practice around 2 p.m. to get packed for our road trip. Our practice would start around 2:45pm. Our practice consisted of defense, serve receive and rotational sequences to ready ourselves for Penn State. This was another huge obstacle we had to pass on our journey through the Big Ten schedule.%^$
%^$Practice ended around 5:15 p.m. We all showered and headed over to training table. This is where the university feeds us dinner in fall season. We share it with the football team and the other sports that are in season. After a gourmet meal, we piled five girls into my car with all of our huge Nike bags in the back and off we headed for Don Scott Airport. We arrived at the airport at about 6:30 p.m. to board our 20 passenger private plane. I always sit next to the entertainment, Anne Botica, in the very back of the plane. We sit there so we cannot see anything going on around us and we give each other comfort when we hit those tiny air pockets.%^$
%^$We arrive into famous “Happy Valley” around 8:30 p.m. We grab all of our bags and pile into the mini vans. We all argue over “shotgun” and “front bench” because no one wants to sit in the back of the van. But the best DJ’s and navigators usually get the front seats. As we drive into the campus area we see the newly renovated football stadium. Don’t worry Buckeye fans…the Shoe is still the best!%^$
%^$We arrive at the Quality Inn in State College and all pile in. On this road trip my roommate is Stacey Gordon. This is a plus because she wants to watch the Washington Wizards with Michael Jordan’s return as much as I do while flipping back and forth to the World Series with me being such the huge baseball fan. Before settling in to our night of sports on television, Coach (Jim Stone) calls the seniors, Anne, Erin (Baker) and I into a meeting. We discussed practice and what had happened that day and what it was going to take to be successful against Penn State. We all agreed we needed to all play together as a team and really put forth great effort. He also mentioned that this was our last chance to play at Rec Hall and beat Penn State on their home court. This would be a first if we did. So far in my career at Penn State we were 0-3.%^$
%^$After our night of sports, Stacey and I went to bed at about 11:30 p.m. I lay there thinking of my last three years of my career and this was the last trip I would make to Penn State. We were 0-3 and we hadn’t even been close in one match there. My freshman year the match ended in a record 47 minutes. Obviously not in our favor. But this year was going to be different, I just knew it! I knew we were going to win. This whole season has been different than any other of my years. I laughed too looking at my roommate, Stacey Gordon, Big Ten Player of the Week two times this year. She is one of the most powerful players I have seen in my Big Ten career and I feel asleep smiling knowing she was on our side.%^$
%^$I woke up about 4:30 a.m. thinking about the game but also hoping I could fall back asleep. You see on a good day standing up straight and tall I am 5’4? and one of the smallest players in the Big 10. I lay there thinking of 6’2? Mishka Levy and 6’0? Katie Schumaker hitting balls at me 150 miles per hour hoping to keep them off the floor. As a defensive specialist, I have a non-glorified job. I don’t dream about going into the big game leading my team in kills or blocks or even making headlines, well maybe I do, but like I said that is in my dreams, but really my job is that of an unsung hero. I go in and pass balls coming in from all angles and furious speeds and I dig up balls from some of the biggest girls you will ever see. Not only are Levy and Schumaker intimidating, the whole aura of Rec Hall is intimidating. There are endless banners of Big Ten championships, final four appearances and even a national championship banner. They even have a seventh man, the crowd. But somehow, once again this was my senior year and this year was going to be different. I fell back to sleep with a smile on my face.%^$
%^$At 8:45 a.m. we awoke on Halloween morning and went to breakfast. We then went to pre-game practice and passed balls, stretched out and headed back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel we showered and them headed to the coaches room to watch videos. This is our time to review Penn State and figure out their tendencies and figure out what we have to do to beat them. After video, we head off to pre-game meal at 2 p.m. We usually play some sort of team game to get our brains working and it gives us a chance to know all of our teammates a little better. We learn something new every pre-game meal and we always have a good time. We then head back to the hotel where most of us rest or nap for about an hour. We left for the gym about 5 p.m. When we arrive at the gym some of the girls get treated or taped and then we pass before every game. Anne and I are warm up partners and when we started to warm up we both told each other things were different this year…we are going to win tonight! We could both feel it!%^$
%^$We went into the locker room after warm-up. We knew what we had to do. We changed into our game jerseys and were getting ready to get out on the court and play together as a team and play hard. I was thinking about the crowd I had just seen watching the Penn Sate -Wisconsin match on television. They had over 4800 screaming fans. We ran out onto the court. Their crowd was considerably down from my past years experience for this match. I guess our Halloween Buckeye spirits had spooked off some of the crowd.%^$
%^$After the Star Spangled Banner, we were ready to go! Anne started off serving nine straight unanswered points. We knew victory was in the air. We kept in mind that Penn State would not go down without a fight and we continued to play hard. We were really focused as a team. We were passing, digging, blocking, serving every ball and hitting where they were not. We were up 2-0 at break heading in to the locker room. Jim told us a few things that we needed to fix and that the match was not over. We all knew that we had to go back out there, fight hard and finish them off. We did just that! We beat Penn State 3-0 on their home court. The crowd that had been so loud in past seasons that you couldn’t hear yourself think, was silent. It was a wonderful silence though because we knew that it was us, the Buckeyes, that silenced them. It was an awesome feeling. The thought still gives me goose bumps. It was the last time I would play at Rec Hall and it was a great way to go out!%^$
