The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

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My personal memories from this 2008 women’s volleyball season

By Staff Reporter Emin Avakian:

There are many words that can describe being the beat writer for the 2008 women’s volleyball team, so I’ll just be safe and use ‘memorable.’ 

Memorable is vague but it fits perfectly. There were some good memories, and some not so good memories. But more good than bad. 

It took three months of commitment. Three months of being around the coaches and the players to the point of annoyance. Three months of covering home matches and even the brutal away matches (driving to Long Beach in rush hour traffic=brutal). But there were also the away matches that reminded me why I love the lifestyle (driving to beautiful Malibu to cover a match in the beautiful campus that is Pepperdine). 

Three months of following a team through the good times and the bad.  

Looking back, three moments stick out as more memorable than the other moments. 

The first one being public enemy No. 1 for a short period of time. Long story short, the team was in the midst of its long losing streak, and the coaches and players weren’t too happy with the coverage they were getting in the Sundial. 

I don’t regret the articles I wrote, but maybe I shouldn’t have written that blog. In the future, if a similar situation arises, I’m going to be more mature and not vent on a blog. 

The second moment being driving to Long Beach on a Tuesday early evening (as mentioned above). That was tough. I didn’t know where Walter Pyramid was, so I parked in Egypt and walked what seemed like a few miles. I got to the arena as soon as the match was under way. One of the media guys showed me my seat at the press table, so I sat down and was starting to feel more relieved until my pen decided to run out of ink. The words that followed can’t be written here. I asked the guy sitting next to me if he had an extra pen. He didn’t, but he kindly went and got me one. 

The Long Beach State crowd is unlike any other volleyball crowd I’ve seen. They actually provide a home court advantage. Every time the 49ers were on offense, they made a three-part sound: one as the setter was about to assist the outside hitter, the second as the outside hitter went up for a kill, and the third as the kill went to the other side. It was pretty cool.  

The third moment is, of course, the season finale. It was the only time this season that my heart was pumping during the key moments of the match. I’m a cool cat, but the fifth set turned me into a nervous wreck. Not so much rooting against Long Beach State as much as I was for the Matadors winning for the seniors, and for everybody else on the team. 

And that’s that. I’m going to write the season recap and then I guess I’m done with my duties as the beat writer for the Northridge women’s volleyball team. And then I’ll be covering another team for some publication. Who knows what or where, but if the cards fall into the right places, the sky’s the limit.

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