Hellloooooo and welcome back to another season of Madi's Moments!!
 
As a quick reminder, my name is Madi Dueck and I am now a senior on the team (jeez time flies). This will be my third (and final) year writing this blog, bringing you updates on our season, travel, and how the team is doing in general!
 
I feel like I say this every year, but I seriously can't believe the season is already here. The days are long but the weeks are short when it comes to our offseason, and let me tell you this team has been GRINDING.  Fueled by the sense of defeat we felt after how flipping close we were to making the NCAA Championship last year, we sat down at the beginning of this year ready to really give it all we've got. Even though the difference between us and many teams that made the tournament was only a matter of a few points, we knew we needed to make some big changes in order to reach our ultimate goal of securing a spot in the top eight teams that make NCAAs. The grind was going to be tough, but we all agreed that this year is our year.
 
And boy did it show. I don't want to jinx anything here, but this offseason has been the best one we've had by far. I feel like I say this every year, but my expectations continue to be exceeded!! Every single player on this team has put their head down, gone to work, and shown up every day to get better with each rep. I can honestly say that I've never been this excited to start our season. We want to show all these teams how much we've improved and that we need to be taken seriously.
 
A few ~minor~ changes have been made to our coaching staff recently due to our head coach, Meagan Owusu, going on maternity leave to tend to her THREE!!! growing babies!! Gosh we're so excited to add three new bears to our family this spring :) This made Derek Olsen our acting head coach, Paul Araiza our acting assistant coach, and allowed us to bring on our new volunteer coach, Rachel Nieto! Rachel is originally from the Bay Area and attended Long Beach State, where she played an incredibly impressive and successful four seasons for them. She brings spunkiness, strength, and encouragement to the court and we are so excited to have her this season! Our coaching staff has done a superb job of picking out specifics in our play this offseason and working on those specifics in drills. One of our main focuses has been making every rep count, and knowing that it's okay to get worse at something before it gets better. We're excited to have them lead us through this intense and challenging schedule we have coming up!
 
We're also lucky enough to again have our amazing strength coach, Cheryl Cox, whip us into shape for the FIFTH year in a row. We love the championship mentality she leads us with every day. And last but not least, we're always grateful for our athletic trainer, Scotty Bohrer, fixing our daily aches and pains and listening to our mindless blabbering as he tapes our ankle/knee/elbow/wrist/shoulder/whatever happens to hurt that day.
 
We added four incredible, beautiful, dazzling young freshman to our roster this year! It's always a hard adjustment to be thrown into the world of college sports, and they've made it look easy. Here's a couple fun facts about them…
 
Kate Bierly
Hometown: Laguna Niguel, CA
Major: Media Studies
What animal she would be if any: Flamingo
Favorite hobby besides volleyball: Surfing
Favorite thing about Berkeley so far: that it's so close to San Francisco!
 
Ainsley Radell
Hometown: Moraga, CA
Major: Undecided
What animal she would be if any: Koala
Favorite hobby besides volleyball: Hiking
Favorite thing about Berkeley so far: all the different types of food
 
Madison Sundholm
Hometown: Tucson, AZ
Major: Integrative Biology
What animal she would be if any: Horse
Favorite hobby besides volleyball: Reading
Favorite thing about Berkeley so far: that there are so many fun things to do, you're never bored!
 
Dana Waldburger
Hometown: La Jolla, CA
Major: Undecided
What animal she would be if any: Orangutan
Favorite hobby besides volleyball: Painting
Favorite thing about Berkeley so far: the scenery of the trees and the Golden Gate, and that it gets cold but not too cold
 
We kick off our season this weekend against Grand Canyon and St. Mary's in Moraga! As always, we love and appreciate our fans so much, and hope to see you there.
 
And that wraps up the first blog of the 2020 season, thanks for catching up with us! We hope you're as excited as we are to ball out this season…
 
Go Bears!!!