December 6, 2010
Road Trip!

Hello fans!
I'm so excited to write this week's blog after our first road victory over Morgan State! Since last week's blog, we've played both No. 10 West Virginia and Morgan State. West Virginia was a great game for our team, and it allowed us to compete against truly one of the best teams in the country. Let's just say BIG EAST really does mean BIG, it might as well just be called the BIG STRONG and AGGRESSIVE EAST. It was a great experience for us and we learned a thing or two along the way.

West Virginia, with them being so aggressive and out in the passing lanes, made it hard for us to execute and do what we wanted to do. Sunday's win over Morgan State was a great game for us to get back to doing the things we're great at as a team. With an eight-point win over Morgan State, we claimed our first road win of the year! I'm pretty sure we matched their fans as well with our awesome fan section.

Our trip to Baltimore was centered on visiting the hometown of senior Julie Taylor. Julie's family had the team over for dinner Saturday night and we got to spend time with some of her family, which was great. Julie's parents live right in the center of downtown and have an awesome view from the top of their deck, where we got our team picture. (see my photo album for more pictures!)

Coach Stockdale even made a new friend: the Taylor's new puppy, Olive. I'm surprised Olive wasn't sitting with us on the bench Sunday to be quite honest.

While on the road we try to keep it as interesting as possible. This week coach Stockdale transformed from assistant coach to professional beautician, waxing Ali's eyebrows! Don't worry - I snapped a picture for you! Also, we got in the holiday spirit by singing Christmas carols on the bus, even if we didn't know the words and just repeated fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!!

Needless to say it was a very eventful week, and we had to do something to keep us occupied while we spent nearly 30 hours on the bus! We take some time off from games due to finals the next two weeks, but we take the floor on December 18 for our first home conference game against Western Carolina. The game will be a White Out at Alumni Gym, and all Elon fans will get a white t-shirt at the door. Hope to see you all there!

- Big Kelsey

December 1, 2010
When You Get Knocked Down, What are You Going to Do?

We dropped our conference opener tonight to Appalachian State after a sluggish first half. Speaking from within the team I can say that we did not look like ourselves tonight. We were not playing as a team, therefore we were not playing like ourselves. Appalachian capitalized on that. We were able to pick it up in the second half, but by that time it was too late. I believe that there is a plan for all of us, and for some reason this was a part of our plan. I believe that this happened so we could see how we respond as a team. Will we stay down or will we get back up? Knowing my teammates, I know the answer to that. We are the Phoenix, and just like the Phoenix we will rise.

We had a moment of inspiration following this game. Our team morale was down, but one of our coaches did a great job of shedding light on our situation. She said we need to be servants to each other. Then we thought to ourselves, "How many times have I asked my teammate what I need to do for her? What will help her play better?" Ask not what your teammates can do for you; ask what you can do for your teammates. The score of tonight's game did not resemble the team we are or how talented we are. We just lost touch, but I have faith that it won't take long for us to get it back. Lessons have been learned and we will move on and only use this to make us stronger. We will build on our mistakes and can only improve. We must work every day to get better.

We have to give credit to a very good Appalachian team. They had some really respectable wins prior to our game there. They are on a 10 game home winning streak, which brings a lot of recognition to our conference. It's good to know that we do play in a very competitive conference, and that women's basketball in our conference is really stepping up and getting better.

Well, since we've had our share of basketball talk, how was everyone's Thanksgiving? We had a great Thanksgiving here. Coach Barefoot invited us all over to her house for a Thanksgiving meal where we ate turkey, green bean casserole, corn casserole, pudding pie, pecan pie, and much more. I have to give a shout out to my teammate Jess for bringing an excellent pecan pie. It was a huge hit! We really enjoy having team gatherings like that, and it was really great that coach Barefoot invited us into her house and prepared such a feast along with our assistant coaches (because we know they slaved for hours!).

We will hit the road again on Wednesday to take on No. 10 West Virginia on Thursday night, December 2. We'll head on up from there to Morgan State for a Sunday afternoon matchup (Dec. 5). That's three away games in one week, but we'll be back at home again following our exams to take on Western Carolina (Dec. 18) and Davidson (Dec. 20) right before Christmas! Thank you fans for all your support and we hope to see you in the stands again soon!

Kelsey

November 22, 2010
Basketball and Bed Checks  

Hi fans!

This week's blog comes after a week of tough basketball for our team. We took a tough loss from Virginia Tech on the road but battled back on Sunday afternoon against Coastal Carolina for a win. We went 1-1 this week and are 3-1 overall, which is a fantastic start to our season.

I'll start by discussing our heartbreaking loss on Thursday night (Nov. 18) to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. I'm pretty sure I can speak for our entire team when I say we were fired up about competing against an ACC opponent like Virginia Tech. We went to Blacksburg last year but didn't play as well as we originally hoped, losing to them 82-46. This year, it was a much different game. At the half, we led 33-30 and came out strong in the second half, gaining a 10-point lead in the first few minutes (41-31). With 2:51 left the score was tied at 59, but unfortunately the Hokies went on a 14-7 run in the last few minutes giving them the 73-66 win. They were a very big and athletic team, and I have to give them credit for the way they played down the stretch. I was also very proud of the way we performed that night; it was a learning game for us. That was the first time this season we have been in such a close match with less than three minutes to play. That loss stung...a lot, but I feel it will help us in the long run. After looking over the game we realized what we did wrong and what we should've done differently. Lessons have been learned, and even though it seems easy to dwell on something like that, we had no time to dry our metaphoric tears because we had a tough team in Coastal Carolina coming to our gym on Sunday (Nov. 21).

Coastal Carolina came ready to play Sunday after a suffocating loss to North Carolina two nights before (93-37). Although we started off slow, it didn't take us too long to get rolling! Our pressure and up-tempo play gave us an edge as we took the win over the Chanticleers (BTW- does anybody know what that is? a bird of some sort?). We had three people in double figures and it was refreshing to get a win at home after such a heartbreaker at Virginia Tech.  A big thanks to all the fans for coming out and helping us get the win!

Yes, games are always fun to talk about but I'm sure some of you are wondering what goes on outside of basketball. Well to be honest, our lives revolve mostly around basketball, but we do have quite a bit of fun along the way. It's a good thing none of us get along (insert sarcasm here).

Funny story: In my last blog I talked about how having two Kelsey's on one team may get a little confusing (myself and "Baby Kelsey"), but now I'm starting to get concerned because not only do we both look when someone calls our name, but we're dressing identical too. The freaky thing is it's not on purpose. Same name = same brain? I think so!

Oh, and that's not all. Our mothers are even dressing the same to our games.This is getting weird!

Funny story number two (I'm just spoiling you guys this week!): The night before our Coastal game, Julie Taylor, Ali Ford and I all had to make rounds and do "bed checks" just to make sure everyone was in by curfew. So we call Candice, who is a freshman this year, to ask what suite she, Baby Kelsey and Kelly live in. She tells Ali they are in 203. I hear "203" and quickly walk up the stairs to see a young man leaving suite 203. I yell to him, "Oh, Hold that door!" I realize Ali is a few steps behind me (like she usually is) but just go ahead and let her catch up. As I'm walking down the hallway yelling, "Kelsey! Candice! Kelly! Anybody home?" I notice the name tags on the door say "Brenden, Sam, John and Ryan" but not until three of them have the door cracked and are looking at me like I'm the next person to end up in a Smith Jackson e-mail (Elon joke). I quickly realize the humiliating mistake I've made and run outside where I find my good friend Ali just observing and laughing. I think my duty as the bed check enforcer has just been revoked.

Well, that's all I have for this week, hope to see everyone at our home game on Tuesday night (Nov. 23) against Virginia Intermont at 7:00 p.m. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, feel free to bring us any leftovers! You can usually find us in the gym!

Big Kelsey

November 15, 2010
Tournament Champs

Hi fans!

I am so thrilled to write this week's blog after an awesome weekend of basketball for us! If any of you followed us this weekend throughout our Phoenix Classic tournament I'm sure you will agree with me when I say, we have arrived!

We battled two extremely strong teams this weekend, Fordham on Friday from the Atlantic 10 and Troy on Sunday from the Sun Belt conference. Both Fordham and Troy were excellent competition for us to start off the regular season.

First we'll talk about Friday nights match against Fordham. Fordham, who plays in a very competitive conference, came out strong and physical against us Friday night. Although it may have taken us a minute to get adjusted to the game, once we took the lead we never looked back. With about eleven minutes left in the first half it was a tie ball game, but we soon claimed a 15-4 run to put us ahead. We had our largest lead at about 14 minutes in the second half (63-43).

Fordham, being the scrappy team they are, fought back hard but we never let them get closer than nine. Most impressive was the five players we had in double figures! We also shot a solid 55 percent from the field and 44 percent from behind the arc. This win gave us a lot of momentum heading into Sunday's matchup against Troy.

Two words to describe Troy's basketball team: physical and athletic. Troy is an aggressive attacking team, and we knew we would have to keep them away from the foul line and off the boards in order to win. The key to us winning this game was the 34 turnovers we forced through the press and holding them to only 12 free throw attempts all game. It was a very exciting win, and I'll go ahead and give a shout out to my teammate and roommate Ali Ford for the offensive rebound she worked so hard for. We like to call where we live the "House of Rebounds." I also want to say congratulations to Tiara Gause on an impressive weekend as well. Coach Barefoot and the staff had a great game plan and scout for this weekend. They should pat themselves on the back for that! We had four people in double figures Sunday, including freshman Kelsey Harris who we also like to call "Baby Kelsey". I know she loves all her many nicknames!

Also, a HUGE congratulations to the Elon Volleyball team for winning the North Division and claiming sole possession of the conference title Saturday night! Can't wait to see the hardware! Congratulations to the football team for their win against Furman Saturday afternoon as well.

After a great weekend of basketball we will prepare to face ACC opponent Virginia Tech on Thursday night in Blacksburg, Va. We really appreciate all the fans coming out this weekend to see us play, and hopefully we will see you at our future games as well. Thanks for reading!!!

- Big Kelsey

P.S. Want to know Ali Ford's secret to how she became
such a great three-point shooter? Her stretching technique...

November 9, 2010
Basketball Begins. 

After a long awaited summer the cold weather has finally arrived, which can only mean one thing: basketball season is here! It feels like centuries ago that we played our last game, and "excited" only begins to scratch the surface of the feelings throughout our team. Before I go any further, let me go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Kelsey Evans, and I am a sophomore forward on the Elon women's basketball team. This blog will give readers an inside look at our team throughout the season. I will be blogging throughout the year including road trips, team functions, and maybe a funny story or two.

The regular season kicks off this week with our annual Phoenix Classic Tournament, Friday-Sunday. We will take on Fordham on Friday afternoon and Troy Sunday afternoon. We've had one scrimmage and an exhibition game so far, and both went extremely well! In our exhibition against Chowan we scored 97 points with four people in double figures! The team came out extremely strong pushing the ball in transition and forcing turnovers through our press. It was exciting to see everything finally come together after we've been practicing for over a month. The chemistry within the team is undeniably strong; this team plays incredibly well together and that is the reason for this year's theme "One Heartbeat." What this means is that everything we do, we will do as one team with one heartbeat.

To build on this theme, we did things such as the Elon Chaenge, which involves a lot of team-building exercises in our preseason. For example, in one exercise, everyone partnered up and grabbed a blindfold. One person in each pair was blindfolded while the other had to lead them on a blind walk using only their voice to communicate. We also volunteered as a team at the "Mebane on the Move" 5K race, had Nike performance trainers come in for two days to work on different aspects of our game, and last but not least, we went on a team golf outing, which thankfully left everyone unharmed!

Thanks for reading! Hope to see everyone on Friday when we kick off our regular season!! Wear your maroon and gold!!!

Kelsey 

PS - Check out the photos in this post and other in my photo gallery throughout the year!