BASKETBLOG

Last season, Wendy Ausdemore and Abby Emmert did an outstanding job of giving Hawkeye fans a behind-the-scenes look at the women’s basketball team with their weekly blogs.

This season three other student-athletes have agreed to share their insights around the program. Seniors Johanna Solverson and Jenee Graham and junior Lindsey Nyenhuis will be posting their personal blogs on practices, road trips and everything else surrounding the program throughout the 2007-08 campaign.

March 5, 2008
Hello Hawk fans!

In case you were living under a rock for the last few days I am here to tell you WE ARE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS yayyyyyyyyyyy. If you haven’t noticed I am still extremely excited about cutting down a net, getting a trophy, and getting a ring.

Okay, let me back up and just catch everyone up. On Sunday, we played Wisconsin in a game that we knew would place us in a tie for first. Our wonderful supporting fans showed up in three bus loads to cheer us on. Johanna, aka Grandma, started the game off right by having 21 points in the first half and finishing with 31 points. As a team we also dominated Wisconsin on the boards by out-rebounding them by 17 (42-25). And we got to ruin their “Senior Day”.

On Monday, we found out even more exciting news. Coach Bluder is officially the Big Ten Coach of the Year. Kristi Smith was named to the first all-Big Ten team. Johanna recieved her second Big Ten Player of the Week award and was recognized on the second team. Wendy Ausdemore recieved honorable mention accolades. Megan Skouby received the “Sixth Player of the Year” and Stacy Schlapkohl garnered the “Sportsmanship Award”. That is what I call a team effort with so many of my teammates on the Big Ten list I can’t help but to be proud of all that we have accomplished.

With our win in Wisconsin we not only nabbed a share for the Big Ten title, but we earned a second seed for the Big Ten Tournament that begins Thursday. We play our first game on Friday at 10:30 (CDT) against the winner of Michigan and Penn State. Although we have accomplished so much we knew that we still have a lot more to prove. We are excited to begin our new quest and we really want to cut down another net. Thanks for all of your support and keep watching us.

Go Hawks!!!

February 27, 2008
Hello Hawk Fans!

As you may already know, the door of opportunity has been opened yet again for us. With Ohio State losing to Indiana Monday night, we are once again contenders for the Big Ten title. How exciting! We have two big games in front of us and after a much needed weekend off, we are all rejuvenated and ready to take on the challenges that await us this week. For me, an even bigger challenge than winning both games this week is trying to prepare myself for the ever so emotional “Senior Night” on Thursday.

Thursday’s home game against Northwestern is our last home game of the season and even sadder, the last time our seniors will run out of the tunnel in Carver Hawkeye. It’s hard to imagine this team without our five seniors. For our junior class, we’ve been with these seniors for three years now. They were the class that took us all under their wings when we first arrived here and helped us adjust to this hectic lifestyle, and in that time we’ve become a tight knit group. With many games to come in this post-season I realize that this is not the `last’ game that we will be playing with JoJo, Jenee, Abby, Stace, and Krista, but “Senior Night” is always a tough one to handle. We have bets on who is going to start crying first… I have my money on Jenee. I know that as soon as one of them sheds a single tear, everyone will bring the water works.

It will also be a relatively happy night as well because Johanna Solverson has finally made it! I remember my freshmen year when she had to sit on the bench and watch her class get up and talk for senior night. I think I was crying more because I saw her watching her classmates knowing that she should be up there alongside them. Our seniors as a whole have been unbelievable leaders this year, but Johanna has been exceptional. She has really made it her goal to lead this team on and off the floor and to say that she has succeeded would simply be an understatement.

We hope to see you all this Thursday night for one last game in Carver Hawkeye. A word to the wise; bring Kleenex!

February 20, 2008
Hello again Hawkeye fans, I hope everyone had as good of a weekend as we did, yet another close one we were able to pull away another win against Minnesota. On another note, I would like to on behalf of the team and the coaches to thank everyone who attended the game in the weather conditions, and not only that but came sporting the pink for our `Think Pink’ game. I find myself to be extremely luck y to be able to be apart of something that is helping support breast cancer, so thank you all again for all of your support.

We are heading into this week with only one game but a big on at that, against Ohio State at their place which will be an intense and exciting game. We hope to continue playing the way we have been playing and come out with a victory. I know it is a long way to travel so hopefully you all are supporting us by listening or watching on either the computer or radio.

With only one game this week, we get to have the weekend off and have a little time to relax. I know a majority of my teammates will be heading home to visit family and friends and I am sure to get a good home cooked meal. I hope everyone is taking care in this cold weather that we are having, and hope to come back from Ohio on Thursday with good news from everyone.

Also on Saturday after practice we had all found out that our trainer Jennie Sertterh had her baby, a little baby boy, Jaryn Michael. So, as a team we are extremely excited for another little baby to be around the team, and Jennie should also be excited that she has 13 different babysitters to choose from!

Go Hawks!

February 12, 2008
Hello Hawk Fans,

It’s me Jeneé. I hope you are all well and staying warm with all the snow and cold weather. Last Wednesday we were lucky enough to have classes cancelled. It was nice to only have to do homework and go to practice the entire day and although it may sound lazy I loved it. Unfortunately, on Thursday my car got stuck in my parking spot and my neighbor had to come and push it out. So for me the weather was bittersweet.

As for basketball we are on top of the Big Ten yayyyyyy!!! Michigan State beat Purdue Monday night by two points. Now we just have to keep going strong and playing every game with the mentality of being 1-0. Now let me back up for those of you who don’t know, we won our eighth game in a row last Sunday. We beat Penn State 73-65 on their home court, a feat that according to Coach Bluder, had not been accomplished since 2002. Not only did we beat them but we also had the opportunity to wear our pink and white uniforms in honor of “Think Pink” and breast cancer awareness. After that game Johanna Solverson received the honor of being named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week. Jo, aka Grandma, is the first Hawkeye to receive the honor since Crystal Smith in 2005.

On Wednesday, we travel to Indiana to play Purdue for a Thursday night game. This is another important game for us because Purdue is tied for second place and a win will put us ahead of them by another full game. It would also mark our ninth-straight victory. Then, right after that game host Minnesota on Sunday. This will be our second game in the pink and white uniforms and I’m excited.

Thanks for all the support and we hope to see you Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena!!

February 6, 2008
I hope you have all managed to survive the enormous amount of snow that has managed to pile up around the state of Iowa. Megan Skouby and I had an interesting time cleaning off my car this morning, and on our way to class, we barely avoided a fender bender as we slid out of control down a hill… it made for an interesting beginning to the day!

Like every blog I try to find a little story that you may find amusing, this blog is no different, and boy do I have a good one for you! In recent weeks our team has adopted the “Whose House? Our HOUSE!” cheer and we are very passionate about defending our home floor. Coach Bluder is always switching up our routine to explore new ways of getting us fired up before games. Last week, before the Indiana game, the coaching staff came into the locker room and unveiled T-Shirts they made for us, and were wearing under their jackets. The front said,” WHO’S house is this?” and the back said, “OUR HOUSE”. Now if you look carefully and really think about it, you will realize that “who’s” is entirely incorrect. “Who’s” is the conjuction of “who” and “is”, therefore we were all laughing hysterically when we realized the printing company had messed up, and our shirts translated to. “Who IS house?!” Needless to say, we all have the T-shirts, and to be honest, I don’t want a new shirt with the grammatical error corrected because it makes for a fantastic story!

With school back in full swing, we are all back to our busy routines consisting of studying, basketball, and sleep. The only exciting part of all of our lives is that we are tied for first place in the Big Ten! How awesome is that?! I can’t tell you how much fun this season is turning out to be. We are finally playing together and we are playing with enthusiasm and excitement (which I am sure you all enjoy seeing as well!).

Our next big game is against Michigan State. At this point in the season every game is a big game, but like always, this game is rather personal to me. Being from Michigan and only 45 minutes from Michigan State, there is always a little extra excitement to play the Spartans. As many of you know, our performance at the Breslin Center was not what you would call ” up to par,” but we have been preparing and focusing on rewriting the ending of our story with Michigan State over the past few days in practice. We hope to see you all in Carver to cheer us on!

Before I go, I would like to thank everyone for their concerns and wishes for a speedy recovery from my stress fracture. I am happy to say that just today I have been cleared to play! I am so excited and more than eager to get out on the floor. The last couple of months have been nothing less than difficult sitting on the bench, but you have all been so positive and encouraging to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart! It is so great to be a HAWK!

January 30, 2008
Hello Hawkeye Fans,

I hope you all enjoyed last week as much as we did, it was a great week for us going 3-0 and now being 4-0, heading into our next game at Northwestern on Thursday. I am excited for this game against Northwestern because going there for me always seems like I am back in high school again and getting to play in front of all the familiar faces that I grew up playing in front of. I am excited to have my whole family there, including all of my brothers who do not get to come and see many of my games.

It is also a big game for Jenee because this is more of the Chicagoland area from where we are from, and many people that can not attend our games at Iowa are able to come and support us here.

Earlier this week on Monday I was asked to do my first Big Ten Network interview, which was quite the experience. I figured it would have been like any other interview but I felt more like I was doing a conversional on a reality television series. I could not exactly see who I was talking to but could hear and talk to her; it was confusing but ended up being easier then what I thought.

Thank you all for your support this past couple weeks and hopefully this week will be just as exciting as the last one, hope that you all tune into the game on Thursday which will be on the Big Ten Network.

Go Hawks!

January 24, 2008
Hello Hawk Fans,

It’s Thursday afternoon before our Purdue game. We beat Illinois on Monday by two in another intense and close game. With 6.7 seconds left Kristi Smith made an incredible drive and shot to put us in the lead. Kash’s (Alexander) incredible in your face defense prevented Illinois from getting an opportunity to score. The win is a great win because we were both tied 3-3 in the Big Ten standings. Plus, they are one of the teams who we only play once this season and beating them places us ahead of them in case of a tie at the end of the season.

Not only did we have an incredible win on Monday, but we also had to start our first day of our spring classes the next day. There was a lot of running around making sure we had our class schedules and books before practice that day. I know for myself and the other seniors it is an unreal feeling realizing that this is your last semester of college. Tuesday’s practice also started our preparation for Purdue. We worked hard on their plays and defense to get ready for another great win.

We really hope that you are here tonight to cheer us on.

Go Hawks!!!!

Johanna Solverson

January 10, 2008
Hello Hawkeye Fans,

Johanna Solverson here writing you all from East Lansing, Michigan getting ready to play Michigan State tonight; we had left yesterday after our morning practice where we spent our time getting prepared for the big game tonight. We need to win as many road games as possible and we have another opportunity tonight. Tonight’s game won’t be easy as the Spartans are a well balanced team. We are going to need to play with the same intensity as we did at Minnesota last week in order to come home with a victory.

After arriving we went straight to dinner, as a team, to a great restaurant called Troppo, where we all sat around an enormous table together. After the pretty long day that we all had with practice and traveling after dinner, a majority of the team rented a movie from the hotel, `Good luck with Chuck’, which some of us enjoyed and others did not but it was a way for us to relax and have some down time to get ready for the game tonight.

As for some other teammates, Lindsey Nyenhuis or as many of you know as `Niner’ was probably the most excited to come here as this is her home turf, all she could talk about on the plane ride was how her Mom is making her favorite meal, and we all know how exciting it is to come back to your home area and get to see your family and friends, and to be able to spend some time with them.

I hope that all of you are going to either be watching or listening to the game tonight, we most likely will not have that many fans due to the distance, but we would love to know that you are all at home cheering for the Hawkeyes. If you are not able to watch or listen tonight we will be hoping to see you all at Carver arena on Sunday for our next Big Ten game against Wisconsin.

Go Hawks!!

Jenee Graham

December 27, 2007
Hello again Hawk Fans.

Happy Holidays to all, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas with plenty of presents from Santa. As you know we won our last game versus Western Illinois (70-49) last Saturday. It was our first game in almost two weeks due to the break we had to take because of final exams. For those of you who didn’t make the game, Wendy Ausdemore had an outstanding game continuing her dominance from beyond the 3-point line, sinking five triples, and finishing with 19 points.

After the game we were able to go home for a short break before Big Ten season begins. Unfortunately, due to the weather, it took some players a little longer to get home. Thankfully, everyone made it home safely.

I rode back to Illinois with my parents and my dog. Johanna and I rode back together for practice Wednesday night. Jo had the opportunity to listen to my wonderful singing voice for a full three hours. After a grueling practice Wednesday we feel even more prepared for the Big Ten season opener against Penn State at home Friday at 7 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Oh and remember during the second half of our home games, one lucky fan can win an iPod shuffle during the “Big Ten SuperFan T-Shirt Toss”. So make sure you come and cheer and one of you may win a belated Christmas gift.

Lindsey Nyenhuis

December 20, 2007
Ho Ho Ho Hawkeye Fans!

Well it’s almost been two weeks since our last game and we are all chomping at the bit to play another game! These last two weeks have been very intense and extremely beneficial to our team. We’ve designated these weeks of practice to focusing on our defense and executing on offense. We have run several Carver stairs and countless sprints to get us in shape and we are anxious to carry our hard work to the court on Saturday.

Because we didn’t have a game these last two weeks, finding something to write about in this blog was initially a challenge. However, there is one story that I would like to share with you that truly changed my life.

One of our favorite things to do as a team off the court is visit the U of I Children’s hospital. Coach Evans constantly receives emails requesting us to visit patients and we are always very eager and excited to go. Just last Friday we received yet another request. Because of classes finishing up and finals just around the corner, not all of us could attend, but the five of us who did, were able to experience a real treat. We were told by one of the hospital staff that the girl we were going to be visiting had told her nurse that her dream was to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes. The teenager’s name was Sarah and we were told that she was recovering from a pretty intense surgery. Sarah didn’t know that we would be coming that day, but she was aware that she would be having “special” visitors in the afternoon.

As we do on all hospital visits, we gathered in the lobby with our matching travel sweats on and we were led to Sarah’s room. When we arrived, she was laying flat on her back in her hospital bed. When she realized who her visitors were she immediately began to cry. Next to her bed was her mother, and she too began to cry. She kept saying, “look at that smile! Look at her smile… I haven’t seen her smile like that for so long!” Standing in the corner of the room was her dad who gently wiped the tears that fell down his cheek.

We were all more than humbled to find that this precious little girl was lying in front of us after a major surgery, and the thing that made her day was meeting us. I think that at this point she thought we were the heroes, but for me, she was now mine.

We were able to spend some quality time with Sarah talking about all of the sports she plays and how excited she was to get home and have some of her mother’s home cooking. Before we left we told Sarah and her family that as soon as she was back on her feet we would be more than happy to have her at one of our games, and we are all so excited to see her in the stands!!!

It is always easy for our team to begin feeling sorry for ourselves when practice is hard, finals are creeping upon us, and “Christmas Break” gives us no break at all. But meeting Sarah and her family really put things into perspective and gave meaning to the countless hours of practice and the small aches and pains that we all experience. Just when times get hard, things like meeting Sarah make us thankful because things could always be worse. Sarah was so excited to meet us, just like I have been excited to meet my favorite American Idols! It was insane!

To Sarah and her family, if you guys read this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Meeting you guys was so much fun and we are so excited to see you walk into Carver!

Johanna Solverson

December 19, 2007
Hello again Hawkeye Fans,

I hope you are all ready and excited for Christmas coming up right around the corner. I know I am after a long two weeks of no games and only practice, I am ready to head home for about three days and spend time and get a good home cooked meal with my family.

It’s been awhile since we’ve had our last game, but we’ve taken advantage of these past two weeks of being able to work on things to get us prepared for the Big Ten season that is happening right when we return from Christmas break.

As a team we are always excited around this time of year for the fact that we get to head home, but also that we have a gift exchange within the team, and also after practice on Friday instead of training table, the coaches give us a dinner, where they actually serve us, our drinks and food, it’s pretty funny and just a good time to have.

Many of us this week have our final exams, so it is pretty much a positive or negative week whichever way you look at it. It is a great feeling when you take that last test or turn in that last paper, get your books turned in and knowing that your semester is over, and you get to just concentrate on basketball for the month. This will be the first experience for our two freshmen who are taking finals week pretty well, and not getting too strung out by it.

We’ll see you at Carver on Saturday at 4 p.m. when we host Western Illinois in our last non-conference game.

Go Hawks!!!

Jenee Graham

December 3, 2007
Hello Hawks Fans

Before I begin my blog I would like to say a personal thank you for all of you Hawk fans who have either emailed me or asked me after a game about my broken hand. I want to sincerely thank all of you for the well wishes and I want you to know that it is getting better and I will be back soon.

Okay back to basketball. So as most of you know we lost a tough game at home to Georgia Tech Wednesday. We played them really well for the first 35 minutes and we even had a one-point lead, but unfortunately we let it slip away in the final minutes. We worked really hard that week in preparation for the game and unfortunately the final score did not show our efforts. Coach Bluder was not very happy with our performance especially after beating Mississippi State, a team very similar to Georgia Tech in Cancun. Needless to say we had to buckle down at practice the following days. We worked on defense, not committing turnovers, and rebounding; skills we have improved greatly on throughout this season but lacked a little bit at the end of the Georgia Tech game.

On Thursday, we got together as a team and played Catch Phrase, listened to music, and ate monkey bread and puppy chow. It was our way of staying together as a team even after a tough loss. We also decided to have study tables together Friday night at Carver since finals week is rapidly approaching. With all the extra team bonding we had we are definitely prepared to play as a team against Detroit Sunday and Iowa State Wednesday.

On Sunday, we played Detroit and found all of our hard work at practice paid off. We had a very decisive win of 65-42 with everyone scoring. We also out-rebounded them 44-31!!!!!!! Unfortunately our turnovers were still a bit higher than we would have like, but a win is a win. We have two days to work on that though…

On Wednesday morning we travel to Ames, which is always a tough place to play. We owe them for beating us at home last year and we are definitely ready for the challenge. We hope to see you there.

Go Hawks!!!!

P.S. — As you guys know our own little Niner (Lindsey Nyenhuis) won the Michael Jackson contest in Cancun. If you guys want to check her out in action you can go to youtube.com and type in the search “Niner does her thang”.

Lindsey Nyenhuis

November 27, 2007
Hola Hawk Fans!

As I sit here in my living room with the fire burning to warm my freezing house, it’s hard to believe that just a few days ago we were basking in the Mexican sun in Cancun! I can not even begin to explain how much fun we had on our trip! I don’t want to bore you with every little detail of our amazing trip, nor do I wish to ruin your eyes by staring into a bright computer screen for a lengthy period of time, so I will attempt to hit the high points.

After an early arrival at the Cedar Rapids airport, and a few plane delays, we all arrived safely, and a bit tired, to our all-inclusive resort. We immediately dropped off our bags in our room and headed to our first practice. Never in my life did I think that I would be playing basketball in a room with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Come to think about it, the room that we played in was just that; a room! It wasn’t even a gym. In fact, it was the farthest thing from it! It was a ballroom with a basketball court laid out and chairs setup for spectators to watch.

After practice we all ventured through the resort to take advantage of the unbelievable restaurants at the resort. I don’t think I have ever seen Krista’s eyes light up as much as they did when we found the poolside buffet! Haha I swear that girl made several trips to the buffet line and each time she returned with a heaping mound of every kind of food imaginable! (I only wish I had her metabolism… she can eat anyone under the table and never gains a pound!)

The first day was obviously very exciting and we were all ready to relax and enjoy the “Michael Jackson Show” that was presented by the resort. The Michael Jackson impersonator was amazing and after the show concluded they announced that they would be having a Michael Jackson dance contest. After several minutes of coaxing and near physical pressure from the rest of the team, I found myself on stage in front of a near 500 people. Needless to say the contest was a hit and yes, I represented the Hawkeyes in honorable fashion and I WON!

On Wednesday we all decided to take a little snorkeling excursion to a reef a few miles off shore. In short, it was an adventure. We each partnered up on two passenger “boats” and were then led out to the snorkeling area. The “boats” were not what you would call reliable. They were more like pieces of wood with a prop on the back. Kristi and I found ourselves stranded a half mile off shore when our first boat broke down, and I was more than nervous when I realized that not far behind Kristi and I was yet another boat driven by Nicole. Her watercraft skills scare me! Unfortunately, the snorkeling was not as “colorful” as we would have hoped, but as always, we made it a fun time. Jenee was afraid to swim over the reef and ended up swimming astray from the group. We were a bit concerned until we saw her face finally pop up out of the water with her snorkel still in her mouth, and her face completely squished by her mask. It was quite the sight!

After some much needed fun in the sun, it was finally time for us to do what we went to Mexico to do; PLAY BALL! Our game vs. Mississippi State was awesome! They were an extremely aggressive team, but we clearly matched their intensity and WE WON!

Although we were excited about the victory, we could only celebrate for a short time because we had to turn around and prepare for Arizona State the next day. I wish everyone could have been there to witness the fight that our team displayed in our game against the Sun Devils. It was unbelievable! The hustle and the enthusiasm given by everyone was so much fun to be a part of. Kristi Smith tied up the game with seconds remaining with an amazing 360 lay-up, and Jenee dominated the boards once again. Stacey played some of the best defense I have ever seen her play, and Skouby’s midrange jumper was unstoppable! Unfortunately we fell short… TWO POINTS! We were two points away from clenching a victory, and when you have fought as hard as we did, the loss seems to sting a significant amount. Lucky for us, we have the opportunity to redeem ourselves the Wednesday against Georgia Tech on OUR HOME FLOOR in the first ever Big Ten/ACC challenge. We can’t wait to see you all there!

Our trip to Cancun ended Saturday morning and we found ourselves back in the Cedar Rapids airport with traces of snow on the ground. Yuck! I will admit however, that it is good to be back in Carver. There is no place like home, and we are all eager to carry over the intensity and the ruckus we created in Mexico, back to Carver for all of you to witness first hand!

We all hope to see you Wednesday! And seriously folks, IT’S BUCK NIGHT! I’m pretty sure that there is no better deal than a dollar admission to such an amazing game. It’s going to be a great night!

Johanna Solverson

November 16, 2007
Hello Hawkeye Fans,

Hello again Hawkeye fans, hope things are going as well for you as they are for us. We are pretty excited seeing that we’ve won our first two games, along with our two exhibition contests. We are feeling great about this upcoming season, so far, with the way that we have been playing. For me, it has just been great getting back out there on the court, and being a part of the team again, and just feeling all of the excitement.

This past weekend was exciting for me, on Saturday my high school coach and the varsity team had came up to see the game Sunday, and they also practiced on the court Saturday night. It was fun to show all of the girls what the differences of high school and college basketball is all about.

The team recently is really excited and getting prepared to play our game Sunday against UNI, but following shortly after that heading down to Cancun, Mexico for our Thanksgiving break tournament with games against Mississippi State and Arizona State. These will be challenging games and we are looking forward to the tough competition. It will be nice having a majority of the parents going down to spend Thanksgiving with us. But before the UNI game, we are heading to Nicole’s grandma’s house where we will have a team Thanksgiving together, which is always fun to have with the people you normally spend the most time with.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, and make sure to keep up with us while we are in Cancun, and if you cannot make it to the UNI game this Sunday, to be listening and cheering for us at home.

Jenee Graham

November 7, 2007
My name is Jeneé Graham and I am so excited to finally be able to submit my first blog.

We finally had our first game last week vs. Nebraska-Omaha, which we won 73-51. Even though it was just an exhibition game we really wanted to work on our offensive execution and our new defensive strategies. We started off the game really well and had great focus and defensive intensity. Towards the end, however, we lost some of our focus and gave up a few too many turnovers. Taking care of the ball and maintaining defensive intensity for a full 40 minutes were the main things that we talked about during Saturday’s practice that needed the most improvement. On the positive side of things everyone on the team scored and we had fun on the court. Since it was our first game almost everyone’s parents got a chance to attend the game. It was really great to see my parents especially since I haven’t seen them since the beginning of August. After the game most of the team and parents went to Wig and Pen for some pizza and the parents did some talking about our upcoming Cancun trip. We also had some cake in celebration of our first game and for Kelsey Cermak’s 19th birthday (Oct. 31) and for JoAnn Hamlin’s 21st birthday (Nov. 2).

Practice this week has consisted of continuing to work on our defensive strategies. We also focused more on taking care of the ball and continuing to be aggressive. On Monday our grey squad (our men practice players) came in and we scrimmaged against them. On Tuesday we did some scrimmaging amongst ourselves. We have our final exhibition game Thursday against Missouri Western. Although we do not know much about them we know that they are a good Division II school. Our game strategy is to continue to improve on our new defense and improve our offensive execution. Once again these exhibitions are meant for us to work on our skills as a team and gain confidence for our actual season. Our first game is Sunday against Dartmouth. This game is our Iowa Football Fan Appreciation game, which means fans that bring their Minnesota football game ticket stub can watch for free.

I must admit we are all so excited for this season. We foresee big things for us this year and we hope that you guys come along for the ride. I hope to see you all on Thursday.

Lindsey Nyenhuis

October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween Hawkeye fans!!!

I can’t express how excited I am to have the opportunity to submit my own personal blog for all of you to read! I hope you enjoy the postings from Jenee, JoJo, and I as much as we enjoy writing them!

The last couple of weeks have gone extremely well for the team. Practices have been very intense in preparation for the season, but we have managed to fight through the minor aches and pains, and more than ever we are pumped that our first game is just around the corner! Johanna’s eye is finally starting to look normal and she no longer looks like a vampire, and Jenee is in the healing process from a high ankle sprain and it was good to see her back in practice today.

As Johanna mentioned in her last blog, this fall has been full of official recruiting visits on our basketball team. This past weekend was no different. We had two unbelievable recruits on campus with us last weekend, and we had a blast showing them what it’s like to be a Hawkeye. After the football game we all went over to Coach Bluder’s fabulous home for a late lunch/early dinner. It was so incredibly nice outside that a few of us, including the recruits, organized a friendly game of touch football. Even Coach Jensen and Coach Fitz joined in! (Because I don’t want to lose playing time I won’t tell you which coach is the better football player… haha) We then headed to Carver to watch our volleyball team take on Penn State. I had heard a rumor that the first couple hundred people in the door that night won a prize for coming in their Halloween costume. I’ve never been one to turn down a door prize so prior to entering Carver my mom and I stood in the parking lot and dressed me up in a phenomenal Dopey (one of the seven dwarfs in Snow White) costume that my mom made several years ago. To my surprise, I was the only person over the age of five in the entire arena with a costume on and even worse, I didn’t get a prize! Needless to say, I felt like a total dork! The weekend ended with a much needed day off on Sunday, and we were back in the gym Monday morning preparing for our first game!

I have to say, and I think that my teammates will agree, there is no better feeling in the world than to run out of the tunnel at Carver Hawkeye Arena to the pep band playing and the crowd up on their feet cheering! We have all missed that feeling for way too long, and more than anything we are looking forward to seeing our amazing fans back in Carver where they belong! I went to the mall today to pick up a season’s worth of my signature head bands, and I have my iPod ready with my “Gameday Rockout” play list, so I’m ready to go!

Thank you all for your support! This year is going to be one to remember and we can’t wait to see you FRIDAY!! I get butterflies just thinking about it!

Johanna Solverson

October 25, 2007
Hello Hawkeye Fans,

My name is Johanna Solverson, and I just wanted to keep you updated on how our past couple weeks have been going, starting practice and all. After a long and challenging pre-season we are all really excited to start practicing again as a team, and getting prepared for this season. I know personally for myself after not playing in the past two seasons, I am ecstatic to get out there and play again. As excited as I was, in one of the first three practices or so I received an elbow to the eye and had gotten a pretty ugly black eye, to the point that Coach Bluder had to stop practice and point out how bad it looked! It is healing slowly, but I’ve gotten a lot of looks and complements on it.

Lately, we have been having a good amount of recruits coming to the campus, which is exciting to meet new people and at the same time try to get them to see how much we enjoy playing basketball and being at the University of Iowa. Having recruits at the same time helps us bond and become even closer then we already are.

Recently, we went to a Haunted House, most of us, because some of our teammates are too scared to go through; but some were brave and went anyways, Kristi Smith was probably the most frightened out of all of us, but that’s alright because she’s the little one. Haha.

Our first game is coming up pretty soon here on November 2, and we have been working really hard to get prepared for it. We all see it as the first game to start off an excellent season, and the first contest to start off me and the other seniors last season here at Iowa. We hope to see many of you fans in the crowd to help cheer us on to our first victory.