Player Diary - Women's Basketball's Elena Kravchenko

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Dec. 6, 2000

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Sunday, December 2

My day started at our 9:00 a.m. shoot-around at U-Hall. This is part of our game day routine: It is a light practice where we go through our game play and do some extra shooting. Right afterwards we go to our pre-game meal where we all eat together. Today we play Old Dominion. I know that they are a very good team, and even though every game is a very important one and we always want to win, today’s game seems especially important. I think after losing a tough game to Virginia Tech, it would be very good for all of us to get this win. Everybody seemed awake and ready to play at shoot-around, we were excited and had a lot of energy. It made me very anxious for the game.

I don’t have a set ritual that I do before the games. I just normally spend some time to myself, praying or maybe listening to music…just things to help me relax and get focused on the game. We went through our normal game-day routine of stretching and warming up. When Coach Ryan talked to us she was confident about the game (as usual) and gave us a great game plan to execute. In the beginning of the game we struggled. I think we were a little tentative, but once Coach Ryan called a time out to bring us back in focus we were fine. We ended up winning the game. It was great. It was the first time that we have beaten Old Dominion in a couple of years. It was fun!

Next week we are on the road. We travel to Philadelphia to play St. Joseph’s (a tough team who beat us last year) and then we have our first ACC game at Wake Forest. It is all happening so fast. Christmas is right around the corner. Since I can’t go home to Belarus I will be going to my teammate Telisha Quarles‘ house. Her family is so nice and they always make any of us feel at home. I am just going to keep enjoying every last game and practice…after all, it is my last year!