November 12, 2018
The End...or is it really the end? It seems as though a lot of things ended this week for not only me, but for CUVB all together. We ended our season. We ended our long days together. We ended our daily practices. We ended our team as it is now. Though in all these endings, I see so much of a beginning. I don't mean to make this sound cheesy or cliche, but I truly see it this way!!
For me, I look back on 10 years of playing, practicing, learning, and enjoying volleyball. I look back on all the coaches, teammates, tournaments, and experiences that the Lord has brought through it and I see how God uses sports, and the "endings" in sports to teach you lessons and show His character through it.
I remember countless devastating losses that teach you how to get back up again and keep working hard at the sport you love. I remember painful injuries that humble you to rely on your teammates and those around you. I remember changing teams and learning with new coaches and players that makes you adapt and be flexible. In all these "endings" there are beginnings.
You learn to not only work at something with a relentless grit, but to relate with others and encourage others even when things don't go your way. I relate this back to what the Lord tells us in His word. In Joshua 1:9 we see,
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." In sports athletes learn to be strong even when a loss cripples your team and to be courageous when moving onto a new team with a new start. We have seen the Lord time and time again keeping His promise that he will be with us wherever we go. I wish I could tell you of all the times he makes it known to our team! I could talk too long on that...
Another verse that rings true to what I am talking about is in Romans 12:10 which says,
"Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." This I will say I have learned so much more at Cedarville than anywhere else in my volleyball career. We fight together, sweat together, learn together, and encourage and love each other even when it's tough to do so. You won't be successful in any regard if you don't do this! God tells us it is out of honor for each other. I think sports takes this to a pretty literal level.
So, the beginnings I see are endless for CUVB and for this team. There is always another year to grow and compete. What a blessing that is!! Now, for me personally, the opportunity to compete and be with my team is actually come to an end. Which sometimes is hard to fathom, but as you can see from some of the things I've shared, the lessons are not just through volleyball, but the people who have come on my volleyball journey with me, and most importantly the Lord, have prepared me so well to move on to the next step in life. I am forever grateful for that.
To end my rambling, I pray that every player that comes to CUVB will get to share in the friendships, the huge wins, the hard losses, the fun bus rides, the silent bus rides, the pre-match prayers and dances, the post-match prayers and conversations, the family meals, the fans, the tears, and the laughs in the depth that I did. But at the least (but most important) my prayer for CUVB and for each player is to always stay true to what the Lord wants. I believe that He wants us to use volleyball at Cedarville to glorify and spread His name, and to make us faithful servants of Him through the program. I also believe that He wants us to be fierce competitors because that shows who He is as well! I pray that I Corinthians 9:24-25 is the basis for which this team plays! ...
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable."
Thank you for allowing me to share with you these past few years. It has been quite the ride and it truly is the end of a new beginning for every single one of us.
Always in Him,
Taylor Wilkerson #13
November 5, 2018
CUVB Family, Friends, and Followers...
We are here. We are in post season! Regular season ended with a bang last week. The team took on for the second time, Kentucky Wesleyan and Trevecca Nazarene at home and dropped only one set. This puts us at a five-match win streak to enter the G-MAC Tournament. We put this goal ahead of ourselves five matches ago and we confidently succeeded that goal this week. It has been a pretty much roller coaster of a season but I believe that we are sitting well and prepared to finish the season at our peak. If we can stay mentally focused and prepare our bodies for this week, I have confidence that this team can do some great things in the tournament.
We play at Walsh in the G-MAC Quarterfinal at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening. If you live in the Cleveland/Akron/Canton area....we'll see you there!!!! :) As the team prepares for Tuesday and for managing classes and other things, we ask that you pray for strength and organization in our responsibilities. We also ask, more importantly, that the Lord allows us to be a light in a world that is not full of Him. Being placed in the G-MAC Tournament not only allows for us as a team to be in a spotlight, but Cedarville as well. We hope to represent Christ well and make His name known in a humble way. We want the Lord to bring opportunities for us to share His love to others in any way possible. The longer we play, the more opportunities we get!! So let's go win and keep on playin'!!!
I hope to see you next week again to share with you some cool stories of our upcoming week!!
In Him,
Taylor
October 30, 2018
Cedarville volleyball friends,
I hope you have had another great week just as we did. It was a busy three match week for us and we are proud to come out with three wins. Our match on Tuesday against Urbana was only our second five-set match of the year and we squeaked by with a win! We dominated the first two sets and then seemingly came out flat the next two. Though we pulled it out in the fifth. This gave us some confidence going into a few days of practice and our two G-MAC matches on Friday and Saturday.
Friday we took on Ohio Dominican University for the second time this year and put the pressure on them from the start. We really pushed ourselves to compete at a higher level each set of this match. I think this was definitely accomplished in some aspects of our game. A three-set sweep is always a good feeling.
Saturday, we came out ready to compete again for the first time against Alderson Broaddus University. We again came out really strong and put the pressure on them right away. We are always successful when we do this. Looking forward, we are actually now in our very last week of the regular season...and I can't believe it! It has flown by! I think that the confidence from this past week will give us a strong motivation for this week. We take on Kentucky Wesleyan College on Friday, for the second time...a chance to redeem ourselves! Then we face Trevecca Nazarene University on Saturday. Both matches which I am looking forward to playing and looking forward to dominating!!
The team will be practicing hard and studying hard this week yet again! Pray for us to be strong and get rest!! Also please keep in your prayers, Lindsey Bray, one of our setters who suffered a pretty severe ankle dislocation and will be recovering for a long time!! We are thankful for the opportunities the Lord has given us as well, so pray we stay humble in the fact that His strength is giving us our success!!
Excited for our last week of regular season to play and represent him!!
#ForHim
-Taylor
October 22, 2018
Cedarville Volleyball Friends!!
I just want to start off saying thank you for staying faithful followers of this team this season!! I can't believe we are coming down to the end of regular season so rapidly. It has been quite the ride. There have been ups and downs as with any season and we have fought a lot of mental battles. One during our match last Friday at Findlay reared its ugly head. The mental preparation that goes into a match cannot be left behind and I think we did just that. We may have prepared our bodies well in practice but we did not bring our brains to the game. An even more specific concept we can continue to battle and practice this week as we head into a three-match week.
We take on Urbana on Tuesday at their place and I am excited to be able to play a team that in the scheme of things, doesn't matter for placing in the G-MAC but matters for our self-confidence and team unity. I think this team has the determination and steadfastness to keep pushing even when it's tough. I believe this upcoming week is going to show that but only if we stay positive and keep our eyes ahead.
We know that even in weakness there is strength and the Lord always has a plan for what He has designed this season to be. We hope that you continue to cheer us on and pray that we stay united as a team and positively finish this season strong!!
Thanks so much for your support!! Go Jackets!!
In Him,
Taylor
October 16, 2018
Hello everyone!!!!
Another week..more volleyball...and another blog! It has been so fun to share and write down the details of our team throughout the season. We are rapidly coming to the end of the regular season. I can't believe that. I feel like I just arrived on campus last week!! It has been a ride of a season.
This past weekend, we competed at the Midwest Region Crossover Tournament. We faced three great opponents within the weekend. First, we took on Northern Michigan for the second time this season. We started the match very strong. We passed well and competed...but did not finish. Then we dropped the second set close again. Finally, we pushed through a whole set and won. But we couldn't back that up and dropped the fourth set as well.
We recharged and recollected for two matches on Saturday. We took on William Jewel first and as the story of the weekend goes for us, we lost in four in very tight sets. Ones we should have pushed and won with many set points. Discouraged, we had the opportunity to play again. We took on University of Missouri-St. Louis. Our most competitive match of the weekend in my opinion though we took another loss in three. We had set points in this match as well, but fell into a habit of not staying confident to finish. It was truly heartbreaking. To have so many true opportunities to finish and win and not accomplish that hurts.
But overall, there were good things we did. Our side out game was pretty good and we served aggressively throughout the weekend. But we are not satisfied. And we are not ready to be done. We are striving and looking for our peak. We still have goals and still have time and opportunity to achieve them. A whole week of practice will do us good I believe. There will be time to focus on us and on volleyball as a whole because of Fall Break!! We are going to keep pushing!!
Again, losing is never fun...it's actually so frustrating! But we can ALWAYS learn from it if we channel the frustration into motivation to make changes in our game.
Thanks for following along...I will see you next week!!
in Him,
Taylor
October 8, 2018
Hello Cedarville Volleyball Family and Friends,
It surely feels like a month since they last time I checked in, but yet it has only been another packed week of volleyball, school, and college life!! The team is happy taking a Sunday rest and worshiping at our respective churches.
This past week we had Tuesday off (a blessing!) and had four great days of practice to prepare us for our road trip to Lake Erie College on Friday and Ursuline College on Saturday. Coach even graciously gave us a day off to recharge and get extra rest for the weekend...it must have helped because we came home with two road W's!!!! This pushes us to gain the five spot in the G-MAC right now. Though we still have a lot of work to put in and more teams to attack to earn our spot surely in the conference tournament.
With only three weekends remaining, we are hitting the grind of school and volleyball. We have to be on our "A" game for both responsibilities. This takes a lot of focus and dedication and I think after this week, the team has a good perspective on how to do this well. We ask that you pray for the team this week. That we can be successful in our studies and successful in our play and not let the stress of it all get to us, but that we rise and work hard to accomplish all that is put before us. We do have some sickness and hurts that the team is going through, so I ask that you pray for this as well.
Volleyball-wise, we are headed into a four-match week. With Tiffin at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and the Midwest Region Crossover in Indianapolis on Friday and Saturday, we are getting ready to play some great teams. This past weekend is giving us confidence to go into this week, but we really need to clean up our game to get some more wins this week. I am excited for what the week holds and can't wait to play again! I am realizing more and more how my time here is fleeting and I hope to soak it all up this week again!!
Thanks for following this journey of a season!!
In Him,
Tay
October 2, 2018
Friends!!
It has been a busy and crazy week for CUVB!! Another three G-MAC match week will do that to ya! Playing at home for all three was a relief and break from traveling. We had a lot of opportunities to interact with the community and with the CU family during our week at home as well. Friday was Faith & Family Night while Saturday was Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day!! It was awesome to see the support from new faces! Thank you to all who came and cheered us on....
If you don't know or didn't happen to see the results from last week...we came out 2-1!!! On Tuesday we faced D&E and finished the match in three!! Though the last set of that match came down to the wire...the team fought back from a deficit and proved in strength that we had the skills to finish a set and a match when it needed to be finished.
We had two days to prepare for the big weekend. We had two intense practices on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare us for Hillsdale and Findlay. Friday came and we honestly broke down! We didn't put ourselves in a good position mentally to go into the match focused. This hurt us. We weren't able to get out of that mental funk of losing 25-8 to overcome Hillsdale in a set. Though we battled hard throughout the rest of the sets and only came up points short of a set win, Hillsdale pushed harder and made some great points. A sad end to a anticipated match. But, we had another match to play the next day and we decided we weren't going to let this match define us in any way. We rested well and came in with a completely different mindset on Saturday.
It was almost like finally a switch was flipped in every single teammates’ mind that we weren't going to settle for what we have been, but what we should be. We pounced on Findlay from point number one and sided out so productively. It still was a hard fought match, but with almost a breath of relief we just played volleyball. One win of many to come. I am excited for a four day practice week....!! Who knew that could happen!!!
This is a great opportunity for us to turn to focus on small details of our game to make us more refined for more G-MAC play on Friday and Saturday against Lake Erie and Ursuline. We are focused on working this week to backup the statement we made Saturday.
Thanks for reading!!! I hope that you are basking in the sunshine that will much too soon be gone!!
Have a blessed week!
In Him,
Taylor
September 25, 2018
CUVB friends!!!!
I surely hope and pray that you have had a blessed week since the last time I shared with you!
The team is doing well as we continue to study, travel, and play. Right now we are sitting with two great G-MAC wins. We traveled much less this past weekend and came back with wins against Ohio Valley University (OVU) and Ohio Dominican University (ODU). Our warm, yet quick trip to OVU on Friday allowed us to be ready and motivated to do well and come out with a 3-0 victory. (Not to mention the post-game Chick-fil-A ice cream cones that also followed our victory...that may have been a motivator for some as well... :) We traveled that evening back to Columbus to rest up and get prepared for ODU on Saturday.
Coach Smith had us feeling like queens in a suite-style hotel. We felt a bit sad that we couldn't utilize and make a five-star meal in our full kitchen, but there just wasn't time!!! Needless to say we rested well that night. The match at ODU was a 3-0 win for us as well. Though we still think we should have been a bit more focused - which could have improved our game even more. This will definitely be a focus point at practice this week! In all, we had a great week including our battle with Malone last Tuesday.
This team is working so hard and I am starting to see the fruits of that labor. We hope that if you are in the area, you can join us at one of our three home matches this week!!! We are so happy and excited to be home!! It's pretty nice to get to go to all of your classes AND play in front of our friends and family!! Tuesday we face D&E (7 pm), Friday we face Hillsdale (7 pm), and Saturday we play Findlay (1 pm). It's a huge week for us and we are excited to get some more hard-fought wins!!
Thanks for reading!!
We are so thankful for you!
In Him,
Taylor
September 17, 2018
Hi CUVB fans!!!
I surely hope you are doing well! The team just finished what seemed was one of the most exhausting weeks of the year. This week we endured about 20 hours of travel and nine hours of match play along side of attending classes. It was a busy week to say the least, and we are grateful for your prayers along the way! Though it was a busy and exhausting week, we did have some highlights!!!
Last Tuesday we played at Hillsdale and we were able to show up and compete with them. We are confident that we will push them even harder the next time we meet up with them. Then, on Friday, we took our first conference win away from Trevecca. The team, not without the iffy start, came in ready to show what we have been learning the past few weeks. We worked hard and were successful on many fronts.
That evening we traveled back to Kentucky to get ready to play KWC. Quick side story, we arrived at the hotel and all our rooms only had one king bed, so we had to make do with the only rooms left in the hotel and pull out that sleeper couch!!....hey a bed is a bed right?...anyway! Saturday came and we started slow again against KWC but got our feet under ourselves after the second set. KWC pushed up and made us get a bit impatient with points and I think that's where we struggled the most. We gave up a set when we weren't competing and the last set just wasn't a hard enough effort and we lost the match. A pretty tough loss. But as I always say, we push forward to all the things we have to still accomplish ahead of us.
It is a short but also long season where we have just a short time to recover and get back to our game. In saying so, we play at home again (WOOHOO!) on Tuesday against Malone! This should be a fantastic match if we show up to play and compete!! We really hope to see you there.
Thanks for reading!! I will see you again next week :)
In Him,
Taylor Wilkerson
September 10, 2018
Hello Everyone!
I'd like to start out this week’s blog post with a verse that was brought up to me in one of my classes. This verse comes from I Thessalonians 5:16-18 and says,
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ."
I wanted to share that with you for the pure fact that we all need to hear it and live in that truth every day. Secondly, I wanted to share that verse because it is something that our team is learning to do more and more. As you most likely know, we are currently 1-8. It is obviously not a place that we wish we were in and it is disappointing to not excel in the thing we are working so very hard at. As a team, we have been pushing ourselves mentally, pushing our bodies physically, and pushing each other so hard and so diligently and to not reap the results in wins is frustrating. BUT....we know that giving up and letting frustration rule the day would only result in more loss, a worse attitude, and will not teach us to be dedicated to something even when it is hard. Our mind set this week is now to: (1) remember that we are only three short weeks into the season (2) remember that we have MUCH to accomplish ahead of us (3) be patient in our diligence to the sport and to each other (4) learn how to be mentally tough in our on-court play.
We have a big G-MAC week ahead of us as on Tuesday we travel to Hillsdale and make a quick turnaround and travel to Trevecca (Nashville) Friday and Kentucky Wesleyan (Owensboro) on Saturday. In these next few matches we need to be focused on playing a complete set and getting into a rhythm that will carry us into our bulk of conference play and make us our strongest for post-season play....Back to the verse I shared....it makes sense for us to become bitter upon working hard and not getting results, but we are pushing to be joyful and dedicated to the circumstances that we are in, and to embrace the season in all that it is. We know that God's will is done in everything, I just pray that we will push into Him for strength to carry on and become a team that doesn't give up because of our circumstances.
Another verse that is coming to mind is Isaiah 41:10 which says,
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."Â As we push on into the season, we need not be fearful of failing or of working hard, because we know God's will for us is to work hard and he will strengthen us in that. Whether we be rewarded with winning or not, we are learning the value of diligence and fearlessness.
Thanks for reading this week!! Pray that we travel safe and stay up on our school work as we miss classes this week!!
P.S. Update: we have loved traveling together so far! We get different hotel roommates each trip and are getting to know each other so well! Coach Smith is treating us to Chipotle, Panera, and other great eats :) For which we are thankful! Some of the movies that have been enjoyed on the bus are Monsters University (My personal favorite...OK...do you get it?), Divergent, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and some others!! Also, we have been meeting in our small groups and learning a lot and encouraging each other in our studies and relationships with Christ!
Have a great week CUVB friends!!
In Him,
Tay
September 4, 2018
Hello Cedarville volleyball friends...
Thanks so much for following along with us in our season. We are already into week #5 together and we are so excited to dive into G-MAC play this Wednesday! Walsh will travel to the Callan Athletic Center for our home opener at 7 p.m. It is our tradition to hand out 1,000 free t-shirts to our first 1,000 fans!!!! Last year we broke the record for the number of fans in attendance...let's do it again!
This past weekend at the Tony Banner Memorial Tournament in Clarion, Pennsylvania we tagged our first win of the season. On Friday, against Gannon we put up a great fight and then beat Millersville later in the day. It was a really solid day of play. Our bounce back from the previous weekend was like night and day. Our consistency and first ball contacts were much better and we felt our fight and grit showed up for the first time.
The next day we played Clarion and took a step backwards. Throughout the match we struggled with first ball contacts in serve receive so we couldn't get our offense going. Clarion was tough and didn't let any points go. We took that loss and are using it to teach us how to better mentally and physically prepare for specific matches as we go into conference play.
It's been a good week for Cedarville Volleyball! We are excited to play again and get into a rhythm of play this week. For those of you that saw us in the Labor Day parade...thanks for your support!
We hope to see all of you at our HOME OPENER on Wednesday!!
Also mark your calendars for our home tailgate on September 28th vs. Hillsdale!
Thanks for following!! See you next week!
In Him,
Taylor
August 27, 2018
Hello Friends!
Weekend one of play is behind us! I will be honest and say that it wasn't a great one score-wise, but we learned some very valuable lessons making it a valuable weekend. I won't go into the specifics of the game play, but we dropped the first two matches on Friday without a set won.
We took some time to think about our purpose and our mission that night and came in with different and fighting attitudes on Saturday. As we faced two tough opponents, we were able to push and take a set from both of them. Taking a step forward from Friday was a main goal and we accomplished that.
Moving forward into this next week, we have our work cut out for us in practice and in our preparation to play again this weekend. We have three practice days in the gym that will be full of focused play and precise drills to make us better. We make the quick turn around to leave for Clarion (PA) on Thursday for a three-match weekend.
I am excited to continue to push hard with this group of smart and talented girls. We ask that you shower us in prayer for safety on the road traveling, for focus in our class work, and for mental fortitude in our play. Thanks so much for following us! We are thankful for you as we push further into this season.
In Him,
Taylor
August 23, 2018
Hello to all CUVB fans, friends, and family!!!!
Believe it or not, we are on the brink of officially starting another amazing season of volleyball. The team arrived on campus two weeks ago and has been practicing diligently with two-a-days, and three-hour long practices during this preseason to get in shape to play this upcoming season. There is an exciting atmosphere on campus with Getting Started this past weekend! Our incoming freshmen, Sara, Maddie, Emily, and Christina (Chrissy) enjoyed the freshmen activities and are acclimated very well to what CU is all about! We are excited for them and excited for you to see them in CUVB jerseys.
We already had the opportunity to play some teams this preseason to prepare for our first tournament. We went to Wheeling Jesuit and played Wheeling, Shepherd, Ashland, and Clarion. All fantastic teams! We learned a lot about ourselves and worked hard to show up when we needed it! We also scrimmaged with Wittenberg last Saturday which challenged and pushed us to step up different aspects of our game.
Our amazing new head coach, Greg Smith, is doing an absolutely fantastic job. Honestly, the Lord could not have orchestrated this better! Not that the Lord would do anything less! Coach Smith and his family are a blessing to this program and we are excited to learn from him and welcome his sweet family to the CU family!! We ask that you pray for their house to sell and their kids transition to Cedar Cliff schools to be smooth! We hope you can meet them soon.
This season is dedicated to Christ! Our team has worked to make this our focus from day one and we ask that you join us in prayer asking the Lord to do His will this season. We hope our testimony and our play can reflect the work that Christ has done in our lives.
We hope that you follow and cheer us on this season!! I will be back every week to give you all a small update about our activities and matches this season.
You can always follow us on social media to get more details and fun!!
Facebook: Cedarville University Volleyball
Twitter: @cedarvillevball
Instagram: @cedarvillevball
Snapchat: cu_volleyball
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I Corinthians 9:24-25
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable."
Taylor Wilkerson is a senior outside hitter from Brookfield, Wis. She is in her final season with the Lady Jackets and is a Dean's List student majoring in early childhood education.
