Opening Day!

Where to begin? :) We were 1-1 on the day and while we did some very good things on the ballfield all day, we have some things we need to work on and clean up.

I guess I'll start with our travel day on Thursday. We got in some good BP during the day and were all set for a 6pm flight. Well that was delayed due to the crazy amount of wind we had and we didn't get in the air until close to 9 o'clock. It was about midnight by the time all the kids got to bed and about 1am by the time I hit the pillow.

Game day - 6:30am breakfast and headed to the park at 7 for a 9 and 11 o'clock game.

Game 1 - Western Carolina - We had a very strong start to the season with a 7-1 victory. We had the shut-out going into the bottom of the 7th, got a little sloppy defensively and gave up the 1 run. For some reason those last 3 to 6 outs of a ball game are tough to get.

Game 2 - Villanova - Started right where we left off swinging the bats and put up 3 runs in the first inning. We were in control thru 4 innings, gave up a couple of runs and were still up by 1 going into the 7th and let it slip away losing 6-5. Pretty frustrating loss but I think we learned a lot about what we need to do to manage a game with a lead. A little better decision making and we are 2-0.

Tommorrow we face UCF and UT-Arlington.

By the way.......the weather is beautiful!!!!

New Website

Check out Mason Athletics new website. www.gomason.com

Outside Today!

It is 55 and sunny today! Wahoooooo! We're gonna get a little work in outside before the big game today. I don't dislike the Steelers but I'm going for the underdog. Go Cardinals!

Here we Go!

Well practice is officially under way. We just finished our 5th workout in three days and the team is getting after it! The only thing that could make it any better would be for mother nature to give us a few days of 60 degree weather. It's hard to believe that opening day is just three weeks away. Time flies! We leave Feb. 12 for Orlando for a tournament hosted by UCF. We've opened up there the last few years and it's been great. We get out of the cold for a few days and get to face some great competition.

GO PATRIOTS!

Well the Holiday's are behind us and we have one more week until we get underway. I can't wait until these kids get back on campus so we can get to work. First practice is scheduled for Jan. 18, cross your fingers for good weather.

A Senior's Perspective

I can't believe how fast the fall semester went. Time has been flying by and it's especially scary for me because I'm graduating in May and I need to find a real job (too bad no one will pay me to play softball in the real world!). I think our fall season went really well. And our fitness test results at the end of the season really show that we became a better team this fall through every workout and practice. It's so cool to watch everyone get better and better everyday, especially the freshmen. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about the new field! It's going to be awesome to play on a sweet field for my last season at Mason and get lots of W's on it.
It's nice to be back in New Jersey for winter break and spend time with my family during the holidays. I miss my teammates and coaches and want to wish them all a Merry Belated Christmas and a Happy New Year. We'll all be back together in a couple weeks to continue working hard and have a successful 2009 season!

-ALI BRYAN

Field Construction

Here are some photo's I've collected over the entire construction process. Adding some finishing touches as we speak....can't wait to get in it this spring!

Quote I liked

"Peak performance is dependent on passion, grit, determination, and a willingness to do something poorly until you can do it well."

-Zig Ziglar

Mason's New Mascot

Check out George Mason's new Mascot! He is nameless so far but there is a month long competition underway to select a name. I believe you can submit a name for consideration on our website...www.gomason.com. Gunston was cool but this guy is pretty cute!

Also, Congratulations to our Men's soccer team who won the CAA championship last week! They play at home friday night (11/21) at 7pm against UPenn in the first round of the NCAA tournament! GO PATRIOTS!!

World Series Update/Sport Psychology

The series was competitive and went all 5 games. The winning roster looks like this:
Team Manager - Meghan Hill
Christina Buono, Tori Dudley, Anush Mooradian, Sarah Martin, Stephanie Strother, Miranda Cranford, India Adams and Brianne Pease

We finished up our last session this fall with Dr. Waddell who is a sports psychologist and teaches sport psychology here at George Mason. I had an undergraduate and graduate class with her and loved it. She agreed to help us out this fall with some performance enhancement and team building stuff. I think it went really well and we will be better for going thru it. She made us a little uncomfortable at times but it was fun and I think we are a closer knit team because of it. To give you an example, one of the sessions was about how to deal with anxiety since all athletes battle anxiousness and nervousness in competition settings. Well to practice of course, we had to put ourselves in a very uncomfortable situation. We broke into three groups...pitchers, catchers and coach V were in one group, the outfielders were in another group and the infielders and myself made up a group. Our task was to come up with a rap song about our position and perform it in front of the group! This was very uncomfortable for a lot of us as you can imagine but it was super fun, super funny and gave us an opportunity to practice dealing with anxiety. There is video floating around somewhere and perhaps if we can figure out how to get it off of the girls phones and onto the blog we will share them with you. I have to brag and tell you that the infielders and I won the teams vote for best performance!!