Binder’s Blog: A Player’s Perspective From The Triple Crown NIT In Salt Lake City
From Lizzie Binder, a Class of 2021 Prospect From Milwaukee Sting 15 Gold and Sheboygan North High School:
The Triple Crown NIT in Salt Lake City is the biggest and most competitive volleyball tournament of the year with lots of great teams from all over the United States. When I saw it on our schedule I immediately got excited. My teammates and I had a week of intense practices to prepare for Salt Lake and on Friday night most of my teammates and I flew together to the tournament. I shared a room with Tatum Catalano and Emme Bullis for the whole weekend which turned out to be one of the best parts about the experience.
On Saturday we did not play until 4:00 p.m. so we slept in to catch up on some sleep from the long night. As a team we then walked to the Salt Palace Convention Center, did our work assignment and then faced off against San Gabriel Elite from Los Angeles. After winning our first match we faced Colorado Juniors and Coast from San Diego. Coast had a 6’5 middle that could not be stopped. We hung tough but lost 25-18, 26-24. By the time we finished playing, left the convention center, and took the train back to the hotel it was time to get some sleep because we had three more tough matches the next day.
Before our first match Sunday against Skyline from Texas we went out for a team breakfast. Since none of us have ever been to Salt Lake City before we explored downtown and enjoyed the view of the mountains from the top floor of a nearby building. Our second match of the day was against Vinaka from Utah and we won 15-11 in three. Our third match of the day we lost another close one to Wave from California 25-22, 25-21. It was another late night and we walked through the snow to a team dinner. A snowball fight broke out on the way to dinner and we laughed real hard.
Monday was the last day of the tournament and it was a lose and go home situation, so in order to keep playing we knew we had to win. Our first match of the day was against another California team called Red Rock and we won 25-16, 25-22. Our next match was against Premier Nebraska. We were excited to play them because they had a 6’3” outside named Lindsay Krause that committed to Nebraska. After losing the first set 25-17 we had to change our defense to stop their outside. As a team, we never practiced this type of defense but our coaches Scott and Kim Spiess had confidence that it would work. The score was within a point until we started to pull away and won 25-18. The third set is always anyone’s game so our goal was to minimize our errors and carry the excitement and energy from the second game into the third while keeping the same plan on defense. We pulled out a 15-8 win! Soon after we found out we were playing Coast again and lost to them for the second time. After the match we had half the day left so my teammates and I went shopping downtown and finished off our last night with dinner and a piece of cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory.
From Left To Right: Lizzie Binder, Emee Bullis, and Tatum Catalano at the set of High School Musical in Salt Lake City.Our flight on Tuesday didn’t leave Salt Lake City until 4:30 so we did some more shopping, checked out the University of Utah, and went to visit East High School where one of our favorite childhood movies (High School Musical) was filmed.
I have played in many tournaments around the country but the Triple Crown NIT and the trip to Salt Lake City was by far my favorite because we were able to bond as a team, play highly competitive teams that we don’t normally face, and the city was so cool. My teammates and I learned many lessons on this trip and know we will continue to get better as the season goes on. We can’t wait for our next challenge when we get to defend our title at the Bluegrass in Louisville, Kentucky on March 10th and 11th.
