Day Two in South Bend With Women's Basketball

Press Conference, Practice and Rally Highlight Busy Day Two

Head coach Kate Peterson Abiad addresses the media at Saturday's press conference.

March 20, 2010

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Day two of the NCAA tournament is always one of the busiest days. With just over 24 hours until the Vikings tip-off at Notre Dame for a first round game (Sunday at 2:50 p.m. on ESPN), CSU had several items to take care of today.

The day began early for me and Renee Adam, our wonderful intern in the sports information office, as we had a meeting with all the SID's at 9:00 a.m. at the Joyce Center. That was followed by a 10:00 a.m. administrative meeting where we were joined by head coach Kate Peterson Abiad and Assistant Athletics Director/S.W.A. Christine Moeller.

The people at Notre Dame were extremely friendly and have really put on a great event thusfar leading up to the two games tomorrow.

After the two meetings, it was a quick jaunt back to the hotel, followed by a quick lunch at Five Guys. For those of you who haven't eaten there, just think In-and-Out Burger. In a word, delicious!!

After that, we headed over to the Joyce Center to prepare to meet the team and check them in. The team arrived at 2:00 p.m. and headed to their locker room, which is Notre Dame's volleyball team room. I think that is a good sign as Peterson Abiad's husband, Phil, is an assistant volleyball coach at CSU.

The team hung out for a few minutes before I had to take seniors Stephaine Crosley, Kailey Klein and Angel and Jessica Roque to the interview room for CSU's press conference along with Peterson Abiad.

There were about 8-10 media members at the press conference and all four seniors had the chance to answer a question or two about how far the program has come, what the biggest challenge will be in facing Notre Dame and a few questions about the Vikings unique five-out motion offense.

After about 10 minutes on the podium, the players were excused and Peterson Abiad had her time to shine in front of the microphone.

For those of you interested, you can check out the complete transcript of the press conference by clicking on the following PDF ...

Complete Press Conference Quotes in PDF Format

After the media session, the Vikings stretched out and warmed up with strength and conditioning coach Derek Millender before taking the court for their one hour open practice in front of about 150 people, including Associate Athletics Directors Tom Tontimonia (and his wife, Betsy), Chris Sedlock and compliance coordinator Danielle Cohea.

Being just four hours away, we are expecting a large contingent of fans for Sunday's game, a far cry from two years ago when the Vikings played about 3,000 miles away in California.

The shoot around was very inspired and Peterson Abiad took a few minutes to chat with Eric Collins and Brooke Weisbrod who will be calling the game on ESPN tomorrow.

The hour shoot around was followed by a closed practice where CSU made its final preparations for tomorrow's game.

the Vikings then headed over the Legends, a restaurant on the campus of Notre Dame for a rally with about 75-100 family and friends. Several more CSU staffers had arrived by this time as did many of the players families.

The team mingled for about 30 mintues before heading out to dinner followed by a film session and lights out.

Tomorrow is a big day...