Aryana (Kenzie) Barron '18 Recruiting Profile

I feel I'd make a good candidate on your team because I’m motivated. I use to struggle with being motivated or motivating myself, especially if my team was down 9 points it was like I lost hope in myself or I would let my teammates behavior affect me and bring me down as well or even let my behavior affect my teammates. I didn’t like feeling that way or feeling a sense of hopelessness only being down 9 or 10 points in a game. Instead I tried to motivate myself by telling myself that every time I step onto the court I leave everything on the court and I play my hardest no matter the score; I now understand when coaches say volleyball is a mental game, you can’t let anything such as the score, your teammates bad behavior or the crowd get to you. You have to enter this state of mind where your motivating yourself along with your teammates. I’ve experienced this many times in games where everyone is motivated and we win or one or two of us are motivated but it’s not enough to win or even where none of us are motivated and we lose terribly. My job as a setter is calling plays and hustling down every ball so I get the second touch but I feel it goes a little deeper than that, I need to have a motivating attitude because it reflects on how I play and if the setter can’t get the ball to the hitter because she’s completely given up then it affects the whole team. I use that to motivate me as well not letting my teammates down when their counting on me. That would be my number one priority or preritual thing to do before a game, get motivated or in the state of mind where nothing affects how I play.