College Tennis

This week my high school tennis coach told me that a college had called him, and they were interested in recruiting me for their tennis team. I had never heard, or had hear very little about, the college that had called him, but it was still a neat feeling to know that a college coach is interested in having me on his team.
After talking to my coach (not my high school coach) about the situation, I have decided not to go to this particular college. My coach told me that the school wasn’t very good, and implied that the tennis program wouldn’t be a good fit for me either. He did tell me though, that he had talked to another coach of a different college about me, and while I haven’t decided whether or not I want to go to that particular college (it’s a local college) it was neat to hear that I was the subject of a portion of his conversation.
I know that I have wavered in my decision about whether or not I am going to play tennis in college, but after seeing how well this tennis season has been going, as of now, I plan on playing college tennis.

Picture from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/StMarysTennis1930.jpg

Senior Year

With next year being my senior year of high school, I’ve been thinking more and more lately about which classes I should take.
We signed up for classes this January, and my schedule includes: AP Literature, AP Spanish, AP Calculus, government/economics, Concert choir, AP Chemistry, Show choir, and Chamber choir (assuming I’m accepted into this group). As I look at this rigorous list of classes for next year, I can’t help but already feel overwhelmed with what lays ahead. I really don’t want to have a super busy year next year (homework-wise) because:
a.) It’s my senior year
b.) I really want to play a ton of tennis and win a state title next year
c.) I don’t like homework

I am an over-achiever. I don’t like settling for regular classes when there is an AP or advanced version I can take. But now I am seriously considering dropping a couple of my scheduled classes completely or at least taking a less rigorous course equivalent. But the question I am faced with making is which classes I should change.
I am very much tempted to take a non-AP language arts class, I feel like a big draw back to doing that is missing out on AP Literature, which is the class that graduates say helped them the most once they entered college. As much as I dislike reading and writing, it would be really nice to miss out on a couple of language arts classes in college if I were to get AP credits from taking the class in high school.
I really don’t like Spanish class, at all. The only reason I am currently taking Spanish is because I don’t want to have to take a foreign language in college (because I am told that many colleges require at least two years of a foreign language). I’m not bad at Spanish, I’ve always done pretty well in Spanish class, but it’s never really been something that I enjoy. One of my only other reasons for wanting to take AP Spanish next year is the teacher. The AP Spanish teacher is also the Spanish II teacher (I had him as a teacher last year) and he is definitely in my top three favorite teachers of all time. I really don’t like Spanish, but I really like the instructor, plus we have had conversations in which he has told me that he expects to see me in one of his AP classes my senior year.
Ever since the eighth grade I have been a part of the advanced math program, taking the advanced versions of math classes intended for the grade ahead of me. Being apart of this program for the past several years, I feel my only choice is between AP Calculus and AP Statistics. I am starting to think now that I might save myself the stress and take regular calculus instead.
Government/economics is non-negotiable; it’s a required class that I have to take before graduating.
Concert choir is also required for those that participate in show choir, so that class is also non-negotiable.
AP Chemistry is the class that I am most likely to drop completely from my schedule. After the end of this year I will have already taken four science classes (the requirement is three), I’ve already taken regular chemistry (didn’t like that at all…) and none of the other science classes are of much interest to me.
I have decided to audition for Chamber choir (I didn’t last year, but was later able to join because a member of the soprano section moved to Florida), and if I make that, then that class will meet every other day with the show choir class.
After thinking about all the choices I have in changing my schedule, I do feel more certain that I will end up changing my schedule for a less rigorous list of courses. I am still uncertain as to which classes I plan on dropping, but I feel more sure of the fact that I want to change my schedule.

Picture from: http://www.contented.com/contented/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/diploma.jpg

Dual Meet

Yesterday was a really big match-up for tennis. We had another dual meet against both of the Iowa-City tennis teams, and it proved to be a very trying match.
After the six singles matches were over the score was three-three, so the outcome of the meet would come down to doubles. I personally lost my singles match, but was still pretty pleased with how I had played. The girl I was playing had placed third at state the previous year, and I forced our match into a tie-breaker, so the score was really close.
We ended up winning two out of the six doubles matches that day which secured an overall victory with a score of five-four. As of that day we were ranked third in the state, and that first team we played were also ranked in the top ten teams in the state.
The second team we played later that day was ranked number two in the state, so I speculated that the meet would have a very tight final score.
Like the morning match, the score after singles was three-three, so as with the morning match, the afternoon match came down to the results of the double’s matches. We ended up losing two of the three doubles matches, which made the final score of the meet four-five, our first loss of the season.
What was some-what exciting about this match-up was that even though we did lose, the probably could have won. In my doubles match we were winning four or five-one, but somehow lost our momentum and ended up losing our lead and the match seven-ten.
I’m not saying that we were the better doubles team and should have won the match, but I do think that the results of the match could have ended up differently. So if we end up playing each other again in the state-tournament, hopefully, things will turn out a little bit differently.


Picture from: http://www.checkyourodds.co.uk/images/main_pages/tennis.jpg

Audtition Week

This week has been a little more exciting than normal because it is show choir try-out week! There are two parts to a person’s show choir audition. The most important portion of the audition is vocal. Everyone auditioning for one of the three show choir groups at my high school must select a song to sing in their audition. The song doesn’t have to be long, chances are that the directors wont let you sing more than a fourth of it anyways, but even though it’s the shortest portion of the audition, it’s also the most important. My vocal audition is tonight and I have selected “Voi Che Sapete” (I may have butchered the spelling of that…) as my try out piece.
The second and third most important factors in determining who will make one of the groups is based upon teacher recommendations and grades.
The fourth factor in determining if someone is cast in a group or not is the dance audition. In this audition, the choreographer of our varsity show choir comes in and teaches a short, but difficult, dance. Everyone is divided into groups of five or six, and then the groups come in one by one and perform the dance twice for the choreographer, and the three directors of each of the show choirs. Each person is evaluated and then the next group comes in, thus continuing the cycle.
Even though it causes a lot of stress, I like audition week. I don’t like singing in front of people, but my audition is the time when I am able to show the choir directors how I really sound. And though the dance audition is always hard, it’s also a lot of fun, especially because the choreographer usually makes the dance to a popular song. The only bad thing about the audition process is waiting for the group lists to be posted. We tried out the week of April 26, but the lists won’t be posted until May 22.

This year’s dance audition song :)

Rain Check

Over the weekend we were scheduled to play in a dual meet against two of the local high schools (dual meet just means playing two schools in one day). Due to weather we had to postpone the start of our first meet but ended up winning the meet seven-two. Our second meet started later than normal because of the postponements earlier in the day, and after starting the meet we eventually had to stop and reschedule the rest of the match for a later day because it started raining again.
When we left off with our second match, the meet score was one-one (we had both lost one and won one singles match). I was up in my match nine-zero, our number three player was losing her match three-seven, our number four player was down five-six, and our number five player was winning seven-four or five. Needless to say, the team we are playing is about the same skill level as us. We are finishing the meet tonight (unless it rains… again) and though I hope we win this meet, at this point, it really could go either way.

*Picture from http://sunshinecoast.freetoasthost.info/images/nervous1.gif

The Pan Flute

Here is a brief explanation of how my pan flute works (or at least how i think it works). I'm still a little confused on the whole wavelength thing, but I feel like i did a pretty decent job of faking it in this explanation.
I constructed my musical instrument (a modified version of the Pan Flute) by cutting various lengths of PVC piping, duct taping them together and blocking off the bottom end of each piece of piping with a ball of clay.
I started out cutting five different lengths of .5” in diameter of PVC piping. The approximate lengths I used for each piece of piping respectively were 9.5”, 8.5”, 7.5”, 7”, and 6.5”. I then sanded the ends of each pipe, laid the pipes out so that the tops of each pipe is aligned with each other while the bottoms end staggered, and then taped the pipes together.
After constructing my pan flute thus far, I struggled with finding a material to block off the bottom end of each pipe. I was able to produce a pitch with each tube when I placed the palm of my hand on the end of each tube separately, but could not find a material that was capable of reversing the travel of the sound waves. I finally found the solution to this problem while looking online.
The answer was clay. All I had to do to block of the end of each pipe, thus enabling myself to create a pitch, was to place a wad of clay at the bottom opening of each tube. This solved my problem, and I was able to create five different pitches from the five pipes without placing my hand over the opening of each one.
The physics behind this instrument can be identified through the principles displayed by wavelengths traveling through a pipe with one closed end and one open end (the end with the clay being the closed end). Because one of the ends of the pipe is open and one is closed, the open end is an anti node and the closed end is a node. Because one end is a node, and the other end of the pipe is an antinode, only odd numbered harmonics are capable of being produced within the pan flute. As air is blown across the top of an individual pipe, the air particles travel down the column as a wavelength and as they meet the clay at the end of the pipe, are reflected back out the pipe, thus creating a sound.
The differences heard in the different pitches of each pipe can be understood through the definition of frequency. Frequency is defined as “the number of cycles or vibrations per unit of time; also the number of waves produced per unit of time” (Serway, Raymond A. and Jerry S. Faughn 954). As the frequency is increased the pitch becomes higher. In my pan flute, the shorter pipes have higher pitches than the longer pipes. Keeping in mind the definition of “frequency” we know that this is because a cycle of vibrations will complete itself faster in a shorter pipe than in a longer pipe. Thus, shorter pipes create higher pitched sound.

Directions on making a pan flute taken from: Linda Barnhart, and http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/Bose_Master_7.pdf

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Yesterday our tennis team had another dual meet (play one team in the morning and another team in the afternoon). We had to postpone the start of our first meet due to the rain, but ended up winning the meet seven to two.
After we played the first meet, most of the team stopped at Panera for lunch. I ordered a soup and sandwich, but later regretted it. The table we sat at was a smaller-sized table and my plate wasn’t fully situated on the table, so that part of my plate was hanging over the edge of the table. I accidentally pushed down on the part of the plate hanging over the edge of the table and spilled soup all over my tennis dress! It was a huge mess! Fortunately the meet was in town and one of my teammates was able to bring the black tennis skirt we used as a uniform last year, and I just used that and this year’s t-shirt for our second meet.
Prior to the start of my match, I was very nervous. I always get more nervous than usual before playing this particular school, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect walking out onto the court. I had played this particular girl before and both of us had wins over the other. My coach and I had talked strategy over this particular player a couple nights prior to the meet, and so I wasn’t going into the meet totally unprepared. All the singles players started their matches and mine was going really well! Before we had to postpone the rest of the match until Monday, I was winning the match 9-0 (we play a ten game pro set). We are going to finish the meet tomorrow, and I pray that God will give me the focus I need to win the match!

*Picture from: http://www.centralbasin.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Rain.jpg