RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM

A day in the life ...

The beginning of our 2005 journey starts tomorrow in Nebraska with the NACWAA, the most competitive preseason tournament of the year. We need to be a better team in the end ... win or lose.

I know there are people out there who are skeptical of whether or not we will have a record as impressive as last year's. On the other hand, there are the true believers who think we are capable of anything. Believe what you want to believe, but don't be fooled into thinking that we aren't going to feel the pressure or the burning desire from every team across the nation to beat us.

All things in life happen for a reason ... including hard losses. The sweet isn't as sweet without the sour: the NCAA diss of sending us to Colorado for the first round, the loss to Wisconsin last December ended our season with an impressive record of 30-1, but it wasn't good enough.

All of these events lit a fire under our team.

Looking around the locker room after the loss in Wisconsin, there weren't tears. It wasn't over for many of us, and we have another chance. Looking into each other's eyes on that day, we captured a sense of sisterhood and a hunger to return to that level of competition.

Not one girl on our team is afraid to face disappointment because we know that every night out we are going to take our play to a new level.

Expect to be impressed, expect to see a team that grew up from the last time you saw us play. But don't take it from me, find out for yourself.

... Final destination San Antonio. ... (To be continued)