What's up Nova Nation? It's me, Lauren Hanna. I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween, and you all are eating up all that candy! It's crazy how my first semester of sophomore year is approaching its end.

November is by far my favorite month out of the year. We don't see very many trees out in Southern California, so we don't get the pretty red and orange trees. Of course, along with the colder weather and pretty tree colors, we are in the middle of our individual off-season work. The coaches break us up into small groups throughout the day so they can take more personal time to dissect our swings. This is my favorite time of the year, because I get greedy in front toss pretty often and now I don't have to take up anyone else's time. We really focus on tweaking our mechanics in order to be ready for the spring season. It's the best time of the year for perfectionists like me to get in solid hitting practices.

I am looking forward to flying out to Arizona over Thanksgiving break to spend it with my brother and dad. Even though I can't wait to see my family, I also can't take my mind off all the delicious food that we're going to have. The mashed potatoes are hands down always the best part of the meal, always nicely topped off with pumpkin pie. I'm getting hungry just thinking about Thanksgiving dinner.

Coming back from Thanksgiving break will bring us into the final stretch of the first semester. This is where the school work load really picks up, but the shorter practice times really give us more time to study. I'm hoping to take advantage of that knowledge this year during the off-season, and really grind to push up my grades.

After watching our team grow and prosper last season, I cannot wait to see what this season has in store for us. We have such a diverse group of players this season, and it was already made clear in our fall games that we are playing as a family just like we did in the spring. This spring can't come soon enough, because we can't wait to win some games.

Happy Thanksgiving and go 'Cats!

-Lauren Hanna