Roggensack: Franciscan Fall: Homecoming Weekend and Tennis

Welcome October! The sunny chill has swept across campus, along with the beautiful colors of fall. I find myself getting lost in the beauty of the leaves and sunshine; this is bad for my studies because all I want to do is walk around campus or take a drive! This past weekend was Alumni Weekend, so the campus was bustling with activity. My parents, grandparents, cousin, and aunt came to visit and it was a great time. We all enjoyed the annual Excite Talent Show on Friday night which showcased the finest talents of Franciscan – from a cappella singing groups to a flawless rendition of Nsync’s ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ by the men’s household Brothers of the Eternal Song. The next day was the 5k run and the St. Francis Festival. The festival hosted different food and drink stands, games, climbing walls, moon bounces, and shows all throughout the day. Later that night, the Festival of Praise was held in the fieldhouse. A Festival of Praise, or “FOP” as the students call it, is a praise and worship event held a few times a semester that is very popular on campus. After the FOP, there was a band in the piazza on campus that was a lot of fun! It was definitely a fun-filled, busy weekend, and it was so wonderful to have the family come visit and meet my friends and other parents.

In the world of tennis, the Franciscan Women’s Team is doing great! We finished the regular season with a 9-0 record as the only undefeated team in the conference. We have a bye this weekend in the first round of championships, so our championship match will be held Sunday the 21st. I am extremely excited and grateful that we have these couple weeks to really re-focus and work on our skills in order to prepare for what will hopefully be the Lady Barons’ first AMCC Conference Championship in tennis! The team is really a lot of fun, and the sisterhood within the team is such a great aspect of the sport. We spend at least 2 hours a day together, so we really have gotten to know each other, and are able to connect through plenty of  jokes, connection in prayer, and growth together as a team. I really like going to morning mass with the team – we go every Tuesday at 6:30 am. Although it’s sometimes a struggle to wake up for (initially, I usually want to hit the snooze and go back to bed), I love being there because we are united, worshipping and praising the God that gave us the ability to play tennis, the God that gave us each other, and the God that is the focus and the center of our season. It is really an intimate time with the team and with Christ, a time where we can pray for our teammates, pray for our oponents, our coaches, and our benefactors. What a gift we have been given by Him!

Wish me luck as midterms and tennis championships approach, God bless!

Welcome to my blog! I’m Leann Roggensack and I’m a nursing major here at Franciscan University. I’m a member of the household Theotokos, play intramural basketball, and took part in SENT Ministries. For those of you who don’t know about it, SENT is an organization on campus that forms teams of students to organize retreats for local high school students. I absolutely loved it.

God Bless!