Editor's note: Ball State's Amy Zercher and Tamara Bowie will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. This week, Zercher says Ball State can't overlook anybody.

Jan. 29, 2001

	Sophomore guard Amy Zercher and Ball State are the team to beat in the MAC.

A big hello to everyone out there! I hope everyone is doing as great as I am.

Last week was quite a frenzied week, but nonetheless, another awesome one for Ball State women's basketball. These are the weeks that test a team and force the team members to look deep within themselves to see exactly what they are made of.

After our three road games in a week, our team learned that there is no room to relax when you sit atop the conference in first place. Also, after finishing the week with much better practices, we learned there is a direct correlation with the way we practice and how we perform in our games.

After a victory at Marshall last Saturday, we ventured to Akron on Wednesday. The Zips came out fired up and ready to play. We eventually responded by playing Ball State basketball, and ended up winning 89-64. Even though some of us tried not to, I think we overlooked Akron. Big mistake! Luckily we didn't have to learn that lesson the hard way. From now on, we have to approach each game like it might be our last and leave everything on the court.

Saturday night was our biggest game of the year so far. We faced Eastern Michigan, a team picked to finish ahead of us in the preseason Mid-American Conference poll. We showed everyone what we thought of those rankings. We beat them 100-66, led by Tamara Bowie's 40 points and 10 rebounds. Her 40 points is a new Ball State record for points scored in a game and the most by anyone in the MAC this year.

	DIARY LINEUP
	ESPN.com and FANSonly.com team up each week to present you with a new batch of women's college basketball player diaries, which lend some insight into the life of a student-athlete. To check out this week's lineup, click here.

This was an especially good week for me because I turned 20 on Saturday. The team made me feel so good, in spite of the embarrassing singing incidents at Bob Evans and after our shootaround on Saturday. But that is what a team is all about!

We have two more big home games this week with Toledo on Wednesday and Miami on Saturday. It's good to be back at Worthen Arena and to play in front of what we hope are great home crowds. We enter the week 16-3 overall and 8-0 in the MAC. Plus, we moved up six spots in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll to rank 28th in the nation.

I look forward to this week. It should be a breeze compared to last week, which was pretty rough. There is nothing worse than getting back at 2 a.m. from a long road trip, then studying until 5 a.m., getting up for an 8 o'clock class and having to take three exams that morning. Ahh, nothing like the life of a college athlete!

Have a great one, Z