For the longest time, I dreamt of becoming a mom AND a professional athlete. I’m proud to say that I am now both. Thank you to all the badass mothers… - Foluke Akinradewo

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have doubts, but at the same time, the player I am, I just always believe that whatever I put my mind to, it’s going to happen. It was a goal and aspiration of mine and I was going to do whatever it took to make that happen. But, yeah, there were many moments along the way where I just thought maybe it wasn’t for me.

Every day we come back and we are trying to play our game. We haven't had much time together in these past months, so it's just about streaming up point by point. The Netherlands are always a dangerous team and both of us came out a little bit slow. I think that when we were able to pick up our service pressure it really helped us with block and defence. Our goal is always to focus on things on the court. There are a lot of things we are working on. I think every time we step on the court, honestly, we are just trying to play our game, to score some points, just execute as much as possible and I think we do a really good job. Obviously, there is a lot of room for improvement, but we can continue to improve and to work on some things and come back stronger next game.

I got to compete for Team USA for the first time in almost three years. I never truly understood how much weight the USA jersey held until yesterday. It’s been a long and arduous journey to get back here and there were many times I debated calling it quits along the way, but I’m so glad I didn’t. It was all worth it.