Check out DeBruler's first diary entry here.

Laura DeBruler, an All-American on the Illini's nationally ranked volleyball team, has been kind enough to provide a behind-the-scenes look at her final season by writing a monthly diary for The News-Gazette. Her second entry:

I can't believe how fast this month has flown by! I've started summer school, workouts and even went on some fun trips. After I got back from Arizona, it was nice because I had a week to relax at home. I was able to see old friends from school and spend time with my family. One family trip that was really fun was visiting the new bear exhibit at Brookfield Zoo. All the enclosures were big, and they even had an underwater viewing area. The best part of the trip was that one of the polar bears came right up to the side of the enclosure and was about 3 feet away from my family! I was surprised at how big he was, especially his paws. They were about the size of my head! My family really enjoyed the zoo!

When I got back to campus, school and workouts started up right away. I recently switched my major to psychology, so I'm taking two psychology classes, learning and memory as well as a development lab. I'm enjoying both and learning a lot. Workouts have been going great! My favorite workout that we do is Illini games. Other sport teams that are in Champaign for the summer all join together and play games like castle (which is basically capture the flag) and ultimate football! We are all getting stronger and are very excited about the season!

During the week, school and workouts keep me pretty busy, but on the weekends we can have some fun! One outing that was especially fun was our trip to Shades State Park. Hillary, my friend Jordan and I decided we wanted to do so something fun, so what better than to go on a hike! When we got there we decided to go on the very rugged trail, and, man, was it rugged! We climbed down into a ravine and in order to get back up we had to climb up through the creek. Besides the many mosquito bites we got, we all had a lot of fun!

This past weekend some of my teammates and I went to Six Flags in St. Louis. The first thing we did was go on the roller coasters! They are my favorite ride, and I always scream the entire time! Everyone's favorite roller coaster we went on was the Boss. It is a wooden thriller and had a drop that none of us were expecting! We also went to the water park and enjoyed some water slides and the wave pool! After a long day at the park we decided to relax a bit and headed over to the Muny. The Muny is an outdoor amphitheater that holds performances every night. This night we saw "Beauty and the Beast." They put on a great performance and it brought back fun memories of my childhood!

Overall this month has been busy but tons of fun! See you next month!