UTVballfan
100+ Posts
Catching up on my Horns coverage; I can’t let the victory over the Aggies last weekend just slide by.
First off, I was a little chafed that Gregory didn’t sell out, but then again, football is practically a religion in this state, and given that kickoff would soon happen in Lubbock, we gotta cut ourselves some slack. We did have a pretty dang good crowd, considering. But my wife was way, way, WAY chapped that the swimmers didn’t show up. Hey I thought it was a tradition! Turns out the swim team was at a meet in Ann Arbor. Even more piss-poor scheduling!
So we started off a little disgruntled. Without the swimmers, I feared an offensive letdown for sure. But we settled down and hoped for the best.
The first thing that caught my eye was that Ashley Engle was stoked and came out in full Ben Wallace defensive monster mode. At 11-8 she covered a blocked ball spectacularly. At 12-10 she made a classic Engle barreling-over-to-the-sideline get, and followed that up on the very next play with a monster dig.
The Horns slipped out to a 12-9 buffer, and I thought, “All systems are go.”
But then we went into Forrest Gump mode. You know, “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”
Even our two superstars, Ashley and Destinee, bonked. They got blocked, they hit balls out, and blammo, the Horns were down, 13-16. Elliott, natch, went ape hoohey with the time outs. I think the first one he just said, “Please don't take a turn to negative town.” But after a few more faux pas, bloopers, and blunders he T.O.’ed again and was prolly like “Girls, poppa don’t take no mess!!”
So the Horns snapped in, and even better, right after the 2nd Horns time out, Aggie Sarah Ammerman netted a serve, a gaffe that has been driving coaches insane since the Flintstones era. Destinee poured salt in the wound by ripping two aces against Kelsey Black and then Kelsey Bryant hit one out. There is a Kelsey joke there somewhere but I can’t think of it.
Anyhow, it was time for the Corbelli’s to try repetitious time-outs. But after each one, they returned only to get roofed.
See, our coaches had gotten all creative and call this play where they sub in Rachael for Michelle…Ray-A comes in at the middle, Pao slots in at the right-side, and we get a killer roof going. In fact, Ray-A clicked twice for the block. The second one brought the crowd to its feet for set point, and the Aggies obliged by donating us the very next point. Excellent. Our win at 25-19 resulted from a scorching 12-3 run after Elliott’s last rant.
Set two was a nail-biter. It was neck-and-neck for a while, and then we found ourselves in a 5-point hole, down 15-20 after the Horns’ fifth service error of the frame.
Our twin 77-inch middles, Lauren and Jennifer, kept us in the game. Jen-Do blocked and then had a kill. Pao killed twice, and then blocked. The Aggies must have thought Lauren and Jenn were from another planet, and kept saying “klaatu barada nikto” in hopes of deactivating them, but no such luck, they aren’t Gort and not even extraterrestrial. But they will beat your butt.
Anyhow, the Aggies T.O’ed to refocus at 20-23. It worked momentarily as they ran a play and it actually worked, 20-24. Gulp – we face 4 set points.
Now, guess who took over? Uh huh. Destinee Dante' Hooker.
Check this sequence:
20-24 – Destinee gets a kill on an Aggie net call.
21-24 – Aggies make a hitting error.
22-24 – Destinee gets a kill.
23-24 – Aggies make a hitting error.
24-24 – Destinee gets a block.
That gave us a set point, and on an overpass, Rachael made a killer put-a-way.
The crowd went absolutely bat-crap. I saw one girl near me dancing like Bon Qui Qui in the King Burger skit. The Horns hit the locker room, we’ve squeaked out a two-zip lead.
Set three was far less melodramatic. The Horns basically took a lead and kept it. We had a high kill rate, near seven hundred, and few errors overall. Nice way to end the match.
Interesting to note that the Aggies dang near beat Nebraska their next time out. Speaking of whom: not too long till the Cornhuskers come to Austin – November 19. No football on a Wednesday, and who knows, maybe the swimmers will show up. Let’s get a sell-out!
Celebrity sighting: RuthAnn Feist. Tall girls are cool.
First off, I was a little chafed that Gregory didn’t sell out, but then again, football is practically a religion in this state, and given that kickoff would soon happen in Lubbock, we gotta cut ourselves some slack. We did have a pretty dang good crowd, considering. But my wife was way, way, WAY chapped that the swimmers didn’t show up. Hey I thought it was a tradition! Turns out the swim team was at a meet in Ann Arbor. Even more piss-poor scheduling!
So we started off a little disgruntled. Without the swimmers, I feared an offensive letdown for sure. But we settled down and hoped for the best.
The first thing that caught my eye was that Ashley Engle was stoked and came out in full Ben Wallace defensive monster mode. At 11-8 she covered a blocked ball spectacularly. At 12-10 she made a classic Engle barreling-over-to-the-sideline get, and followed that up on the very next play with a monster dig.
The Horns slipped out to a 12-9 buffer, and I thought, “All systems are go.”
But then we went into Forrest Gump mode. You know, “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”
Even our two superstars, Ashley and Destinee, bonked. They got blocked, they hit balls out, and blammo, the Horns were down, 13-16. Elliott, natch, went ape hoohey with the time outs. I think the first one he just said, “Please don't take a turn to negative town.” But after a few more faux pas, bloopers, and blunders he T.O.’ed again and was prolly like “Girls, poppa don’t take no mess!!”
So the Horns snapped in, and even better, right after the 2nd Horns time out, Aggie Sarah Ammerman netted a serve, a gaffe that has been driving coaches insane since the Flintstones era. Destinee poured salt in the wound by ripping two aces against Kelsey Black and then Kelsey Bryant hit one out. There is a Kelsey joke there somewhere but I can’t think of it.
Anyhow, it was time for the Corbelli’s to try repetitious time-outs. But after each one, they returned only to get roofed.
See, our coaches had gotten all creative and call this play where they sub in Rachael for Michelle…Ray-A comes in at the middle, Pao slots in at the right-side, and we get a killer roof going. In fact, Ray-A clicked twice for the block. The second one brought the crowd to its feet for set point, and the Aggies obliged by donating us the very next point. Excellent. Our win at 25-19 resulted from a scorching 12-3 run after Elliott’s last rant.
Set two was a nail-biter. It was neck-and-neck for a while, and then we found ourselves in a 5-point hole, down 15-20 after the Horns’ fifth service error of the frame.
Our twin 77-inch middles, Lauren and Jennifer, kept us in the game. Jen-Do blocked and then had a kill. Pao killed twice, and then blocked. The Aggies must have thought Lauren and Jenn were from another planet, and kept saying “klaatu barada nikto” in hopes of deactivating them, but no such luck, they aren’t Gort and not even extraterrestrial. But they will beat your butt.
Anyhow, the Aggies T.O’ed to refocus at 20-23. It worked momentarily as they ran a play and it actually worked, 20-24. Gulp – we face 4 set points.
Now, guess who took over? Uh huh. Destinee Dante' Hooker.
Check this sequence:
20-24 – Destinee gets a kill on an Aggie net call.
21-24 – Aggies make a hitting error.
22-24 – Destinee gets a kill.
23-24 – Aggies make a hitting error.
24-24 – Destinee gets a block.
That gave us a set point, and on an overpass, Rachael made a killer put-a-way.
The crowd went absolutely bat-crap. I saw one girl near me dancing like Bon Qui Qui in the King Burger skit. The Horns hit the locker room, we’ve squeaked out a two-zip lead.
Set three was far less melodramatic. The Horns basically took a lead and kept it. We had a high kill rate, near seven hundred, and few errors overall. Nice way to end the match.
Interesting to note that the Aggies dang near beat Nebraska their next time out. Speaking of whom: not too long till the Cornhuskers come to Austin – November 19. No football on a Wednesday, and who knows, maybe the swimmers will show up. Let’s get a sell-out!
Celebrity sighting: RuthAnn Feist. Tall girls are cool.
