UTVballfan
100+ Posts
Tonight’s match was special. We had one of those great Gregory turnouts, and during the 4th set in particular, it was stupendously exciting and loud. But we’ll get to that soon.
During the first set and a half, the Horns were completely in command. It was pit bulls versus kittens, monster trucks against Mini Coopers, Dwayne Johnson versus The Wimpy Kid.
The Sooners were hanging their heads. They were as low as a doggone dirty dog. Restrepo was suffering so bad, he temporarily lost his appetite. Incredible, but true.
There was this Sooner fan behind our serving line yelling “Side Out!” while our girls were serving. Ha! Bush league. Some of our fans sunk to his level and started up with the “OU Sucks” stuff. I thought it would dawn on the guy that it was him against 3,300 Longhorns, but no, he kept it up, so either he’s gutsy for not backing down, or not too bright, take your pick. Anyhow, more ruckus and more decibels.
The refs struggled tonight. I swear one time the down ref went over to the up ref, pointed at the linesman, and said, “You have got to get that guy to wake up.” He blew a call right in front of the Sooner bench. Some of those Sooner girls, they have a potty mouth, and their momma’s need to wash their mouths out with soap. But again, all that fussing just helped amp up the volume.
I thought Kocher made a number of extremely difficult sets tonight, and she was a digging fool to boot.
Four of our fronts went double-digits, and nearly a fifth. Our middles were ruthlessly efficient as usual. Rachael just annihilated a couple different overpasses tonight, and Jen was hitting it high and hard out right.
The third set, we kinda let slip away. Oklahoma got their swagger back. And that set the stage for an epic 4th set.
We started a little slow in the 4th, and OU battled to a 10-16 lead. Jerritt TO’ed and afterwards, our team found another level. Juliann and Amber ran off 5 kills, and with a Sooner error, it was knotted up, 16-all.
Then things got really exciting.
After the 16-16 tie, there were 8 more ties in the frame, and some lead changes, as neither side could pull away. The crowd was getting enormously loud. As we battled, Juliann, Jen and Amber all got kills. But Juliann in particular was really feeling it.
We were down, 23-24. Kocher knew, and everybody in the gym knew, Juliann wanted the ball. Kocher fed her four straight times, and she blasted four straight kills. Every time, the crowd just went more and more nuts.
The Horns were up, 27-26, and Faucette rotated back to serve. I thought, dude, set her out of the back and she’ll hammer match point. But that was kind of selfish of me. Kocher knows we have all kinds of tigers on that front row, and Sha’Dare knew what to do with the ball when Michelle hung it up for her. Pow! Match, Horns.
I know it was a career night for Juliann in terms of the number of kills, and she deserves all the accolades in the world for her fighting spirit.
But I also think of it as a career night for everyone on the team. To be in an environment like that, to have thousands of loving fans cheering their heads off for you, to have everybody so into it, so into the moment, as your teammates rise to the challenge - - well, that is a night to remember for the whole team.
I’ll certainly remember it.
During the first set and a half, the Horns were completely in command. It was pit bulls versus kittens, monster trucks against Mini Coopers, Dwayne Johnson versus The Wimpy Kid.
The Sooners were hanging their heads. They were as low as a doggone dirty dog. Restrepo was suffering so bad, he temporarily lost his appetite. Incredible, but true.
There was this Sooner fan behind our serving line yelling “Side Out!” while our girls were serving. Ha! Bush league. Some of our fans sunk to his level and started up with the “OU Sucks” stuff. I thought it would dawn on the guy that it was him against 3,300 Longhorns, but no, he kept it up, so either he’s gutsy for not backing down, or not too bright, take your pick. Anyhow, more ruckus and more decibels.
The refs struggled tonight. I swear one time the down ref went over to the up ref, pointed at the linesman, and said, “You have got to get that guy to wake up.” He blew a call right in front of the Sooner bench. Some of those Sooner girls, they have a potty mouth, and their momma’s need to wash their mouths out with soap. But again, all that fussing just helped amp up the volume.
I thought Kocher made a number of extremely difficult sets tonight, and she was a digging fool to boot.
Four of our fronts went double-digits, and nearly a fifth. Our middles were ruthlessly efficient as usual. Rachael just annihilated a couple different overpasses tonight, and Jen was hitting it high and hard out right.
The third set, we kinda let slip away. Oklahoma got their swagger back. And that set the stage for an epic 4th set.
We started a little slow in the 4th, and OU battled to a 10-16 lead. Jerritt TO’ed and afterwards, our team found another level. Juliann and Amber ran off 5 kills, and with a Sooner error, it was knotted up, 16-all.
Then things got really exciting.
After the 16-16 tie, there were 8 more ties in the frame, and some lead changes, as neither side could pull away. The crowd was getting enormously loud. As we battled, Juliann, Jen and Amber all got kills. But Juliann in particular was really feeling it.
We were down, 23-24. Kocher knew, and everybody in the gym knew, Juliann wanted the ball. Kocher fed her four straight times, and she blasted four straight kills. Every time, the crowd just went more and more nuts.
The Horns were up, 27-26, and Faucette rotated back to serve. I thought, dude, set her out of the back and she’ll hammer match point. But that was kind of selfish of me. Kocher knows we have all kinds of tigers on that front row, and Sha’Dare knew what to do with the ball when Michelle hung it up for her. Pow! Match, Horns.
I know it was a career night for Juliann in terms of the number of kills, and she deserves all the accolades in the world for her fighting spirit.
But I also think of it as a career night for everyone on the team. To be in an environment like that, to have thousands of loving fans cheering their heads off for you, to have everybody so into it, so into the moment, as your teammates rise to the challenge - - well, that is a night to remember for the whole team.
I’ll certainly remember it.
