UTVballfan
100+ Posts
Is anyone else just bobbing back to the surface after two days of turkey blotation and tryptophan-induced coma? Foggy-headed or not, maybe it’s not too late to mention a few words about Aggie payback, our win, and especially, our awesome seniors.
I don’t know if I can re-create the conditions of last Wednesday night. Matches like this, as you approach Gregory, it feels like you’re entering an electric field of some type. It’s crackling with excitement. They should put a Tesla coil up on the roof, and let it shoot out all those lightning bolts, to make sure the electric charge doesn’t build up too dangerously inside.
This type of match, you need to check in early. Even several blocks away from Gregory, there were lots of fans with raised fingers, hoping to find last-minute tickets. But procrastination bit even faithful fans in the behind, ‘cause Gregory was sold out.
If there have been more people in Gregory, I don’t know where they put ‘em. It was SRO Wednesday. We had more people than in Hannah’s home town, I think. The official count was 4,230 well-wishers who came to see restitution and senior night revelry.
Speaking of which, the senior celebration was very touching, and no, I didn’t get watery-eyed but I did have a bit of trouble with my contacts, especially when Juliann sang the national anthem so well, and the crowd started humming along with her towards the end.
Our seniors all have such nice looking families. Jen Doris’ grand-dad was such a cute old gentleman, and I loved how he showed burnt orange under his jacket. Sweet old guy, but who knows, maybe he uses that stick to give a beating to any unworthy fellows who come around his grand-daughters. Then again, they look like kids who can handle themselves.
All three of our seniors seem to be such exceptional role models as student athletes: good students, hard-working, spiritual, and committed. They each have a distinct leadership style but they are all strong leaders nonetheless. Everyone should be proud as all get out of them, and as Elliott said, “quality people attract quality people,” and that’s what we have going on here.
Once the senior salute wrapped, it was time to channel our energy to the ensuing throw-down. Perhaps surging emotions made it tough for our team to immediately focus, because in the first set, we played from behind almost the entire way. “Almost” is a key word, as we’ll see.
Elliott was a little over-caffeinated, and during that tense first set, he kept blasting off the launch pad. One play in particular earned his ire, when the refs all missed a blatant touch. Down ref Powell had to go into school-marm mode: “Back to your seat there, big fella.”
But, hey, all that is just a measure of how much he wanted the W for his seniors. The big guy cares.
As I said, we almost always trailed, and after a Sawatzky-Black connection, we found ourselves down, 21-24. The Aggies had three set points.
We had them just where we wanted them.
It went like this:
Faucette kill. Faucette kill. Faucette kill. Tie game.
Aggie error. Aggie error. We win.
For our girls, set points are a case of mind over matter. “I don’t mind, and it don’t matter.”
On the next to last point, there might have been a Horns touch on an Aggie ball as it headed out, but hey, if so, that was fair payback for the earlier blown call. As my daughter said, “that’s karma, Aggies.”
Set two was tight, and the sides strong-armed each other to an 11-all gridlock. Then Michelle went Rachael-Sha’Dare-Amber, and at 14-11 the Corbelli’s TOed for a confabulation. Fooey. ‘Cause afterwards, Michelle and Rachael went into the zone. Blam, blam, blam - we lead 17-12. From there, the two sides played side-out ball and we cruised home, 25-19.
Set 3 was tight too, altho’ we usually hovered with a 2 or 3 point cushion. We didn’t even tease them with a few set points, and finally at 23-22, Rachael hit one straight down.
OK, we throw around this “straight down” phrase, but this one, was like, really was. Mathematicians are still debating the angle of that shot; some say theta was zero, others say there were a few picoseconds of arc. Elliott may have to call in Professor Steven Weinberg to settle this once and for all.
Either way: point texas. Then Jen Doris and Sha'Dare applied the match point capper – roof! The crowd cheered, and it was time for the trophy and Eyes of Texas.
Some notable stats: NPOW Juliann had16 K’s; Sha'Dare had .800 hitting and 15 digs; Jen Doris knocked 7 kills error free; and Lauren Dickson got several digs AND at least half a dozen marriage proposals from the crowd, topping the team, and not all from the same guy!
Celebrity sighting: Bethany Howden.
With the sweep, we squared our accounts with the Aggies this season, secured our 14th win in a row, and saw a senior send-off with style. Hope you were there. Happy Thanksgiving, and see you in the play-offs, Horns!
_____
I don’t know if I can re-create the conditions of last Wednesday night. Matches like this, as you approach Gregory, it feels like you’re entering an electric field of some type. It’s crackling with excitement. They should put a Tesla coil up on the roof, and let it shoot out all those lightning bolts, to make sure the electric charge doesn’t build up too dangerously inside.
This type of match, you need to check in early. Even several blocks away from Gregory, there were lots of fans with raised fingers, hoping to find last-minute tickets. But procrastination bit even faithful fans in the behind, ‘cause Gregory was sold out.
If there have been more people in Gregory, I don’t know where they put ‘em. It was SRO Wednesday. We had more people than in Hannah’s home town, I think. The official count was 4,230 well-wishers who came to see restitution and senior night revelry.
Speaking of which, the senior celebration was very touching, and no, I didn’t get watery-eyed but I did have a bit of trouble with my contacts, especially when Juliann sang the national anthem so well, and the crowd started humming along with her towards the end.
Our seniors all have such nice looking families. Jen Doris’ grand-dad was such a cute old gentleman, and I loved how he showed burnt orange under his jacket. Sweet old guy, but who knows, maybe he uses that stick to give a beating to any unworthy fellows who come around his grand-daughters. Then again, they look like kids who can handle themselves.
All three of our seniors seem to be such exceptional role models as student athletes: good students, hard-working, spiritual, and committed. They each have a distinct leadership style but they are all strong leaders nonetheless. Everyone should be proud as all get out of them, and as Elliott said, “quality people attract quality people,” and that’s what we have going on here.
Once the senior salute wrapped, it was time to channel our energy to the ensuing throw-down. Perhaps surging emotions made it tough for our team to immediately focus, because in the first set, we played from behind almost the entire way. “Almost” is a key word, as we’ll see.
Elliott was a little over-caffeinated, and during that tense first set, he kept blasting off the launch pad. One play in particular earned his ire, when the refs all missed a blatant touch. Down ref Powell had to go into school-marm mode: “Back to your seat there, big fella.”
But, hey, all that is just a measure of how much he wanted the W for his seniors. The big guy cares.
As I said, we almost always trailed, and after a Sawatzky-Black connection, we found ourselves down, 21-24. The Aggies had three set points.
We had them just where we wanted them.
It went like this:
Faucette kill. Faucette kill. Faucette kill. Tie game.
Aggie error. Aggie error. We win.
For our girls, set points are a case of mind over matter. “I don’t mind, and it don’t matter.”
On the next to last point, there might have been a Horns touch on an Aggie ball as it headed out, but hey, if so, that was fair payback for the earlier blown call. As my daughter said, “that’s karma, Aggies.”
Set two was tight, and the sides strong-armed each other to an 11-all gridlock. Then Michelle went Rachael-Sha’Dare-Amber, and at 14-11 the Corbelli’s TOed for a confabulation. Fooey. ‘Cause afterwards, Michelle and Rachael went into the zone. Blam, blam, blam - we lead 17-12. From there, the two sides played side-out ball and we cruised home, 25-19.
Set 3 was tight too, altho’ we usually hovered with a 2 or 3 point cushion. We didn’t even tease them with a few set points, and finally at 23-22, Rachael hit one straight down.
OK, we throw around this “straight down” phrase, but this one, was like, really was. Mathematicians are still debating the angle of that shot; some say theta was zero, others say there were a few picoseconds of arc. Elliott may have to call in Professor Steven Weinberg to settle this once and for all.
Either way: point texas. Then Jen Doris and Sha'Dare applied the match point capper – roof! The crowd cheered, and it was time for the trophy and Eyes of Texas.
Some notable stats: NPOW Juliann had16 K’s; Sha'Dare had .800 hitting and 15 digs; Jen Doris knocked 7 kills error free; and Lauren Dickson got several digs AND at least half a dozen marriage proposals from the crowd, topping the team, and not all from the same guy!
Celebrity sighting: Bethany Howden.
With the sweep, we squared our accounts with the Aggies this season, secured our 14th win in a row, and saw a senior send-off with style. Hope you were there. Happy Thanksgiving, and see you in the play-offs, Horns!
_____
