First off, we saw our Lady Aggies get back into the Top 25. I scratched my head when I saw that. We lose to Nevada - a team that's been nowhere near the list - and we drop off to #26. We come home, beat UTEP in 4, fly over to Louisiana, beat LA Tech in 4 and then Monday we're #25. o.O?
I asked some of the knowledgable fans over at the Volleytalk message board about this. Their answer was a simple one - it was by default. Granted, we only got 42 votes and #24 Oklahoma got 157. Number 26 got 31. I still haven't gotten into the who's playing whom/who won stuff as far as the teams in the poll. I have enough problem keeping up with our stats!
Having said that, it's still nice to read the headlines on the Hawaii game. It's still 2 nationally ranked teams playing here in Cruces on Friday. And what a game it will be.
Before I get into that, let me do a quick recap of the Northern AZ game last night. First off, we got them in 3 which was a nice relief. One of their players, however, had us amazed. #3 - Babcock. That girl got more air on her jump serves and more power than anyone I've ever seen. Her kill ability was amazing as well. She had 9 kills but 11 errors. She had 2 service aces but 4 service errors. Yeah, she's powerful but she wasn't able to control that power.
There was a Sideout gathering after the game and I got a chance to talk to Coach. In the past, I've called in the Game 2 jinx. He cleared that up for me really fast. It isn't a jinx - and I think he didn't like that I called it that. :) It's that, in his words, he's using that 2nd game to readjust play, try some new things out as well as different players and options. Makes perfect sense to me. You don't want to do stuff like that in the 1st game. So, Coach, if you read this blog, I apologize for calling the the Game 2 jinx. I'll never do it again.
So now - onto Hawaii. The Wahini are #11 right now and are 12-4 on the season. They're the ones with the heavy schedule, having played teams like Pepperdine - they won both, Florida - lost in 3, UCLA - lost in 3, Stanford - lost in 3 and Cal Poly - lost in 5 and won in 5. They're on a winning streak of 7 but on a serious road trip. They're in Louisiana to take on LA Tech tonight I believe and then they fly out here tomorrow to rest up and take us on.
What is there to say about playing Hawaii? This is a team that will challenge us and make us player harder and stronger. I know that they've been prepping for this game all year. They're ready to play their hearts out.
Personally, I can't wait for this match. I enjoy watching Hawaii play - its a whole different level of play than other teams that have come in. It brings out the absolute best in our team. It's gonna be good.
So - if you haven't gotten your tickets, get them yesterday. LCHS only seats about 2800 people. If you're in the Sideout Club, there's a pre-match gathering at 5:30 in the commons room. That'll give us a chance to get our seats. Coach will give us a preview of strategy plus one of the refs is going to come in and talk to us about their job - hand signals, calls and so on. Should be fun.
posted by Melanie Brooks @ 11:06 AM
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