Odds and ends

So it's Saturday morning and we're about to head to Dallas to play North Lake.  Just a few random points:

- We beat Cisco in 4 Thursday night.  We lost game 2, but won the other 3 games by at least 9 points.  This was huge for us as it was basically a play-off game.  Now we are pretty much assured of 3rd place and a date with NCTC in the first round of play-offs.

- Here's a link to a write up about our match on tuesday by our SID, Eddie Middlebrook Temple recap

- Both of our sophomores have visits lined up for next weekend: one to a D1 school; the other to a D2.  I'm hoping they both go well.  We've had great success sending our graduating sophomores to 4 year schools to play.  In fact, here's a list: Rebels Moving On  And it's also a little out of date.  Another players from last year, Anissa Garcia, is starting at UMHB.  So thats 3 players in the past 2 years moving on to Division 1 schools, and another one of our players last year had the opportunity to go to a D1, but she really liked another school so she went there.  We always tell our players to go to a place thats comfortable which is why we set up as many visits as we can.

- We will honor both of our sophomore players, Lauren Ray and Sapphire Reid, as well as our manager Angerl Parham on Thursday night before and after our match against Ranger.  If you can make it we'd love to see you there!

Last night versus Temple

So last night we had our annual "Red Out" match, this time against Temple.  Our main goal was to continue our improvement from this past weekend and see if we can gain some revenge as Temple beat us in 3 down at their place.

We had an amazing crowd.  They were loud and gave us a great home court advantage.  We definitely used that as we took game 1 by a score of 25-20. 

Game 2 we started off very slowly and were down by as many as 8 points.  Instead of giving up, this team showed great spirit and came back to tie it up at 22.  Unfortunately we made 3 mistakes and Temple won 25-22.

Game 3 was more of the same: we dug ourselves into a hole and we tried to come back but it wasn't enough and we lost 25-19.  However, in game 4 we did the opposite and jumped out to a huge lead and never looked back and won 25-19.

So for the third consecutive year, we go to 5 with Temple at home.  Unfortunately, this time we couldn't pull it out and lost 15-13.  We sided out to get to 13-14, and had a great chance to tie it up, but we didn't execute and they took advantage of it. 

So now what?  We are 3-4 in conference play.  We have a massively huge match tomorrow night at home against Cisco.  Let me tell you the scenarios:

If we win: Most likely we get the 3rd seed in play-offs.
If we lose: We will most likely be in a 3 way tie for 3rd with only two of those teams making the play-offs.  Because of our head to head record, we will probably have to compete in a play in match the week of play-offs just to get there.  So basically, we need to win tomorrow.

Come and support us if you can.  6 pm at home!

Video, updates, crazy plays

So here we are, having started 2nd round of conference.  This past weekend we drove up to Vernon and played a tri-match.  Very important for us as we were in a 3 way tie for 3rd place with Vernon and Cisco.  We came out playing great and beat Vernon in 4.  Had a little hiccup in game 2 but other than that I was very happy.  Brittany Berry led us with 12 kills and only 1 error on 24 swings.

We then played #9 ranked Frank Phillips.  It was the first time I've ever played them and they are a solid team.  They won game 1 in spite of one the weirdest plays I've ever seen: one of our outside hitters Sapphire went up to hit a 2 and got roofed, but the ball went straight back into her eye, then went back over the net and we got a kill.  Here' the clip: Sapphire's kill

We turned around and won game 2.  The girls played real well and I've decided to put it on line.  here's the link for the entire game 2, which we won 25-20:  Game 2 vs. Frank Phillips

They turned around and beat us in game 3, but game 4 was a very well played game.  We went back and forth, but eventually FPC beat us 30-28.  We had 2 game points but they sided out each time.  I'm going to put this online as well very soon.  To tell you the quality of offense for both teams, we hit .325% with 17 kills and only 4 errors.  FPC played really well and I know we can take this solid play back into conference.

Other points:
- We have 2 very huge home matches this week against Temple and Cisco.  Temple is Tuesday the 19th and it's Red Out night: wear red and support your Lady Rebels!  We've got a lot of t-shirts to give away and a serving contest at halftime.  We beat Temple at home last year and I'm hoping we can do it again.

- All of our stats and box scores are online at Stats  You can get individual game box scores as well as team totals and player breakdowns.  I'm hoping the rest of our conference catches up with this so you can compare us to other teams.

Won another conference match

Last night we traveled to Ranger and got a great win in 3 games.  It's always good to get a win on the road, and this puts us in a 3 way tie for 3rd after the first round of conference.  We have a massively huge game on Saturday at Vernon.  If we win that we have a great chance to qualify for play-offs.  I know we will use these next few days to improve in the gym.

Notes:
- Haley Goldwater had 34 assists last night.  Sapphire Reid had 16 kills and Lauren Ray had 27 digs.

Player of the week!

Congratualtions to Sapphire Reid, who was named the Region V player of the week!!  Just go to the links on the right hand side of the blog and click on the region V link and shes on the front page! Or click here: Region V

Weekend Success

We traveled to Richland College today for a tri-match with them and Southwestern Christian College.  We won both in 3, and everyone got some court time.  It feels real good to get some wins under our belt, especially after our tough conference losses.  Hopefully this will carry over to our next match, an away game at Ranger on Tuesday.  And eating at FreeBirds is always good.

Video!!! And an update

So we moved into our second week of conference play.  We had a tough 4 game loss at Cisco, which is always a tough place to play.  Then we had NCTC at home, and started off great (which you'll see) and then lost in 4.  In both cases our opponents played well, and we had our moments, but we are frustrated with letting good opportunities to win slip away.  Hopefully we will take both matches tomorrow up in Richland.

Quick thoughts:
- Sapphire Reid had 23 kills on 40 swings last night and hit .375%.  Great job.
- We got our flatscreen and new camera this week!!  It makes a huge difference now that the girls can see game film with a clearer picture on a bigger screen.  Also, I love having the game film on my laptop about 5 minutes after our match ends.
- I think you'll like this article about one of my former players: Athlete of the week
- Because everything is now digital, I'm going to start posting a lot more videos.  Here is a rough cut of our game 1 win last night against NCTC.  Game 1 vs. NCTC

Until next time!

First week of conference

First off, as of this moment, our libero Lauren Ray is ranked #1 in the country in aces!!!  She is also 16th in digs, while Sapphire Reid is top 20 in kills and Ayve Alvarado is 25th in blocks.  Not too bad.

We started conference play on Tuesday with a great win at home against Vernon.  It was a solid crowd for a 4 pm match and it included our President, Dr. Kappus (who was proudly wearing a Hill volleyball t-shirt).  We played a very solid game, with Lauren Ray having 7 aces, and our 3 middles combining for 25 kills against only 5 errors.

We then went down to Temple on Thursday for our first conference road game.  Temple is always a tough place to play.  Coach Reese and their staff do a great job with the game day atmosphere and it work,s as I'm pretty sure they haven't lost a home conference match in a few years.  We started out pretty well in game 1, and even had a lead at 17-15 I believe, but we failed to capitalize on some good looks and Temple won game 1.

Temple got out to a big lead in game 2 and when we traded side-outs until the end.  Game 3 was similar to game 1 in that we were point for point for half the set, but then Temple pulled away.  Give credit to them; they played a solid match.  We're seeing what we have to do to become a winning team and hopefully we can flip the switch this week.  Also, we had a great crowd in Temple.  It was good to see players I used to coach as well as the parents of those players.  I love having that extended family atmosphere of old players and families still seeing each other and catching up.

This week we have 4 matches.  We travel to Cisco on Tuesday, which is always a tough place to play.  Then we get NCTC at home on Thursday.  Last year in the play-offs we beat NCTC twice, both in 5.  I know they will be fired up to play us and it should be a great game.  Then on Saturday we travel to Dallas to play against Richland and Southwestern Christian.

Hope you can make it out.  We only have 4 more home games and student activities is doing a great job with giveaways and halftime entertainment.  I just went and purchased 75 more t-shirts so we've got some stuff to give away at the games.

Finally, I want to give a huge shout out to Aaron Kalhoff and our women's basketball team who has been at every home match supporting us.  It's been a huge lift for us and we will definitely return the favor when their season starts.