Lauren Adams' Volleyball Diary: 10/02/06
10/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 2, 2006
In round two of conference play we were matched against Texas-Arlington and Texas State. To encourage students to come to the game, the team aided assistant coach Erin McClanahan pass out suckers on campus. After class, most of us had several uneventful hours of eating and napping before the match, but junior Traci Rohde did not.
While enjoying an icy cold beverage and the company of a friend at the local Dairy Queen, she noticed the UTA bus parked in the adjacent lot. Then a few moments later she watched as two members of the UTA team entered DQ and ordered a banana split. After the frozen treat had been assembled, they stuck two spoons in it and walked toward Traci. They placed it in front of her, said "This one's on us" and then ran out giggling. Befuddled and quasi-angry, Traci left DQ and headed for the gym to share her encounter with the team.
The story made everyone angry. We weren't exactly sure why, but we knew the gift was somehow meant to be devious. Regardless our reasoning, we were all a little more fired up for the game and it showed. We were able to defeat UTA in three games. And Traci, being the polite well-raised girl that she is (good work, Al and Karen!) made sure to thank the two girls for their gift at the end of the game.
The next morning, the team, family, and friends met in Lumberjack Alley at the Havard's RV to tailgate for Parent's weekend. We ate some delicious food and enjoyed each other's company. After a while the team had to leave to get ready for our match that afternoon against Texas State.
Everyone arrived at the gym ready to play as there is no love lost between us and Texas State. The match started off well and we went into the break up 2-0. We let up in the 3rd game and Texas State was able to win. Then in the 4th game they went on a huge service run sending the match into a 5th game. But thanks to a very rowdy Shelly Swendig we were able to mount an emotional comeback.
The usually quiet and understated sophomore began screaming and passing out convulsive high fives as well as knocking the you-know-what out of the ball. The intensity Shelly brought to the court spread, and senior Laura Cramer and Sophomore Lauren Railey jumped on the bandwagon and rode it to a 15-13 victory.
The end of the weekend marked the completion of a quarter of our conference play and leaves us as the only undefeated team in the conference. Next week we have two non-conference matches versus UNT and SMU and then we play Sam Houston State at home on Saturday at 4 p.m.
