bierce

SMU is currently nuking Pitt, so while Pitt is likely to drop from the conference unbeatens, SMU is likely to stay there with Miami and Clemson. Those three teams won't play each other this year. Just for s***s and giggles, imagine they all finish the ACC regular season undefeated, and one of them misses the championship game. Bloated conferences are dumb.

Strip sack with 10 seconds left in the half negated by defensive holding.

And now an Agroid tackled a USCe receiver by the helmet and whacked him the head when he was on the ground.

This s*** proves 16 team conferences are stupidly unwieldly.

Reed has almost as many incompletions on handoffs as on passes.

1) We went from a single player acting as the setter on the floor at all times to rotating two setters in and out. After winning a natty with a freshman setter who was a master (mistress) of dumping the ball over when the pass came close to the set, it was a weird decision to bring in another setter to split time. Elliott is a hall of fame coach, and I'm just a boob posting on the internet, but I still have a hard time understanding that one. 2) We did just come off a run of winning 17 straight sets in conference, including two road sweeps against ranked teams, so this might just be a rut. 3) Our back to back losses came in very different fashions. A&M had some middle blockers who so dominated Ames that Elliott benched her in favor of Bunton. That switch didn't save the match, but Ames was getting embarrassed, and most of what A&M managed against us came from middle hitters. By comparison, we blew tonight mainly by flubbing serve returns. Our outside hitting wasn't at peak form, but it was the inability to cover the back that was the difference tonight.' 4) Skinner is a terrific hitter and marvelous all around player, but she was awful on the back row tonight. She now leads us in receiving errors, despite receiving a little more than half of the serves that each Halter and Wenaas have. If she isn't a big hitter out of the back row this year, and she hasn't been, then why is she there? 5) Speaking of back row hitting, I didn't see any of that tonight. Skinner is a great weapon hitting out of the back row, but did she get even a single swing from there? If she did, then I missed it. 6) Maybe it is just back to back crappy games. We had 8 days off. Rust? Complacency? Lack of focus? Or maybe it is just due to playing too many front line players on the back row, even if they aren't getting it done back there. I love Ms. Skinner as a volleyball player. She is an amazing athlete. She jumps like a flea and can hit rocket shots, and her all around game is usually sufficient to justify her staying on the floor at all times to keep her offensive power on the floor and save rotation for different positions, but right now I would tell all servers to target her if I was an opposing coach. She pretty much whiffed on three returns tonight. Just saying. Like I said before, I'm not panicking, but tonight should be a serious wake-up call to the team to keep its collective head in the game every point.

At this point, I'm not panicking, but I'm kind of sick about what I just saw. Atrocious back row defense. Service handling was abysmal.

Wenaas overpassed the return. 13-9. Another bad return. Miz kill. 5 match points. Skinner kill. 14-10. Singletary called for attacking ball over the net. Match.

miz pass, set, kill. 11-9. Miz ace by rolling it off the tape. 12-9. Timeout Texas.

miz off block. 9-7. We had three swings, all defledted. Kahahawai/Ames block. 9-8. Carlson served into the net. 10-8. Wenaas kill 10-9.

Miz on slide. 6-5 Miz. Miz serve error. 6 all. Miz miscommunication between setter and hitter. 7-6 Texas. Miz kill from bump set from behind back line. 7 all. Wenaas deflected, Miz covered, and got the kill. 8-7 Miz.

We are 0-3 so far this year in the 5th set. Time to fix that. Skinner off block into the stands. 1-0 Texas. Two deflections by Texas blockers on that point. Miz middle kill. 1-1. Rutherford off block. 2-1 Texas. Miz off block. 2 all. Miz strong crosscourt from weakside. 3-2 Miz. Skinner kill. 3 all. Miz sailed one. 4-3 Texas. Miz weakside kill. 4 all. Skinner off block weakside into the stands. 5-4 Texas. Miz kill off block in middle. 5 all.

Akana with her 3rd serve error. Wenaas overpass slaughtered. 26-24 Misery.

Miz kill through block. 2 set points. Singletary block. Miz challenge Singletary violation. Ball moved the net, but did she attack a ball on Miz side? Challenge denied. 24-23. Still Miz set point. Kahahawai kill knots it at 24. Great power through the block.

Really long rally with a few jousts at the net ending with Singletary winning the last joust. 23-2o, Miz bad set. 23-21. Singletary/Wenaas block. 23-22. Timeout Misery.

Skinner just got aced. This is getting really obvious. Miz hit long after Skinner made another poor pass returning the serve. 21-19 Miz. Skinner hit just wide. Miz off block. 23-19 Miz.

Miz off speed off block. 18-17 Misery. Miz hit Texas freeball into the net. 18 all. Miz kill middle. No points on Halter serve. 19-18 Miz. Skinner can't return another serve. Her back row play has been terrible this match. 20-18 miz.

No challenge. Off Miz player after the block. Miz kill 16-15 Miz. Kahahawai heating up. Off block. 16 all. Miz middle kill caught Halter high. She's ok, but Miz point. 17-16 Miz. Wenaas kill off block. 17 all.

Miz middle kill. 14-13. Texas challenging a net violation. No violation. Texas out of challenges this set. Net violation on Texas. 14 all. Skinner with another poor return. Miz kill. 15-14 Miz. Texas block. 15 all. I thought landed out. Miz challenge.

Ruled touch. 9-7. Rutherford gets revenge with a kill. 10-7. Miz on slide. 10-8. Miz kill. 10-9. Skinner with a nuke from a halter bump set. 11-9. Miz kill down line. 11-10. Rutherford creamed one. 12-10. She's hitting .588. But her 3rd serving error makes it 12-11. Singletary hits wide. 12 all. Kahahawai kills it cross court strongside. 13-12 Texas. Miz hit long. 14-12.

Miz dinks finds middle. 7-5. Wenaas with great cross court falling inside the spike line. 8-5. Skinner dig hit the rafters. 8-6. kahahawai kills one opposite. 9-6. Miz hit wide. 10-6. Miz challenge touch.

Kahahawai goes off block. 7-4. timeout Misery.

We hit .476 in the third set. Amazing what picking up the opponent's serve can do. Skinner sailed one. 1-0 Misery. Serve error. 1-1. Miz hit long. 2-1. Miz challenging touch. Halter serving. Rutherford called for a touch. 2-1 Miz. Skinner kill after a long rally after she miss hit another serve return. 2 all. Rutherford serve into net. 3-2 Miz. Texas block goes out. 4-2. Singletary kill middle. 4-3. I still wonder why we don't use her more. Singletary/Wenaas block. 4 all. Ball crossed net about a dozen times before Singletary killed an overpass. 5-4 Texas. Skinner ace. 6-4.

Miz can't stop Rutherford. She's hitting .571, but she has just 14 swings.

Obviously in. Bad line judge. 23-17. Wenaas kill. 7 set points for Texas. Only took one. Kill by Rutherford off block. 25-17.