bierce

They didn't go Full Monty, so that's good. A&M middle kill. 20-19. another A&m serve error. 21-19. Kahahawai hit wide. 21-20. Skinner flubs return. 21 all. A&M serves fall in corner for back to back aces. 22-21 A&M. Timeout Texas. Kahahawai leads us with 5.5 points.

Wenaas off block. 15 all. Hellmuth off block. 16-15 agroids. Skinner dink can't clear the net. 17-15. Way too many points without Texas getting a swing. That ends with Rutherford murdering one. 17-16. Rutherford blocked. 18-16. Once again, no points on halter's serve. Hellmuth blocked. 18-17, Skinner kill after Hellmuth stopped twice and Lednicky deflected and hit saved. 18 all. Hellmuth blocked again by Kahahawai/Singletary. 19-18 UT> Kahahawai kill off touch. UT men's swim team stripping in the crowd. 20-18.

Lednicky off block on strong side. 11-10. Wenaas with a great slam falling just inside the line cross court. Great hit. 12-10. Kahahawai ace #2. 13-10. Ace # 3. 14-10. She be on a roll! Long on the next serve. 14-11. Rutherford with a mis-timing with the setter. 14-12. Free ball into the net Rutherford free balled again. A&m kill. 14-13. Ames had to dink. A&M covered and got the kill. 14 all. Three straight points without a good swing. Long rally ends with Rutherford hitting long from left side. 15-14 A&M. Really discombobulated right now.

A&M serve error. 9-7. Lednicky off the blockers. 9-8. A&M serve error. 10-8 Hellmuth kill. 10-9. A&M makes it a hat trick with serve errors. 11-9.

Wenaas served into the net. 7-5. Skinner with kill with set coming from the back row. 8-5. Halter serve error. 8-6. Lednicky kill. 8-7.

Lednicky blocked by Singletary/Wenaas. 4-2. Cos-Okpalla middle hit falls in. 4-3. ames hit it middle through block. 5-3. Kahahawai ace. 6-3. Sails next one long. 6-4. Rutherford killed one. 7-4.

Lednicky with opening kill off block out of bounds. missed dink by A&M mb. 1-1. Hellmuth netted one. 2-1 Texas. Hellmuth blocked by Kahahawai/Singletary. 3-1. Lednicky down line. 3-2.

And guess what characteristic the A&M coach shares with so many male coaches of women's volleyball? Yup, he's bald. It's just freaky.

I hoping more for a one-sided laugher of a match. But wait, that would be fun, wouldn't it?

Interesting rematch since Texas won the first match 3-1, but we were outblocked 14-5, something we pretty much never see. A&M is a very strong blocking team, 4th best in conference, but we are best in conference in conference play], more on that below. Skinner, Rutherford, and Kahahawai each had 11 kills, but Skinner had 10 hitting errors, often being targeted by Agroid blockers. We romped in the first set 25-16, but we fell behind 2-8 in the second set and never recovered in that set, hitting -.079 and losing it 14-25. We won a couple of relatively close sets to close the match. Since that conference opening match, we won 15 more straight sets including at ranked Florida and Kentucky before dropping the opening set to Georgia Sunday. A&M has since beaten #24 Auburn in Auburn, but it lost at home in straight sets to Florida and 2-3 @ unranked LSU. Their three headed block monster of Cos-Okpalla, Lednicky, and Perkins have combined for 204 blocks in 64 sets so far. By comparison, Singletary, Kahahawai, and Ames have combined for 171 in 53 sets. Cos-Okpalla is second in the conference in blocks, but of course Singletary is first. In confefrence play alone, Cos-Okpalla drops to 6th, while Singletary increases her lead over second to 2.13 to 1.59 b/set. Kahahawai is third in the conference in b/set in conference play. She is also 5th in aces and 7th in hitting percentage, a stat normally dominated by middle blockers used as secondary hitters. A&M offense is heavily weighted to Lednicky and Hellmuth, who have combined for 55% of team kills. Our top two hitters have combined for about 40% of our kills, but our offense is really spread this year among the 6 woman front of Skinner, Wenaas, Rutherford, Kahahawai, Singletary, and Ames. Each of have have at least 10% of our team kills. You don't see that on many teams.

Get back to me when he spends the off-season as an ESPN commentator and analyst and follows it up with a 5 win season.

Next match is the rematch with the Agroids Wednesday at 7 pm in Gregory.

OK, I finished watching the match and have a few comments. 1) Kahahawai is killing it right now. She led us in points for the second straight match by being third in kills. second in blocks, and serving 3 aces. Her shots from the opposite side have incredible power behind them for a righty. Over the last 8 matches, she has 69 kills with a .376 hitting percentage, which is a terrific number for an outside hitter. She's good from the opposite side going hard cross court to land it near the spike line, to the the middle of the court, or down line. She also has 37 blocks in those 8 matches. Just terrific play from her. 2) Singletary is an amazing blocker. When Singletary is lined up with Kahahawai, the lid is shut. Singletary is making blocks as a redshirt sophomore faster than O'Neal was making them last year, and as I mentioned above, Kahahawai is on a roll in all facets of the game. She is now second on the team in blocks and has had 6 or more in 4 of the last 5 matches. Georgia led the third set 20-18, when Singletary and Kahahawai scored back to back blocks in a 7 point run. Those two accounted for 5 of our last 10 points that set with blocks and kills. 3) Wenaas had a very efficient match. She got almost everything through or around blockers and finished with 11 kills to just 2 hitting errors in 26 chances. 4) Another off night for Skinner. She was in negative hitting numbers until midway through the final set and finished with 12 kills and 10 hitting errors in 31 chances. 5) Halter made several out of this world digs, including a one arm swing outside the sideline to save a ball deflected at the net by a Texas blocker. I'm pretty sure we won at least one point and averaged more than two when she was serving every time we were in that rotation after the first set. I've been waiting for us to see 5-6 point runs when she serves, because we have Singletary, Rutherford, and Skinner on the front line in that rotation, and one would tend to think that's our best offensive rotation. 6) That first set was just one of those things. A couple of lucky deflections, a couple of solid blocks by Georgia, a few bad passes, and you have an ugly run. Texas came back from it and pretty much dominated the rest of the way.

I was harvesting pecans in Llano County and setting up a polling place in Travis County today. Will try to watch a replay and comment on the match.

That Arkansas team was pretty good, even if it played under expectations in the regular season. It won 22 games and made the Sweet Sixteen, beating Kansas in the 32 round. This year's TCU team is highly unlikely to match that. But I'm happy with a 28 point win. For all we know, half the scrimmage was just screwing around with lineups.

Can't argue with a 28 point win over a P5 team, but there is a complete rebuild in Fort Worth this year, and Big 12 coaches predict a 10th place finish for TCU, so this mashing might not be as impressive as if we had done it against Dixon's last three teams.

Yes, but only because that was where she was lined up on most plays. She is proving to have a great swing, and she is our best opposite hitter who is right handed. Rutherford had an off night tonight. Kahahawai could be lethal as a strong side hitter if she is given the chances.

Devin in post-match interview -- "Mostly, I'm just proud of the team." I love her.* * In a totally non-threatening, platonic sports fan fashion.

That is now 17 straight sets and counting. Our blocking wasn't that great tonight (just 6 blocks in 3 sets), but our hitting was terrific (.340).

Devin has been on a roll recently. I was really afraid she was going to go the way of Melanie Parras, but she stayed here, has been huge in our last few matches, and will become a featured outside hitter next year after Maddie and Jenna leave. So glad to see her get a chance to shine this year.

Kahahawai kill seals it. 25-22 Texas.

Kahahawai with a block and a kill to get Texas to a 23-21 lead. She's match MVP.

Third set tied at 20. Arky timeout. Kahahawai has been huge this set while Wenaas and Skinner have struggled. Kahahawai leads Texas with 15 points.

Kahahawai is having great hitting match, but that is her 5th service error.

We always get into ruts when we forget we have mashers in the middle.