Rice Tournament Champions

Thanks to Russ Ross for capturing the excitement of our weekend.

It is amazing how one day can totally change your mood.  The coaching staff sat in the lobby on Friday night after our 5 set loss  to UTSA wondering where did we go wrong, what could we have done, do we switch from our 6-2 to a 5-1, what subs could we have put in.  It was one of those conversations where everyone knew there was no easy answer and hindsight is 20-20, but that's what coaches do, we run through the whole game and figure out what we could have changed to make it better.

One of our goals for the Saturday was to get our SWAG back.  This word means alot to our players and it is the feeling that no one in the gym can stop them and they are all focused and the intangibles are at the highest level.  That was our goal on Saturday, the girls to bring the SWAG and let the coaches bring the X's and O's.

The girls brought their SWAG and much more on Saturday.  Our leaders stepped up and became go-to players and we could see the fire in their eyes.  We went on to sweep Texas Tech in 3, about 12 hours after we were sitting in the lobby discussing the in's and out's of our loss to UTSA.  Then 7 hours later, we were serving the first ball for the championship.  With a win against Rice in 3 or 4, we were tournament champions, with a win in 5, it was going to go to points and set records, a place we didn't want to go.  With a loss, we finished the tournament a very disappointing 1-2.

The girls answered the call and we swept a very tough Rice team.  Rice has a very quick transition attack with their middles and we challenged our middle blockers to find them fast and take away their easy shot and we did just that.  We challenged Allegra Wells to block their best attacker (AVCA All-American) and the first 2 of her swings, Allegra put up a huge block and the tone was set.

Coach Getzin continues to preach to this team, how hard winning is.  He always tells them anyone can lose, but only some teams win.  Morgan Springer told us this really sank in this weekend, she stated the Rice match was one of the hardest matches she ever played in, it was a higher level of focus and determination.  To her, winning was really, really hard, but also very fun!

What a great weekend for the Ole Miss Rebels.  We overcame obstacles, re-evaluated our goals, and watched our go-to players become leaders!  So proud of all 14 of our players for this weekend! 

As Bill and I sat there Saturday night looking at Joe, thinking about our Friday night conversations, we all laughed.  Head coaches always know best, he stayed calm in our adversity of our loss and stuck to his guns of keeping our rotations the same and knowing our team can come back and win.  That's why he is the head coach!