"At the Net" - with Shay Gracy

This past weekend we hosted our second straight tournament and things still did not go as planned. We went 2-2 this weekend!! Don’t get me wrong, it was a great feeling to win two matches this weekend, but the disappointment was still there with the two losses. This weekend was an overall rough weekend for me. I was battling a sickness and then an unexpected injury. I was very grateful to make it through our four matches this weekend.

In the first match we played UTPB. They are a very scrappy team. They are so scrappy that there are times we think the ball is down and somehow they seem to send it right back over the net. We had our moments where we played well, but the bad moments outweighed the good. After a long chat with the coaches after the game, the team decided to come out ready to play against OPSU.

We played a lot better against OPSU. It was actually fun out on the court. We were working hard and TOGETHER, which made great things happen. When we can get all six cylinders going in a game we are unstoppable and play like the team that we can. The challenge is, how do we get all six cylinders running at the same time - at every game?

The third match we played Incarnate Word. This team has always been tough competition for us. They are a strong defensive team and we just couldn’t seem to put the ball in spots where they weren’t. At the beginning of the game we came out strong and it was a close match, but once we got to point 15 we couldn’t hang on and they would pull away. This was another game where we would have hints of all six cylinders running, but it was never consistant.

The fourth and final match was against Texas A&M International. We played good against this team. After losing to Incarnate Word we came back ready to play. Rachel Wolf played a great game offensively and had a huge impact on the outcome of the game. Like I have said previously, if we can get everyone going we are unstoppable.

We start conference play this week, so this week is a HUGE week for us!! This is when we need to put all of the preseason behind us and play like we know how too. We have played extremely tough teams this year as you can see with our record numbers. I can’t complain about our record because we did that to ourselves and we cannot dwell on that anymore. Its serious business now, this is what counts!!! We are going to work hard all week to get prepared for our first two conference matches! The great thing about this week is that we are playing both matches at home.

Starting today is our road to the conference tournament. We practice hard, we play hard, we will get rewarded. We, the Tarleton Texanns, are due for a great conference season after all the tough situations that we have been put through in non-conference play!!!

I invite all students and fans to come out and watch us play on Thursday at 7 p.m. against Texas Woman's, and on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Texas A&M Commerce.

Thanks again for all the support!! We play for you and appreciate all of it!!!! Thank you!!!


Bleed Purple!!

Shay