Wednesday, November 18, 1987/The Battalion/Page 7
Sports
Whilwell to play final home match
Sherrill considers TCU
Texas game signals close of volleyball career tougher than Hogs
alli
By Anthony Wilson
Sports Writer
When Texas A&M senior outside
attacker Michelle Whitwell takes the
floor against the University of Texas
’■tonight, it will be her last hurrah as
an athlete.
Whitwell, the lone senior for the
A&M volleyball team, will be playing
jin her last home game at G. Rollie
White Coliseum at 7:30, and she re-
ires how much she’ll miss it when
it's over.
“I think I’m just like any other se
nior who comes to their last home
rame here,” Whitwell said. “Aggie
ans are so much fun to play for. It’s
nice to play somewhere where you
don’t lose. You just get outscored. I
J think I’ll really, really miss that and
people like the Bleacher Bums who
always come to watch your games
and always make you feel special.
"And I think after this game when
I wear my sweats to class in the
spring semester and people ask me if
1m on the volleyball team and I’ll
have to say, ‘Well, I was,’ then that’s
going to give me an empty feeling.”
f This season has been a bittersweet
one for Whitwell and the Lady Ag-
as| gies. The team had high expecta
tions for itself, but lost all five of its
ui games in the first half of the South
-west Conference season. However,
^ince then the team has won its last
four matches and six of the last
bǤ seven to improve their record at 15-
p.
“It feels so successful at this mo-
rf ment that it’s hard to look back at the
disappointment,” Whitwell said.
"We’ve tried so hard to put it behind
us.”
Before the season, Head Coach A1
Givens had each member of the
mi team write down her team and per-
ta sonal goals. Whitwell, who said she
has a tendency to set extremely high
goals for herself, said that she
wanted to win the SWC
championship and lead the team in
. The team is 4-5 in conference
digs.
play and Whitwell is
team in digs with 188.
fifth on the
Whitwell is also fifth on the team
in games played, with 96, and kills,
with 148. She leads the team with
four others in matches played. Her
.220 hitting percentage is third on
the team and her 23 service aces are
fourth.
“Needless to say a lot of my goals
weren’t reached,” she said. “Of
course, it’s disappointing. I always
set really high expectations for my
self, both personal-wise and team
wise. Some of those have fallen short
this year but there’s a lot of others
we have reached.”
One of those goals was set after
the first half of the SWC when the
team decided it didn’t want to lose to
the same team twice.
“We made a goal earlier this year
that no one was going to beat us twi
ce,” Whitwell said. “So far we’ve
lived up to that. We just have one
more team to make it come true.”
That team is Texas, A&M’s tough
est conference foe, ranked seventh
in the nation. The lowest points of
Whitwell’s career have been the
home losses to Texas, she said. A&M
has yet to beat Texas in Whitwell’s
previous three years.
“The lowest point would have to
be the years and years we’ve lost to
Texas here,” she said. “And we al
ways have the feeling that there’s no
one who can beat us at home if we’re
playing well and we have our fans
here. That’s one of our philosophies.
“And it’s really true. 1 feel like
we’re always given enough edge (at
home). And if we play to the best of
our ability, which is always close to
our competition, then we can win.
“There are so many five-game
matches and 15-13 losses that we
should have gotten over the hill.
And it always hurts so bad. Because
everybody’s there for the Texas
game. It’s a hump that we’ve never
been able to get over. We just can’t
seem to beat them.”
To get over that hump, the team
is taking a different approach men
tally for tonight’s game. The team is
trying to relax and have fun rather
than getting uptight, Whitwell said.
Photo by Jay Janner
Texas A&M’s Michelle Whitwell attempts to return a volley from
the Oral Roberts volleyball team at the Texas Aggie Classic held
earlier in the year here at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
By Hal L. Hammons
Assistant Sports Editor
Texas A&M’s effort against
Arkansas was impressive, but
Texas Christian will be a bigger
test for the Aggies, A&M Head
Coach Jackie Sherrill said at his
weekly press conference at Cain
Hall Tuesday.
“I’d rather play Arkansas than
TCU,” Sherrill said.
He said the “drastic im
provement in their defense” was
the reason this year’s Horned
Frog team is better than the
teams A&M destroyed 74-10 last
year and 53-6 the year before. He
called TCU “without a doubt the
best 5-5 team in the country.”
“It’s not like they haven’t
played anyone,” Sherrill said.
“They’ve played some good foot
ball teams.”
He noted that earlier this year
TCU easily defeated Brigham
Young, which in turn handled
Texas with little difficulty.
He said Frog halfback Tony
Jeffery, along with Texas’ Eric
Metcalf “are without a doubt the
best offensive players in the con
ference. They’re as good as any
body in the country.”
He said the most underrated
player on the team was the
Horned Frog quarterback, David
Rascoe.
“Regardless of what you’ve
seen, (Rascoe) is the one making
things happen,” Sherrill said.
He said A&M would not look
past TCU to the Thanksgiving
Day showdown with Texas, even
though the Aggies would go to
the Cotton Bowl with a victory
over the Longhorns, regardless
of Saturday’s outcome.
“If you look at it that way,
you’re not going to do anything
against TCU,” he said. He said it
would be very difficult to play
poorly against the Frogs and
come back with a strong effort
against UT.
The quarterback situation does
not seem to have changed drasti
cally, despite Craig Stump’s
strong showing off the bench in
the Arkansas victory.
“Bucky (Richardson) will
start,” Sherrill said, “but don’t
hold me to that. It depends on
what happens this week (in prac
tice).”
Sherrill lauded the defensive
effort against Arkansas, partic
ularly the efforts of linebacker
John Roper and safety Kip Cor-
rington. Both players are being
touted for All-America honors by
Texas A&M.
“Roper was as good on film as
he was in person,” Sherrill said. “I
don’t know if there’s a better
(linebacker) playing in the coun
try than John Roper.”
“We’re going out on the offensi
ve,” she said. “They have to stop us.
We’re not changing our strategy just
because we’re playing Texas.
“We’re going in with a real free-
spirited attitude. We have nothing to
lose. They’re the ones with all the
E ressure on their shoulders. We’ve
ind of taken on what we like to call
the spoiler position. We’ve definitely
done that. We’ve changed some peo
ple’s outlooks just by beating every-
body in the second round.”
Before the season, Whitwell was
named to the GTE Southwest Con
ference Academic Honor Team.
Whitwell, who has a 3.47 grade-
point-ratio in English, was A&M’s
representative on the Southwest
Conference Volleyball Academic
Honor Team in 1986 and 1987.
A&M’s academic opportunities
and the influence of her brother and
sister, who both attended A&M,
swayed Whitwell enough to reject
volleyball scholarship offers from
See Whitwell, page 9
A&M- Texa$$fudent tickets
to do on sate Thursctov
Distribution of tickets for die Nov. : • The Athletic Ticket Office will be
26 Thanksgiving Day dash between open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4
Texas A&? * 1 ^ ““ ^ ■■■*- ^ ^
Thursday for graduate students add
seniors.
Juniors can pick up tickets Friday,
sophomores can Monday of next
The 7 p.m. game at Kyle Field, to
be broadcast nationally by ESPN for
the fourth year in a row, will dedde
which team represents the South-
week, and freshmen can get theirs west Conference on Jan. 1 in the
Tuesday. _ =: 3 ~
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TM ' -
One Day Only!!
Thursday, December it, 1987
Special Honrs: 8 AM - 6 1*M
Memorial St mien I Center
■loom 226
The Micro Computer Center is having a Truckload Sale sponsored by Apple™
Computer. Outstanding values on Mac Pluses, Mac SE’s, and Mac IPs. Delivery on
Thursday, December 3^. Get a computer for Christmas! Remind your parents about
the sale, orders accepted now through December S^. Departmental orders may be
filled at the Truckload Sale.
M302S Macintosh Plus Bundle
M2513/A Macintosh Plus $1,298.00
AarQ5&9 ImageWriter n Printer 466.00
Normally $1,764.00
Truckload Sale Price §1,625.00
MicroComputerCenter
ComputerSaJes and Supplies
Hours: 10 AM — 6 PM Mon - Fri
1S3E Memorial Student Center
(409) 845-4081
M302S Macintosh SB 2F Bundle
M5084/A Macintosh SE 2F $1,905.00
A9P0529 ImageWriter II Printer 466.QO
Normally $2,371.00
Truckload Sale Price §2,190.00
M3025 Macintosh SE HD Bundle
M5083/A Macintosh SE HD $2,429.00
A9PQ529 ImageWriter II Printer 466.00
Normally $2,895.00
Truckload Sale Price §2,675.00
SuperPaint bundled with Mac
$50.00
The Bryan Rotary Club
presents the
Texas A&M University
SYMPHONIC BAND
j
IN
CONCERT
Thursday, November 19, 1987 8:00 P.M.
Rudder Auditorium TAMU Campus
ALL STUDENTS
$3.00
A
ADULTS
$5.00
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM ROTARY CLUB MEMBERS
AND AT RUDDER BOX OFFICE
Call Battalion Classified
845-2611
D
□ □
NOV. 16-20
“Cheating lessens the value of
everyone's degree. ”
Student QoueAsunent, Acadenuo Gomnuitee