■■■■■■
The Battalion
Thursday
October 12, 1995
Lady Aggies lose in close match Aggie crowd noise deafening
J oc:? for tough Lady Longhorns
□ The Lady Aggies lose to the
University of Texas, 6-15, 15-8,
9-15, 15-8 and 15-10.
By Tom Day
The Battalion
The atmosphere was just right Wednes
day night in G. Rollie White Coliseum.
The crowd was rocking, the cameras were
rolling and the University of Texas was
paying a visit. But the Lady Aggie volley
ball team wasn’t quite up to the chal
lenge, as the Longhorns won the heart
breaking match 6-15, 15-6, 9-15, 15-8 and
15-10.
A&M Head Coach Laurie Corbelli said
the Aggies’ inconsistent outside hitting ul
timately cost the team in the hard-fought
five game match.
“We had more mental problems than
physical problems,” Corbelli said. “There
was no stopping our middle attack, but we
went outside too often when our passes
were off and our outside hitters struggled.
“I think we were intimidated by the
size of Texas’ blockers.”
Entering the match, riding a ten game
winning streak, A&M (12-2 and 4-1 in the
SWC) played up to its capabilities in the
first game. The Aggies ran off eight
straight points with a series of kills that
energized the crowd and had the Long
horns on their heels.
“In the first game, we were fired up and
poised to beat them,” Corbelli said. “After
we got that under our belt, we took a deep
breath and got started again and lost our
momentum. After that, it was hard to fig
ure out how to get back into it.”
Texas (10-4, 5-0 SWC), took complete
advantage of A&M’s wavering intensity in
the next game, firing back to even the
match at a game apiece.
“They served us deep and we didn’t ad
just very well to that,” A&M setter Suzy
Wente said. “We got caught up trying to
get our passing going and that threw our
offense off.”
Receiving a jump start from freshman
outside hitter Stacy Sykora in the third
game, A&M came back strong to tem
porarily reclaim the lead. The freshman’s
intense play and three kills helped to re
tire u '
Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion
Outside hitter Andrea Williams digs the ball as #1 4 Dana Santleben and #4 Page White look on
during the game against the University of Texas last night at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
light a
under the Aggies and get the
crowd back into the game.
“I loved (the crowd noise) and it was
great being out there,” Sykora said. “It
was tougher communicating with the set
ter, but it was just like a regular game.”
Just like before, however, the experi
enced Longhorns were able to shift the
match’s momentum back in their favor.
After winning the fourth game and tying
the contest back up, Texas was in position
to take the match.
“(A&M) socked it to us early,” Texas
Head Coach Mick Haley said. “But we
changed the tempo of the game a little bit,
bought time and got in a rhythm.
“It was a pretty good battle. A&M al
ways leaves it out on the floor.”
The Aggies were paced by Kristie
Smedsrud’s 16 kills while Cindy Vander-
Woude and Page White finished with 15
and 14 kills respectively. Wente con
tributed 59 assists to the Aggies’ cause.
“Texas plays very consistent and
steady and has a great team,” Corbelli
said. “But tonight, I don’t feel they were
as big a factor in our loss as we were.
There was a question mark in our minds
and I don’t think we made an all-out ef
fort.
“Our thinking on the court was not as
sharp as it has been lately.”
Corbelli said despite the Aggies’ disap
pointing effort, she still has complete
faith in the team.
“We had a great opportunity to win,
but we handed it over to Texas,” Corbelli
said. “We know we could have won the
match. I’m disappointed about tonight,
but I’m definitely not disappointed with
this team.
“I think we’re a fantastic team.”
The Lady Aggies return to action Fri
day night against Baylor at G. Rollie
White Coliseum at 7 p.m.
□ Freshman Sykora led
the enthusiasm of the
crowd at G. Rollie.
By Nick Georgandis
The Battalion
To hear University of Texas
Head Volleyball Coach Mick
Haley tell it, the Texas A&M
crowd made quite a difference
Wednesday night.
Unfortunately for the Lady
Aggie Volleyball Team, it was
not quite enough.
“I think our freshman were
startled,” Haley said. “They did
a nice job in the first game, and
we never got into a rhythm.
Our freshmen got baptized
tonight, didn’t they?”
A season-high crowd of 2,136
showed up at G. Rollie White
Coliseum to root on the 19th-
ranked Lady Aggies try to snap
a three-game regular season
slide against the Lady Long
horns.
But it was not only the Lady
Longhorn freshmen who were
playing their first game in a
raucous G. Rollie White Colise
um. A&M freshman outside hit
ter Stacy Sykora played exten
sively in three of the five
games, and said she noticed a
definite difference because of
the crowd.
“It was a great crowd, and I
loved it out there,” Sykora said.
“But we couldn’t here very well
and it was very hard to commu
nicate with the setter.”
Sykora’s emotions showed at
both ends of the spectrum dur
ing the game. Rapidly becoming
a crowd favorite along the lines
of Lady Aggie basketball player
Bambi Ferguson for her hustle
and verbal expressions, Sykora
frustrated the Lady Longhorns
several times with her unnerv
ing jump serve.
She also bumped bodies with
several of her teammates how
ever, ending up with six errors
and a -.133 hitting percentage.
In that first game, A&M lim
ited UT to a -0.81 hitting per
centage while taking a 15-6 vic
tory. As the Lady Aggies
poured on the points, including
eight straight at one point to
expand a 4-3 lead to 12-3, the
crowd became louder and loud
er, making it difficult for play
ers on both teams to hear each
other.
“We always know coming in
here how loud the crowd’s going
to be,” UT senior setter Carrie
Busch said. “It’s beginning to
sink in that this is my last time
playing here. It’s always been
fun here playing with such
great fans and such a high level
of intensity.”
Although the Lady Aggies
were able to convert the
crowd’s energy into a dominat
ing attack in Game One, the
Lady Longhorns were able to
adjust and throw A&M’s strate
gy off in later games.
“The noise level actually
started helping us,” UT fresh
man outside hitter Demetria
Sance said. “It made us see how
much they wanted this game,
and made us want it that much
more.”
Although the Lady Long- '
horns heavy outside hitters
were finally able to pound A&M
into submission by the end of
the five-game, two-hour, five-
minute game, Haley said he
sees an increase in A&M’s
home attendance and win total.
“I’m sorry everyone didn’t
want to come to this game,”
Haley said. “We played hard,
they played hard and the fans
rooted hard. When you have
fans that come out and root for
you like this, you know you’ll
be back and they’ll be back.
There ought to be three or four
thousand people out to see this
team next time.”
Aggie soccer blows out Lady Longhorns, 6-0
□ The Aggi es shutout
their second South
west Conference op
ponent in a row.
Staff and Wire Reports
The No. 13 Texas A&M
Soccer Team scored three
goals in a seven-minute span
in the first half and cruised
past the University of Texas
6-0 Wednesday in Austin.
The Aggies outshot the
Longhorns 17-4 in the first
half while moving to 10-3-0 on
the year with a 3-0-0 in the
Southwest Conference.
Junior forward Yvette Ok-
ler opened the scoring at the
11:09 mark as she capitalized
on a 2-on-l breakout.
Forward Kristen Koop took
a clearing pass from defencer
Emily Elias and Koop and Ok-
ler took midfield advantage of
the long-distance break.
Senior midfielder Corie
Hammers followed with an
other goal at 12:32.
Finally, Diana Rowe capped
off the scoring outburst as she
and Koop combined to make it
3-0 at the 17:35 mark.
Sophomore Bryn Blalack fin
ished off the first-half scoring
at 30:09 as she took a corner
pass from Jaime Csizmadia.
The four goals by A&M in
the first half and the six over
all were the most goals Texas
has allowed in the past two
years. The loss dropped the
Longhorns to 4-10-0 overall
and 1-2-0- in the conference.
“The score did not indicate
the toughness of the match,”
Aggie Head Coach G. Guerri-
eri said. “Except for the last
two goals, they made
everything we got.”
Unlike ■■■■■■
the rapid-
fire first
half, the
second half
was a
scoreless
battle until
the 81:04
mark when
Csizmadia
converted a
penalty
kick for the Aggies.
Freshman Nicole Shook
us earn closed out the scoring for the
match with a shot form nine
yards out at
the 89:10
mark.
“Physical
ly, they were
much
stronger and
mentally
they were
much
stronger,”
Texas Head
Coach Dang
Pibulvech said. “The lack of pos
"The score did
not indicate
the toughness
of the game."
— G. Guerrieri
AdrM Head Coach
session early on in the game
caused us to fall back on our
heels. We didn’t do anything
right in the first half, and every
thing clicked for them.
The Aggies outshot Texas
29-10 in the match. A&M ju
nior keeper Sunny McConnell
registered three saves in post
ing her third shutout of the
season.
The Aggies will take a non
conference break this week
end, travelling to Fairfax, Va.
to compete in the George Ma
son / Lazera Invitational with
Maryland and George Mason.
The tradition continues with the 1995 12th Man team
□ The 12th Man team
has made three tack
les this season.
By Kristina Buffin
The Battalion
They meet every Thurs
day night at Wings ‘N’ More
to talk and just hang out.
The Texas A&M 12th Man
Kick-Off Team is comprised
of eight enthusiastic walk-on
players, whose job is to carry
on the tradition of the origi
nal 12th man, E. King Gill.
In 1922, A&M was play
ing Centre College. Head
Coach Dana X. Bible and his
Aggies were ahead.
However, many injuries
forced Bible to call a student
down from the press box to
take an injured players
place. This man was Gill.
Despite the fact that Gill did
not play, it began a famous
tradition.
“The 12th men have some
thing in common,” senior
Thomas Little said. “We
know who got the call that
week, and we go to honor
that man whose turn it is.
This has brought us closer
together.”
One player is chosen for
each game to cover on kick
offs. Because only 65 players
can travel with the team for
road games, and there are
usually more than 65 schol
arship players, only one of
the 12th man is picked to
play in each g^me.
“We try to spread it
around the eight guys,” Spe
cial Teams Coach Shawn
Slocum said. “Going back,
Jackie (Sherill) had about 20
guys. He had the cover team
consist of all 12th men.
“We just use one guy (per
game) for one reason. We
have to have consistency
with the road teams.”
The primary reason that
these players play on the
12th Man team is because of
the tradition that it holds.
The pure
prestige
and the
support of
the student
body is the
gratifica
tion that
each athlete
receives.
“At the
Colorado
game it was
amazing,” junior Jeff Rogers
said. “Some people were ner
vous but I was so excited
and anxious. Just talking
about it hypes me out. I was
so anxious and ready to go
after I looked at the crowd. I
represent them. It has to be
even better playing at Kyle
Field.”
Most of the members
started off as walk-ons but
then moved to the 12th Man
team. Rogers said that the
benefits of being recognized
as a 12th man are greater
than simply being a walk-on.
“I love being a walk-on be
cause the faces of the crowd
light up when the 12th man
takes the field,” Rogers said.
“I feel that everyone is be
hind me. Being a walk-on is
like ‘Oh great’ but everyone
adores the 12th man. It is a
great honor to be able to do
something that everyone
else wants to do. I remember
that when I run down the
field.”
Little played football in
high
"The scholar
ship players
have a lot of
respect for
them."
— Shawn Slocum
Special teams coach
school in
Kilgore
and de
cided to
try out
for the
team
when he
was sit
ting in
the
stands
as a freshman.
“What happens to most
people is that they are sit
ting in the stands and think
ing that it could be them on
the field,” Little said. “It was
the first time in five years
that I had not played foot
ball. I really did not think I
was good enough and I
thought that I didn’t have a
chance hell. I tried out be
cause I thought that the
worst thing that could hap
pen was that my feelings
would be hurt for a day if I
didn’t make it. It would not
mean that I was a bad play
er."
This season Little has two
unassisted tackles. Both
came in the game against
Louisiana State University.
“Personally,my first feel
ing is ‘Oh Lord, don’t let me
be the one to miss a coverage
or to be the one that messes
up.’” Little said. “Getting a
tackle is a great feeling,
you’re not thinking about
anything else.”
In addition to covering
kick-offs, the team also prac
tices as the scout team dur
ing practice.
“There is quite a bit of co
hesiveness on the team,”
Slocum said. “The scholar
ship players have a lot of re
spect for them.
“There help in practice I
and we need them to come
out on the scout teams. ^
There is a mutual respect |
there.”
This is Little’s last year
on the team because he is
graduating in August. After ■
being on the 12th man team f
for three years, Little wants
to make this a special year.
“This last year is special
for me,” Little said. “Having
a sellout crowd and great
fans when they’re yelling is
just really something. It is a
great feeling to bring 75,000
people to their feet.”
Tim Moog, The Battalion
Members of the 12th Man Team (from left to right), Thomas Little, Jeff Rogers, Ben
Puig. Caret Carey, Shawn Reynolds, lames Muniz and Kip Ann 1 ’in front of
the first 12th Man, E. King Gill.