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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2000)
Index: Section B Classified/Sports 2B; Nation 3B; Opinion SB Ifcdnesday, September 6, 2000 Sports Page IB THE BATTALION Top 5 teams prep A&M for season | By Jason Lincoln lThe Battalion |c In a single weekend, the No. 18 JTexas A&M volleyball team was . kansformed into a group of veterans Ijvho have faced the best and walked nway with dignity intact. In their Miening three matches of the season, ||ht' Aggies faced the No. 1 andLNo. 5 lieams in the nation. Despite losing to both No. 1 IJjCLA and No. 5 Hawaii, A&M ■pie away from the Hawaiian Air- iJines Volleyball Classic with a better ense of its capabilities on the court I even more confidence about the incoming season. "It gives us the upper hand on our [Opponents." said senior middle blocker Heather Marshall. "We know [idhat that [the No. 1 team in the na- pon] looks like now. We are all a lot pore comfortable knowing that if t’s the No. 1 team in the nation, we ^hould be a Top 10 team as well.” The Aggies, who concluded last Reason in Hawaii as part of the elite pht of the NCAA tournament, roened a season in the same location p an effort to repeat that success. ^ A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said (laying against two top teams helped fie team's chemistry. “The tournament was important because it allowed the players to get fn the same page and start to get in irhythm with each other," Corbelli kid. “It’s certainly not where we tant to be yet, but this team has a pt of potential.” Now A&M has the rest of the sea- fon to build toward playing the top earn in the nation in the final game if the season. Aggies host Houston Cougars in home opener Volleyball team looks to build on No. 18 ranking By Brf.f. Holz The Battalion The Texas A&M volleyball team will play in G. Rollie White Coliseum for the first time this sea son when it takes on the Universi ty of Houston tonight at 7. The 18th-ranked Aggies recent ly returned from a long road trip to Hawaii where they faced No. 1 UCLA, No. 5 University of Hawaii, and the University of Iowa. A&M was victorious over Iowa, 3-0, but fell to UCLA and Hawaii, 3-1. The University of Houston holds a 2-0 record so far this sea son. They defeated the University of Texas-Arlington twice over the weekend. The Cougars finished 1999 with a 2-11 record and a trip to the NCAA tournament. Howev er, the Cougars were defeated by the University of Texas in the first round of play. A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said it will not be difficult to pre pare for the Cougars after facing two of the top teams in the nation over the weekend. “Houston has always been in credibly competitive here and they are a team that we’ve always gotten very pumped up for,” she said. “But our focus is on our team and how we need to perform on game day.” The players are excited about translating their experience against Houston. “When we play the top teams in the nation, that’s preparation for teams like Houston,” said junior outside hitter Michelle Cole. “When you’ve been forced to play at a higher level, it just makes it that much easier to maintain that level against less-experienced teams.” Corbelli said the the team’s play in the tournament was encourag ing, but not at its best. “The two things we still need to work on are blocking and offensive power,” she said. “We need to be more of an offensive threat.” Among the areas the Aggies are looking to build on is blocking where Texas A&M brings in a new cast of starters. “We still need a lot of experi ence with our blocking,” said se nior middle blocker Heather Mar shall. “We have some young players, but as we play different teams, we’re all going to improve and learn how to adjust. “There were a lot of questions going into the tournament about how we were going to perform to gether. But I think that we came to gether really well. We accepted the challenge of the higher ranking teams, and gave them a run for their money.” Cole said the team is excited to play at G. Rollie and have the home court advantage. “It’s tough playing on the road,” she said. “We ended last season in Hawaii and began this season in Hawaii, so we’ve missed our home court and our fans. We all love this place [G. Rollie] and love playing here. Today’s game marks the start of ., A&M’s home season in which A&M will have one home match for the remainder. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Battalion Texas A&M setter Jenna Moscovic leads the Aggie volleyball team into the 2000 season. A&M hosts Houston at 7 p.m. today. A&M offense breaks trend of gridiron predictability Texas A&M football has always been pinned with the tag of “predictable.” Run ning has always been the Aggies' bread and butter. From the days of Darren Lewis to Dante Hall, A&M has lived and died on the ground. Everyone figured that trend would contin ue with a stacked backfield of fullback Ja’- Mar Toombs and running backs Joe Weber and Richard Whitaker this sea son, but then Sat urday happened. In the Aggies’ season opener against Notre Dame, the offense ran more forma tions ran nearly every formation in the book. A&M ran two, three, four and sometimes (gasp!) five wide receivers. They even threw the 265-pound Toombs out wide — feel sor ry for any cornerback who has to cover a load like that. There was that nifty little counter toss to Whitaker that gained a good hunk of yardage and who could forget the draws that moved the chains so efficiently. Alas, all that creativ ity proved for naught, as the offense was im potent in the red zones. That should change, however, as the sea son rolls on. Offensive coordinator Steve Kragthorpe said on Tuesday that the Aggies will continue to experiment this week against the Wyoming Cowboys and for the rest of the season. “You can expect to see more [formation changes] as the year goes on,” Kragthorpe said. “Something we’re very cognizant of right now is when we put different personnel packages on the field, we multiply the oppor tunities we have, and we multiply the prob lems we present to a defense.” See Unpredictable on Page 2B. youp local online auction scuoce rade.com nd the selection of an elected. Limit one pn ze value. All federal, stata stitutes permission to accepting prize, winner j out of use of prize' or redemption of any prize- be awarded as follows: (1)Fi rs I be awarded in "as is conditio 11 tird Prizes - a Lie Detector ceived by 11/6/00, to: > hri & sell °n"n£- t Aggie 0w«e«3 Sc Operated CT 0 0 TT (/> —n c —Y 2. rr C 9 n rr —Y 0 D n y> n 0 n rr 0 0“ <D </) c rr 0 3 0 d) U) <D rr n )ERS^ TEXAS AGGIE YELL LEADERS Weekend Warm-Up Friday Sept 8 3:00 - 7:00 pm Law / Puryear Field Free Food • Hot Dogs • Sausage • Drinks Much More Live Music • “Invisible Cindy” Inflatable Games Cook-Off Classic Saturday Sept 9 th 1:00 - 5:00 pm Law / Puryear Field Featuring • Roger Creager • Mark David Manders Great Aggie B.B.Q. Inflatable Games September 8 th & 9 th 2000 ATHLETICS 12§ F O U N D A T 'ujU « The Association of Former Students 'We one (Ac /fyylc 'HctcooiA A&M
