Win vs Sac!

Well, we pulled out another win! Sac State made some great adjustments after the second game to take the third, but we came out in the fourth to take the match. Overall it was a pretty solid match for us. We did a great job adjusting to them this time, which is something that we have been struggling with over the last couple of weeks. Making those changes during time-outs is often difficult for our athletes, but not last weekend. We did a great job and it showed.

We are now headed to Ogden UT, and Pocatello ID, to play Weber and Idaho State. One of the best things about this trip...Lee's Mongolian BBQ. Lee's is a hole-in-the-wall place that our former assistant coach Paul Richardson found one year. It is awesome.

Besides the food, it looks to be a great weekend of competition. Idaho State has been playing well and has been beating some solid teams. We beat them the first time in four, but they are improving every time they touch the floor. I have a feeling a battle is going to be taking place when we are in their gym. We have never swept Weber during the season since we have joined the Big Sky. They have great athletes...and they have a habit of getting very hot when they play us. If we can get them down, we will have a great shot at beating them...if we don't get them down, it is going to be another battle.

Very important weekend for the Bears. Keep an eye out for another update!

Adventure at Air Force

Yesterday turned into quite a little adventure. We left our campus at 1:00 to head down to Colorado Springs for the match against Air Force. The weather here was already a bit shady, and the weather south of Denver usually proves to be worse. Yesterday was not the exception. We ran into snow. Thank goodness we had a stud bus driver. Also on the way down, we ended up breaking down for about 45 minutes. It made us a bit late and cut our pre-game practice short, but at least we got to hang out and watch a movie while we were sitting on the side of the road. "The Proposal" was the movie of choice. Romantic comedies tend to be the style of movie we watch...joy.

The match went well. We ended up beating Air Force in three and we had the opportunity to get most of our athletes onto the floor. Our "second" teammers did a great job when they went in. We didn't miss a beat. Really happy with their play.

We are now preparing for Sacramento State. The coaches are watching a bunch of film to get the athletes ready. At this point in the season, every match is very important. We have had some great success against Sac State the past couple of years, but they have beaten some solid teams this year. We will be ready for whatever they bring.

Split, but still first

After a great match against Portland State on last Thursday, we lost a tough one to Eastern Washington. All three teams came into the weekend 5-1, and all three teams leave the weekend 6-2. The first half of conference play is over and the Big Sky conference is as muddy as ever.

Our next Big Sky match is this coming Saturday against Sacramento State. We went to their place a little over a month ago and beat them in three. They have since played some great matches and challenged the top teams in the conference. We have matched up well against Sac State the past couple of years and we are hoping to carry that through the weekend.

Before that match, we are actually playing Air Force tomorrow night (wed). We are headed down to beautiful Colorado Springs for a match against another Colorado team. We hope to pull a good win out to prepare us for the weekend, but you never know what Air Force has up their sleeve...

Muran

The word "Muran" is our newest theme that has become our focus for the next couple of weeks. This is a big weekend for the Bears and we used this video to motivate our athletes.

Muran is an African word that means bravery, courage, cunning, warrior.

Trouble in Missoula...

We just got back from another emotional weekend. If you checked our scores you will know that we won a crazy match against Montana State on Friday night in five, then turned around and lost to Montana in four. For some reason, we always get very emotionally charged in Montana's gym and I think that we played like it...worried. Not to take anything away from Montana, they played very well to take the match.

Yesterday turned out to be a pain! We were supposed to fly out of Missoula around 6:45am. No fun in itself, but our flight got cancelled. After a lot of scrambling with United, they decided to put us on a bus and send us to Helena, MT. The 2 1/2 hour drive was incredibly beautiful but cold. Once we got into the airport (which was tiny), we had to wait almost three hours before our flight left. Again, no big deal, except that there was only one place to eat in the airport....Captain Jake's. Most of us decided to wait to get back to DIA to get food.

All in all it was a crazy weekend. It could have been worse. One great thing about our kids is that they handle adversity well. They just rolled right along and didn't complain.

This weekend will be the real tell on how we are doing so far this year.... #1 and #2 from Conference are going to be knocking on our door. Let's hope our girls take advantage of home court.

Snow in Bozeman....

We are now in our hotel rooms in Bozeman, Montana. The snow started last night and it has been fairly steady since then. There seems to only be two or so inches on the ground...but last time I checked it is still early OCTOBER! Yes, we get snow in Colorado...but not like this in OCTOBER. We have already had a couple of the requisite snow ball fights, but I am looking forward to what the day holds for us.

Life on the road is actually pretty nice most of the time. We have breakfast at about 8:45, then we will leave the hotel for a pre-game practice around 10:30. Then, we are back at the hotel for study hall from 12:30 to 2. Study hall is great because we can actually have an hour and half to get some work done! After that, we will head to our pre-game meal around 3:30, then off to the gym around 5 for our pre-game routine. It ends up being a nice combination of stuff to do and time to relax in the room.

Tomorrow we will be headed to Missoula which is about 200 miles away. We will be driving it and we are hoping that the roads will be cleared. We usually have mini vans, but this time they put us in two Suburbans and a Toyota Sequoia. All of them are nice but one of the Suburbans (the one I am driving) is only a 2 wheel-drive, so that may be fun.

4-0

Yep... 4-0. This has been the best start the Bears have had since joining the Big Sky conference. We played Northern Arizona last Saturday night. What was supposed to be a bit of a lopsided match (they have several injuries), turned out to be a battle to the finish. NAU played their hearts out. Fortunately, we had enough to fight off their attack to come out with a 3-1 win.

The travel this weekend was great. It worked out that we could travel with the football team. We flew right into Flagstaff, and they we drove all of fifteen minutes to our hotel room. After the match, we hopped back in the vans, and drove back to the airport. So nice getting home the same night as the match!

We are now preparing for our next matches. We travel to the Montana Schools. Montana State on Friday night, then Montana on Saturday. Montana State hasn't won a conference match in three years, but they can be dangerous. They took both Weber and Idaho state to five sets..., and they have some athletes...we will see. Montana on the road is always very tough. We have yet to win a match in their gym, so hopefully this will be the year. Word has it they have a couple of tricks up their sleeve. Should be another great match.

I am waiting on some pictures from the last trip...when I get them...so will you.

Headed to Flagstaff...

So close...we had CSU, a perennially ranked team in a game to two points....but we came up a bit short. Two years ago CSU beat us up, last year, we took one game off them. This year, we were with them every point. It was a great match for the Bears, but we unfortunately couldn't finish. We are definitely proud of the girls though.

We are headed to Flagstaff in a couple of hours to face off against Northern Arizona. NAU is always a very scrappy team that just stays in the match. They can be very dangerous if we aren't playing well. After watching us against CSU, I think we should have a great shot at starting our Big Sky conference at 4-0.

The bonus of today's travel is that we are actually flying out with the football team. They are also playing NAU on Saturday. That means that we fly straight into Flagstaff and get to avoid the 2 1/2 hour drive from Phoenix. It also means that we get free TV on Frontier's charter flight. Whoohoo! Free TV is a deal at twice the price.