I know a lot of times I sound like the voice of gloom and doom on this board, so I wanted to take a moment to congratulate our young ladies for their excellent play against Nebraska wednesday night.

Even though it was a three game loss, looking at the stats and going by reports from people who were there, it seems as though the team really pulled together and played some great volleyball. Errors - hitting, serving, passing - have been our downfall this season, along with lack of production from more than one or two players per game. I am very proud of the team for turning it around and turning on the heat against #1 Nebraska.
Kudos to:
Kelsey Bryant 5 kills hitting .333
Kelly Stanton 7 kills hitting .455
Sarah Ammerman 13 kills hitting .226
Christi Hahn 7 kills hitting .500
Mary Batis 10 kills hitting .318

That is not easy for anyone to do against a strong serve-block system like Nebraska.

Kudos to Courtnee Rhodes for setting balls to make these numbers possible, not to mention adding two service aces.

If the TEAM that showed up Wednesday night can build on that TEAM effort in the off season, we will be back in the upper half of the conference next year.

Wann- did we bring any recruits in this year? How do they compare to Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas?

As far as I know, no signings have been announced. With so many freshman this year we do not really have room to recruit for next year.

Nebraska and Texas will both be stacked next year with players ready to start from the first match. Oklahoma's recruits are decent but not nearly at the same level and will take some time and coaching energy to develop.

from my knowledge we will have a 6'6" player coming in, unless she decided not to come, thats what i heard mid season from some people; i dont want to get anyone in trouble though...

for giving laurie corbelli one more season

Laurie has got to go. She has had plenty of time and is rapidly losing ground.

Obviously many of you here have not seen tu's recruiting class. It includes the #2 AND #3 player in the NATION. They had a very real shot at the #1 player in the NATION as well. We are farther behind than many of you realize.

Swept by lowly tech tonight.
This is the worst team (by record) ever fielded by A&M.

Uhhh....yes this season is a major disaster but calling for the head of Corbelli(sp) is about as crazy as asking BCG head for missing the NCAA Playoffs for the 1st time in almost 10 YEARS.

We had our time at the top with a few Sweet 16 and couple Elite 8 apperances. Will be back there again but it will take time. Remember we have mostly Fish and they will get better.

again, the question is, if we fire LC who are we gonna get that's better?

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again, the question is, if we fire LC who are we gonna get that's better?

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I think Byrne has shown he is capable in this department.

Oh yeah...we lost to Tech tonight btw.

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Uhhh....yes this season is a major disaster but calling for the head of Corbelli(sp) is about as crazy as asking BCG head for missing the NCAA Playoffs for the 1st time in almost 10 YEARS.

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That was funny.

BCG=LC. Not even close.

I think for some of you, the goal is just to make the NCAAs. For the rest, the goal is to win it. Those who want to win it aren't happy with the decline the past few years, and don't see our chances to even be the best in Texas improving any time soon.

LC has her name on the South cellar door. It has been a progressive, multi-year slide into oblivion. This year's team showed no development, and the number of fish preclude bringing in a lot of new talent.

BB has his finger on the trigger.

Watching this program for more than 20 years, it's been hard to watch the continued downward spiral of the volleyball program in the recent past. I think the recruiting has been mismanaged for years which is one of the reasons why we have the current problem of undersized youth on the court right now. Texas A&M Volleyball has not kept up with the times in recruiting to try to match what the other Big XII and NCAA powerhouses are doing. We are not matketing this program well enough to pursue the 6'3"+ players around the US and the outstanding players from the foreign ranks that other schools are.

Until the program changes, either in personnel or in the management thereof, the problems will not go away.

What I still don't understand is how this happened in the first place. It was obvious at the end of 2004 that something wasn't quite right, and last year was the year the warning sirens started ringing. LOUDLY.

I truly don't get it. How do you get to be an Elite Eight team and not build on that success? The Corbellis did in fact do a great job of recruiting during their first seven years here. So what happened? In 2001 did they have kids or join a weird cult or just get lazy and try to coast? Did they get left behind by the rule changes -- rally scoring, libero, let serve? Were they only able to get great recruits originally because they were both still closely associated with the USA olympic system, and now that their connections and accomplishments are twenty years old they can't recruit on their own merits? How can you not notice that the sport is changing and the conference power is changing?

Honestly, I think a little of it was getting caught up in what some Maroon Club supporters had been griping about some time ago. When the Corbelli's first came to A&M they maintained a substantial pipeline of players from the west coast. Obviously, with their ties to that area, it was natural that they kept up with that area's outstanding talent. They brought in players from the more prominent clubs from the west coast. Almost immediately following, some alumni and Maroon Club supporters started asking, "Why can't A&M get the best from Texas to come to Aggieland?" When the Corbelli's started to focus on the Texas talent, then I think the links to the west coast became weaker and weaker. I think, on their behalf, the Corbelli's have tried to consider those questions posed regarding Texas talent in their recruiting. I think this has had a significant negative impact on the program over time.

Is the talent in Texas not as strong as California? That's debatable from either side, but what we have signed in the past few years has not developed to the standards of what the other recruiting classes have for other Big XII teams. Supposedly, there have been some pretty noteworthy recruiting classes signed by A&M, but it's hard to see that right now.

It's also a heck of a conference to try to recruit in when you think about Texas and Nebraska, too. Both are powerhouses that have no problem marketing their universities and stellar programs with years of winning history. You have to try to find that person that no one knows about and that is almost impossible to find in this day and time in the Age of Information.

Another problem is the evolution of recruiting rules. The best way to sell Texas A&M and College Station is in an official visit, preferably on a football weekend. Now a days, to get the cream of the crop, you need to get them in the early signing period. If you cannot get that top D-I player to pay their own way to see Texas A&M University at it's finest, prior to their eligibility to take an official visit, you may never get that person to experience TAMU. It becomes easier for that top recruit to sign with a more prominent program on name/reputation alone without a visit to Aggieland.

Just a few thoughts...

Just an FYI for anyone wanting to review some of the recruiting classes, you can go to http://www.richkern.com/ and then go down to the "New Recruits" section about half way down. It has quite a bit of information.