I think if they do it is a successful year and you give Corbeli some more time. She has had some good teams in the past that have gone a couple of rounds in the NCAA's. I think even 1 elite 8 team.

Also, you don't here Corbeli complain much but are our facilities for VB on par with tu and neb.

What keeps the top notch talent from coming to A&M like they do for Soccer, W Basketball, & Softball.

Perhaps Corbelli’s passion is gone, in 2004 we played UCLA the number 3 team in the nation, we played UCSB, number 13. In 2005 we played USC (8), and Florida (6). We played national powerhouses. While in 2007 we are playing Montana State, UTSA, Texas State, Louisiana Tech ect….

I’ve said before Laura Jones was a volleyball phenom. She propelled our team for her last 2 years as an Aggie. During some of her games she had 70 attempts, with 25+ kills, she was capable of carrying our team. Our outside hitters are currently averaging around 25 attempts. It seems we were a one hit wonder for her last two or three years. John Cook, Nebraska’s head coach, called the Aggies the Laura Jones show.

It seems to me, the reason we were ranked so high was because of Laura Jones.

It was said on texags, that we have stagnated while the rest of the Big 12 has caught up to us. I believe this to be very true. We had our way with many of the Big 12 teams, yet failed to produce much in the NCAA tourney. Now that the Big 12 is competitive, we are not.

If you believe our facilities are on par with Texas, then I’m not sure what keeps the talent from coming to A&M; but the talent is going to the university of texas.

Unfortunately, I can't comment much on facilities. I do know that we have a separate volleyball gym like nebraska and texas have, and not all big 12 schools do (many play their matches in the same arena the basketball team uses, which makes for a very empty, dull seeming environment for volleyball games). I'm sure G. Rollie has plenty of room for upgrades and could probably use some updating, but to me it seems good that we at least already have a whole coliseum dedicated to volleyball.

I drove to Austin tonight for the Nebraska match, and UT looked very impressive in their sweep. They definetly came out on fire, and the outside hitters in particular seemed unstoppable. Nebraska on the other hand looked very flat and had a lot of trouble passing. Their setter also made some mistakes late in the game, and she started trying to rely on only Sarah Pavan, who wasn't having the best match of her career(which makes her stats all that much more impressive.)

A few observations about Texas' team:
If you look at their starting line-up, they have a libero, a middle, an outside, and a right side all from California. The other middle is from Michigan, and only one outside and the setter come from Texas. I think most everyone knows that California is basically the goldmine for volleyball players, so it is important to try and bring in as much talent as possible from the west coast. Texas' coach came from USC and coached some high school and club volleyball in california, so he obviously has some connections to the area. Coach Corbelli used to bring in a lot of top talent from california early on in her coaching career at A&M, but it seems lately she hasn't been traveling out of Texas much for recruiting (although she did find a few good players in Colorado the last two years.) Now, i am not trying to say there is anything wrong with recruiting heavily from Texas, especially if UT is getting most of their players from California, because Texas is a very large state and their are tons of talented high school volleyball players. Unforunately, it seems many of the top texas players are going out of state to play. One of Nebraska's starting middles is from Amarillo, and University of Washington has a top-caliber freshman from Austin.

As with all my posts, i'm not really getting to any conclusion, but simply sharing my thoughts with everyone else out there who is interested. I'd really love to see A&M volleyball return to national prominence, and I know there are tons of factors that will go into rebuilding the program. I have no reason to not trust Bill Byrne's judgement, and I think he has worked wonders since he came to A&M. I just hope that his spring semester isn't too busy with finding a new football coach that he forgets about the volleyball program.

And to the posters wanting to try and bring John Cook here from Nebraska, i've got a better one to go after...how about Jim Mclaughlin from Washington...his team is the most disciplined and well coached volleyball team I have ever seen.

I totally missed that game last night - I am so bummed. I'm really surprised tu did it in 3 based on their passing - but it goes to show you - you never know!

As far as facilities...
GRollie is on par with Nebraska's facility. NU plays in a small gym in order to "sell out" nearly every game. When I got to watch the Ags up there a couple of years ago, we go tickets via A&M, and we were literally hanging from the rafters - and season ticket holders were up there with us (we didn't care - we saw good volleyball in a fun environment). Sometimes for big games they will open up their large facility (like Reed Arena) and still sell it out. I haven't checked out their practice facilities - I know they have an indoor sand court now.

Our practice gyms are nothing to write home about. We/Ags host junior tournaments up there in the bowels of Rollie - and believe me - that is not putting your best foot forward to future college players.

I actually like GRollie and hopes vball stays there, please don't go to Reed (sp?) Arena. I just wished the practice facilities were better.

As far as recruiting, we had Cali girls when we had Nicole Lantagne (now Welch) assisting - her family ran a recruiting service. I personally don't care where the kids come from - just get the best talent - and that is not always going to be Texas - although we have had some very strong kids/teams from Texas place consistently high at Junior Olympics.