By Paul Freelend Skiff staff Sometimes silence speaks the loudest. Head coach Sandy Troudt kept silent when dealing with the press. But in addressing her team, Troudt held no words back after the TCU Volley Frogs' 8-15, 2-15 and 9-15 loss to the Southwest Texas State Bobcats Tuesday night at the Rickel Center. "Our passing broke down, our serving broke down and our setting broke down," said senior outside hitter Jill Pape, reiterating what Troudt had said to the team in the locker room. "Everything just kind of broke down (Tuesday night)." "We just didn't come ready to play," sophomore outside hitter Marci King said. "Coming into the match we knew exactly what Southwest Texas State would throw at us.
The opening game saw the Bobcats jump out to an early 6-1 lead before the Volley Frogs rallied to within 7-8, forcing a Southwest Texas time-out. The Bobcats countered with a run of their own, pushing forward to 14-8 and finishing off the match with a kill down the line. The second game saw the Bobcats come out even hotter than the original game. TCU claimed the initial point but Southwest Texas State then scored 13 straight points before the Volley Frogs could make another mark in the scoring column. A brief exchange of side outs and a set of wild rallies interceded before the Bobcats claimed the second game on a hitting error by freshman outside hitter Stephanie Watson. During the intermission between the second and third games, Troudt told her team to put the past behind them and try and focus on the remainder of the match. "Coach basically told us that the match was best two out of three now," King said. "She told us that we needed to start over and forget about the first two games. We needed to come out of the locker room and play like it was the start of the match all over again." "She was pointing out some of the things that we really needed to improve on," Pape said. "We weren't playing real well on defense and we weren't setting our block correctly. Then she gave us a motivational speech and tried to get us fired up for the rest of the match." The Volley Frogs appeared to take their coach's advice to heart as they raced out to quick 3-0 lead over Southwest Texas State, but the Bobcats recovered from their early stumble and claimed eight of the next nine points and force a TCU time-out at 4-8. The two sides took turns with the momentum, but the Bobcats put five points between themselves, the Volley Frogs. Then TCU closed to within 8-10 and Southwest Texas State pushed the lead back to five at 8-13. The Bobcats then capitalized on hitting errors by Watson and freshman outside hitter Jennifer Cuca to close out the match. The Volley Frogs were led by Pape's 12 kills while sophomore middle blocker Allison Lynch added nine and Watson added eight. Sophomore setter Lindsay Hayes led TCU with 25 set assists and Lynch also led the defensive effort with three blocks. Shenequa Bedford led the Bobcat attack with 10 kills. Despite the Volley Frogs' up and down playing of late, neither Pape nor King agreed that the team plays to its level of competition. "We are a young team," Pape said. "We haven't learned to be disciplined in our play when we need to be disciplined." "Sometimes we depend more on the other team for energy and emotion than we should," King said. "That's really hard to keep going in a long match. We try not to do that but it's hard for a young team to not fall on that." The Volley Frogs' next games will be when they host the TCU Invitational Friday and Saturday. TCU will open against Stephen F. Austin State at 7 p.m. Friday and will play Colgate at 11 a.m. Saturday and Villanova at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Paul Freelend
By Matt Welnack staff reporter TCU, WAC Notes TCU's disappointing 0-2 stumble out of the gates isn't just an isolated incident in this year's trimmed-down version of the Western Athletic Conference. During last weekend's games, the Horned Frogs suffered the least embarrassing defeat. The following is a report of the state of affairs on the Frogs and the woe-be-gone WAC: · Hawai'i defeated I-AA Eastern Illinois in the game's waning minutes, 31-27, to break an NCAA-leading 18-game losing streak. It would be the only victory among the WAC's seven non-conference losses. To cap it off, WAC teams lost by an average of 26 points. · Along with the Rainbows' team success, two players took home individual honors. Quarterback Dan Robinson won the WAC offensive player of the week award when he set a single-season Hawai'i record for passing yards with his 452 yard performance. Robinson also threw four touchdowns and two interceptions. Punter Chad Shrout won the special teams player of the week award for his 46.5-yard outing. · Sophomore walk-on linebacker Chad Bayer is making his presence known with his hard nosed play in the first two games this season. Bayer is third in the WAC in tackles for loss with four tackles for a loss of eight yards. · The WAC's woes continue this week as three teams face the Big 12 conference. UT-El Paso travels to No. 16 Kansas State this week, Rice takes its 0-2 record to Texas and Tulsa faces No. 7 Texas A&M this week. WAC teams are 0-2 so far this season against the Big 12. · WAC teams are 4-12 against non-conference foes this season. The newly-formed Mountain West Conference is 8-4 overall and 4-2 against conferences in the Bowl Championship Series. · Rice has not scored a touchdown in 11 quarters, but their defense is the best in the WAC. The Owls only managed a field goal against Michigan in front of a crowd of 110,501, a record for a crowd ever to watch a Rice game. · George Layne, TCU's starting sophomore fullback had a career day last week against Northwestern. Layne carried the ball eight times for 33 yards and caught TCU's longest pass of the day, a 34-yard reception from quarterback Patrick Batteaux. Last season, Layne carried just seven times for 17 yards with no receptions. · Running back Basil Mitchell, TCU's offensive player of the year last season, had his NFL debut with the Green Bay Packers last week. Mitchell returned two kickoffs for 33 yards with a long of 18 yards. He is also the backup running back.
Staff reporter Joel Anderson contributed to this report.
Matt Welnack
By Omar Villafranca staff reporter David Rubinson is really a nice guy to talk to. The only problem is slowing him down long enough to converse. Rubinson doesn't have much time to talk because his jobs include: men's and women's head soccer coach, recruiter, scout, public relations contact and fund-raiser for TCU soccer, jokester, husband and father. He is married to wife Deborah and has three children: Adam, who is a sophomore on the TCU golf team, Alison and Andrew. Rubinson is able to juggle these jobs with the help of his assistant coaches Blake Amos, Jay Fitzgerald and graduate assistant Kristie Bruanston. "I'm fortunate to have quality people to work with. Blake is Mr. Organization where I kind of fly by the seat of my pants," Rubinson said. "And Jay and Kristie. We've been really fortunate to have quality people especially right now because both our teams we think are probably better then they've been before." Players on both teams admit that Rubinson does plenty besides coach. He checks up on the players to make sure they are keeping up with their schoolwork. He listens and tries to help with players problems off the field. With all of the duties Rubinson takes on, he sometimes has to let his assistants take over. Rubinson travels with the women's team if it has game away. If the men have a game the same day, then assistant coach Amos will take over head coaching duties. The practice of swapping head coaching duties works because the players and coaching staff trust each other. "If I'm off doing something else, I'm very confident that our team is being taken care of. That has got to be the top priority," Rubinson said. But sometimes it isn't a popular act. Some of the players would rather have Rubinson commit to one head coaching job. "It would be beneficial if we could have our own coaches. We make up for it sometimes," said Ian Keate, junior goalkeeper for the men's soccer team. "We have Blake (Amos) and Jay (Fitzgerald) and Kristie (Bruanston) who help us out. We kind of rotate them around. It does hurt a little bit but usually with the situation, we work it out as best as possible." "I think it would be great to have Dave and Blake as the women's coaches and start from scratch with the men's team," said Allison Calleri, senior midfielder for the women's team. "Or make Dave and Blake the men's soccer coaches and get the women some soccer coaches. Whatever is done, they need to make a decision and make it quick if the teams want to continue to be successful." This coming week Rubinson must transfer from coach to scout. In the past when Rubinson recruited, he had trouble convincing players to come to TCU. A lack of money was the factor. "The best players you could never go after for a couple of reasons. One, we didn't have any money and the other thing was that you worked so hard to be mediocre," Rubinson said. "I love it here (TCU). I've always said I'm in the right place. TCU is an easy sell (to recruits). I just need some help and the university has finally done that." Rubinson said the university has helped by providing scholarships for women and equipment for the teams. The university also pitched in to help build the soccer complex. The new soccer facility is almost ready for opening, complete with locker rooms and tunnels for players to enter the field. With all the work Rubinson does wife Deborah, a director at a children's hospital, has learned to deal with it. "She's always mad at me," Rubinson said. "We do our best to both not be gone at the same time from the house. Every once in a while she gets to take a trip with us."
Omar Villafranca |
"They did exactly that and we just couldn't handle
it. We made them look awfully good and they made us look really bad."| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |