Mister Roger's Neighborhood: February 7
University of Texas senior Roger Gubser (Laredo, Texas) delivers his latest installment of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. In today’s entry, Roger discusses Texas’ latest match, a 4-3, come-from-behind win at Arkansas. Texas now stands 2-0 and will return to the road this weekend at Duke and Virginia. Welcome back to the magical land of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood! Our latest trip took us to the lovely city of Fayetteville, Ark. I knew that the Razorbacks of Arkansas were not very fond of the Longhorns, but their crowd redefined the word “despise” in my dictionary. My usual theme (It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood…a beautiful day for a neighbor….would you be mine?...could you be mine?) was altered between 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 5. The match can only be summed up as a ferocious battle in which neither the players nor the fans were willing to give in. Their fans packed the house and were up for a real challenge. I’m positive that one fan there caused hearing damage to everyone in attendance! Three hours into our battle, trailing 3-1, we were hanging by a thread. Hubert (Chodkiewicz) and I faced a combined eight set points against us after winning our first sets, and Pluto (Michael Venus) was down a set and 1-2, serving 15-40. I am certain that not one single Arkansas fan felt the Razorbacks would lose the match. Somehow, we gathered enough momentum after I won the second set tiebreaker, 7-3, and Hubert battled for a 13-11 tiebreaker win to prolong the match. The stage was set for Pluto to become a man. After our team united to root for Pluto, he was able to break serve and win 6-4 in the third set. I cannot explain the feeling I had for beating a team that so badly wanted to see the Longhorns lose. We are now getting ready for our next obstacle, Duke, whom we play this Friday. I just want to leave you with a few words on Hubert. He has been my boy since our high school days at St. Stephen’s Academy here in Austin. I consider Hubert to be one of my closest friends. However, he has acquired an extremely fitting nickname – “The Scavenger” - over the past few weeks. This guy not only is built like a rhinoceros, but he can also out-eat our entire team. If you ever eat dinner with him, think twice before you take any breathers because “The Scavenger” will make a relentless attack on any left-over food. A classic recent example was the night before our last match when Pluto ordered a bowl of ice cream to the room. Immediately after Michael set down the finished bowl, Hubert grabbed the bowl and asked if he could have the rest, which consisted of merely three smears of chocolate syrup. Well, that’s all for this time…have a splendid day! Hook ’em!
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