E-Bay blog: Dec. 31
Hey, y'all. It's Erneisha Bailey here, aka E-Bay, and as the lone senior on our team, I want to introduce to everyone a new feature for the rest of the year. We call it the "E-Bay blog." I'll be checking in with photos, behind-the-scene looks at our team (AND coaches!) and random thoughts as we start our tough Big 12 Conference play. Today, read about our last few games, especially our trip to San Diego where we won a championship, and from the Holiday Bowl and Seaworld! Friday, Dec. 30 We just finished playing at the Maggie Dixon Surf `N Slam Classic at the University of San Diego. We played in this tournament for the second consecutive December -- and we won our first championship of the year by beating No. 12 DePaul and then San Diego. We also won this tourney last year, so we wonder... Are we going to be invited back to play? First, we all met in San Diego on the 26th, with some people flying in from Austin and others coming in from where they spent their Christmas. I flew to San Diego with my parents, since we had driven to Florida (yes, driven) for Christmas. My parent and I left for Florida around 2 a.m. on Dec. 21st from the Austin airport -- precisely 30 minutes after our team flew back into Austin from our night game at Arizona State! My dad had slept most of the day so he could drive on the first shift through the night. I got into the car, said hi to both my parents, and spread out in the back seat ... and slept through the rest of the night! It was a good sleep and I didn't mind the long trip, since we had just beat a really tough and nationally-ranked ASU team at their place. We really had great chemistry and a great team effort to pull it out. That's what's so important about that win -- it was a big win for us against a Top 25 team and we played really well together. About the Surf `N Slam championship By beating DePaul, we then played the host team -- San Diego -- for the championship. It was the second year in a row that we met them for the championship. It was a tough, tough game of ups and downs, of big runs by both teams, and we played through it and won by a point. Give credit to our point guard Carla (Cortijo) who made great decisions with the ball all game long, and then hit the game-winning shot for us on a sweet drive with time running out! Now, we are making some noise and have won nine in a row for the first time since 2003. We want to continue the streak and do better and get better. We go into 2008 with great momentum! Trivia Time [For those of you who do not know, a torero is a matador, a bullfighter. Not a manatee, for some of you who might get your information from some of my teammates, who got a little confused between matador and manatee, but that's another story for another time...] More Fun Times in San Diego I want to say congrats to Coach Brown and the guys on the football team for an impressive game! When we got to our seats, we met up with a lot of fellow Texas student-athletes. Some of the "Cali kids" from volleyball were there -- Alyson (Jennings), San Diego's own Juliann (Faucette), Ashley (Engle), and were joined by senior Michelle Moriarity, who's actually from Houston. They sat right in front of us. We also sat near another California Longhorn, Kelly Melone, from the softball team. It was good catchin' up with them all! Then, on Saturday, we practiced in the morning and since it was an off-day between games, a bunch of us went to SeaWorld. That was really fun and of course, there are stories to tell. We stood in line for a long time for the water log ride, but I think the ride was down, and that was disappointing. So, we started to walk around, and Rachel (Rentschler), one of the biggest shoppers I know, wanted to buy some sort of stuffed animal or t-shirt at EVERY exhibit and stand we went to! And, right now, getting on the plane, I see Aubry carrying a blow-up pink dolphin that a friend of hers won for her at SeaWorld. The dolphin show was the best. Even though it was a cold and windy day, the show was packed, but we got excited when we saw all these empty seats in the front. So, we hurried to the empty seats in the third row, sat down and then saw the signs that said -- SPLASH ZONE. Great! It's cold, windy and we are sitting close to the tank with the great possibility of getting soaked! But, some of us said, hey, it's OK, we won't be too wet. Big Ash (Ashley Lindsey) and Rachel started freaking out, however, complaining that it was too cold to be sitting at the show if we got wet.So, we all decided that we needed to get some coverage. We then paid $6 each for these SeaWorld plastic ponchos to wear in the "splash zone" ... Did they pay off? Nope! NONE of us got wet! Not even a drop of water got on us! The section right next to us got drenched, but oh, not all of us wearing these $6 plastic ponchos! So, we all decided we are going to keep these around for when it rains on campus. . I've put a few in of us in the ponchos, with the photo courtesy of Rachel. The rest of the time, we just chilled, shopping a little at the big outside mall right next to our downtown hotel. A lot of our time consisted of practices and scouting and film sessions. Happy New Year and Thanks to Our Fans! A big THANKS to our crowd that showed up to support us at Arizona State and in San Diego and another big THANKS to the fans who listened to our games on the radio and Internet. We notice all you fans who used to be "Jody's Roadies"; now, I have named you "Gail's Gang"!!! So, if you use that name, don't forget to give me some love while doing so! Hope to see EVERYONE out at the Erwin Center on Friday night at 7 p.m. ... We feel like we've been away from Austin for a month! PLEASE come and support us. We need your support and energy, especially if we hope to make a big run over the last part of the season. We need to see you and hear you! Happy New Year, y'all!
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