I Fell in Love With A Volleyball Match

Yesterday, I had the privilege of covering one of the most exciting games in American University Volleyball history. That event was volleyball coach Barry Goldberg's 500th career win in a nail-biting 4-set victory.

AU has had an uncharacteristic beginning to their volleyball season, especially after being projected to be #1 in the Patriot League Coaches Poll. They lost their first 5 games, won last Saturday at Portland for their first win, and then lost again last night to Yale. Before this game, the Eagles were only 1-6.

For those who don't know, I am a student broadcaster for American University, covering AU sports on Eagle Vision TV. The Eagles were to play the NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) Highlanders at 1pm; which meant that I needed to be there just before noon.

I wasn't feeling good about the day already (my swag was off and I was REALLY tired). Then, I started thinking that my statistics and research are not good enough for the pre-game segment of the broadcast, I tried to get myself at least in some kind of focus to be ready to cover the match.

Once I had finally gotten comfortable with my pre-game analysis of the Eagles, my partner, Rachel DeMita, and I sat down and watched the game, looking for things to note in our appearances during break and our possible post-game segments.

The game was somewhat entertaining; however, with my frustration at the team's poor early season performance and the fact that AU couldn't maintain a lead in a set, I wasn't as invested into the game as I normally would. Not to mention, nobody but parents were at this 1 o'clock volleyball match where the head coach could be a part of history.

And then the 4th set came around with AU leading 2 sets to 1 after winning the last set. It was a very close set, seeing multiple lead changes and while AU seemed to have the upper hand in some parts of the 4th set, NJIT would come back into the game.

With the trouble AU has had all season with closing out sets, Rachel and I were quite nervous for the team. At this point, we started to realize that the Eagles were very close to winning.

The Eagles nearing in on the 25th and final point of set #4 was not only signs of a possible win, but then that Rachel and I would cover the historic event the AU community had been waiting for all this season - coach Goldberg's 500th win.

AU finally had reached the 24th point, and the Eagles were looking to get just one more point to win the set and the match. However, it would not be easy, as NJIT tied the set at 24 points apiece - just as Rachel had predicted.

When a set is tied at 24 points in women's college volleyball, in order for a team to get the final 25th set-winning point, there needs to be a tie-breaker, like there is in tennis in a deuce situation - one team needs two more consecutive points to win the set. Nonetheless, AU served, won the first tie-breaker point, and then Sophomore Angelina Waterman spiked the ball on NJIT's side of the net for the game-winning kill.

During the last 4 points, I found myself standing up, ready with my notes to head down to the court after the match was over to handle the interview with coach Goldberg and if need be, a player. When Waterman spiked the ball though, I lost all objectivity when I leaped in the air and yelled, "Yes!" and ran down the stairs to the court. Needless to say, I would have been pretty blown had AU played one more set.

Yeah, I know, I won't do that when I go pro in broadcast, but come on - your school's volleyball team just won an extremely close match, and the win brings about a historic occurrence, and you're covering the game.

I just thought it was a pretty cool experience, considering that I could possibly be covering pro games of that nature in the future. I certainly hope that AU wins some more games though to give me more fun games to analyze.

NEW POST! Tired of Being Red Lined by Microsoft Word?

Ever just wished that Microsoft Word would just accept some words and move on?

Well, I've been having a particular issue with Word for quite some time now with this one word. Maybe I'm the one making the mistake: I'm probably spelling the word wrong, I'm adding an "s" to it when there doesn't need to be one,or it's probably not even a real word. Nonetheless, the word has been giving me a headache, and it just was reaffirmed today, September 9th, 2009...

Offsides.

I'm writing a game report on yesterday's women's soccer match between the American University Eagles and the Richmond Spiders for my Sportswriting class. I'm stating how the Eagles won 1-0 to improve to 3-1 on the season - a significant improvement from last seasons team and giving the facts from the game. Then I try to describe how the Spiders were called for "offsides multiple times..."

...And then came the red line.

Really, Word? Really!!? Is that how you feel? After all these years and you still pull that nonsense? I remember being really young; probably around 11 or something, and using Microsoft Word back then to write about hockey games. The Caps would need to fix constant whistles for being "offisides," and then I get the red line! I'd try it again every year, and I just added it into the dictionary because I got so sick of the foolishness that Word would try to pull on my work.

So here's the question: Am I doing something wrong? Is "offsides" supposed to be "offside" or "off-sides?" I really don't know. And it's a shame to admit as someone who has written about sports their whole lives, has been a die-hard hockey fan for so long, and has career plans to be a sports journalist/personality. But I really need to know whether A.) "Offsides" is just going to be an unaccepted word by Microsoft Word or not, and if B.) Am I just blatantly spelling "offsides" wrong?

And of course, I must express anger at Microsoft Word for even causing me to question my writing and my spelling skills.

Word, get it together.

...On a side note, I have not had a laptop for about 2 weeks, so I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I know, I know, I'm slacking on my game here, and I know everyone can think of ways I could have kept it up, but time constraints to affect people, and it's not easy to post when you have no personal computer after a long day of classes, work, and then the occasional American Eagles sports broadcast on Eagle Vision TV (http://aueagles.tv/)... actually, on that link you can archive it and see my broadcasts! I do studio analysis every game and it's quite fun. Oh, but if you don't want to pay to see the Eagles (or watch me broadcast), you can ask me to put a link of my copy of the game and I will be glad to let the world see my work!

And I have to say, I feel for those Redskins fans being sued by the Skins for wanting to pull out of their contracts. As much as I hate the Redskins football team, it sucks for regular everyday people to be sued by a large corporation or organization. The picture on the front of the Washington Post by the way was great photo journalism I have to say.

I'll try to be more regular again, but hope you enjoyed and welcome back! Take part in the new poll too!