Fall sports have arrived, the smell of sweat in the University Sports Complex, the squeaking of shoes on the gym floor, the screaming coming from coaches as they yell drills. Geez, I love this time of year.

Speaking of which, ‘Pack The Den Night, the home opener for the volleyball team, was a success and that may partly be because of the new spirit group, the Maroon Platoon.
Packing the stands dressed in their maroon shirts, shakers in hand, in my opinion, helped push the team to the win over Belhaven.

Now the second match, not so much. Don’t get me wrong, our women put in work against the so called 19th ranked West Florida; a team that’s suppose to be NCAA division two, but it wasn’t enough to come away with the win.

But personally I don’t think West Florida was that good, I mean they beat us, but that’s a small technicality.

Furthermore, this year’s team is a young team, you can’t be too hard on them. However, with that being said, just because they’re young doesn’t mean they should be underestimated.

Rachel Roth, Samatha Worsham and Ashly Abendschein proved in both matches just how big of additions they really are.


But, I can say that as a whole the team needs to do better with closing the match. The women took on Millsaps this past week and definitely should have went home with the win.
However, the women pulled the old New Orleans Saints move and lost at the last second. But once again, it’s a new team so it’s only fair to let them work the kinks out.

So since we don’t have a football team, I think we should have more pride in our volleyball teams success. There should be no reason why we don’t tailgate and paint our bodies for the game.

Where the tailgating would take place is a big question mark, but we’re all smart individuals I think we can figure something out.  Or maybe that can be something the Maroon Platoon president can spearhead, (hint hint).

Bottom line, we need to get this whole spirit situation mastered, I mean we have these nifty Maroon Platoon shirts why not use them? Right?

Next on the list is Loyola’s rugby team. Although rugby is a club sport, they are still very interesting to watch. I know you all have seen them in the quad practicing, and they are not playing around.

I was walking to the University Sports Complex one day, keep in mind it’s storming outside, and these boys are out in the quad tackling each other, sliding in the what was once grass turned muddy disaster.

Although I was disgusted at first, it turned out to be very entertaining. So if any of you rugby players are reading this, shout out to you, and if anyone knows when they play real games shoot me an e-mail, I would like to see them in action. 

Until next time, BOLO BOLO volleyball games happen frequently, check the website or go to the University Sports Complex for a schedule.

Dominique Webb can be reached at [email protected]