UCLA Beat FSU in 3 Games - and I Am Glad I Did Not Drive to San Antonio

Florida State's ACC Champion Volleyball Team - 2001

Senior Rachael Morgan from New Zealand with Coach Chris Poole on Senior Day

An excellent UCLA methodically ended the Seminole girls' volleyball season winning 3 games straight in the best of 5 match. It started at 7 PM - each game took about 30 minutes - by 8:30 PM the Noles were done dancing - the clock struck 12.

The is the farthest that a Seminole team has gotten - one of the best 4 teams in the country. No other team in the Atlantic Coast Conference got this far.

Lulu was encouraging me to drive or fly to San Antonio. It is a 16 hours straight shot of 900 miles on I-10. Plane rides took almost as long circuiting thru Orlando - Miami - and Dallas. Place tickets were $1600 or 50,000 frequent flyer miles which I had. Boy am I happy I did not go now. If I drove - it was another 16 hours home. If I flew it was 3 days of touring around San Antonio until the Sunday flight home.

When the smoke clears both the team and fans will appreciate this season. The Noles had won the first 13 ACC games. Coach Chris Poole was not selected coach of the year - but he was certainly a good candidate.

Next year - the Noles have 4 blue chip recruits coming in. Everything appears bright for a repeat. I am sure Duke - North Carolina - and Miami will have lots to say about that.

UCLA goes on to play either Illinois or Southern California on Saturday.

The last 4 years have been fun watching Rachael Morgan - an outstanding young lady from New Zealand. Each year she got better and better. Imagine leaving everything you know on the tiny island country of New Zealand - half way around the work. She seldom got to go back home - and everything is different here. I can't imagine being 18 years old and having that happen to me.

Here is her web page about being a student and ballplayer at FSU from the Land of Down Under.

http://rachaelvball.wordpress.com/

You can click on the headline to go to Rachel's web page.