For your viewing pleasure

McMurry and Hardin-Simmons square off in the cross-town showdown in volleyball tonight. The first match will be on the north side of town at HSU's Mabee Complex. The Cowgirls enter with a 5-4 record and a 2-1 mark in the ASC West while McMurry is 4-6 with a 1-2 record in the west. Read the game preview here ...

IN THE NEWS

• In case you missed it, Carla Lewis won her third-straight ASC Runner of the Week award and men's runner Ken Wheeler won the award on the men's side helping McMurry sweep the award two weeks straight. The cross country teams were in Joplin, Mo. at the Missouri Southern Stampede. Below is a video of the highglights of the meet, thanks to head coach David Chandler for the footage. Thanks to Thomas Beckham for putting the editing touches on it.



In other news, the tennis teams hosted a non-traditional season tournament called the ASC Singles / Doubles Tournament. The tennis teams' regular season is in the spring, but the teams are allowed tournaments in the fall. In this particular tournament, seedings for the ITA Regionals are selected based upon the success of individual singles' performance and doubles performance. McMurry's Will Davis and Bryan Rainwater won the top flight of the doubles tournament and will go on to Dallas as the No. 2 seed in the ITA Regional Tournament in Dallas this weekend.

Below is a YouTube Video of interviews with head tennis coach Mark Hathorn along with comments from Davis and Rainwater.



I was out Monday sick, but I'll try to catch up and give you the Monday football press conference featuring Hal Mumme and running back Keenan Alford.

Also, more senior blogs coming ...
If you're in town support the McM Volleyball team against HSU at 7 p.m. on the campus of HSU.

Stay tuned ...
--KR

Listen to Monday's archived copy of the Sports Overtime Show, and Senior Diary entry by Seth Waller

• Check out Monday's version of Sports Overtime with guests Jimmy Terrell, Hal Mumme and ASC Media Relations Director Greg Weghorst by clicking here.

Saturday’s loss to Austin College was another game that we should have won. Our first drive was a ninety- five yard seventeen play score. Their offense came ready to play and so did ours. We scored and scored fast. We took a big hit in the third quarter when we only ran three plays. Their offense did a good job of managing the clock and keeping our offense off the field. The weather did not play too much of a factor in our passing game and hopefully this Saturday we will see a clear sky at Wilford Moore Stadium when we play Mississippi College.

-- Seth Waller #85

Catching you up on photo galleries

Brian Schmidt, our freelance photographer, has taken some good photos this season. I've been a little behind, but check these galleries:

Men's Soccer vs. University of the Southwest (09/05/09)
Women's Soccer vs. University of the Southwest (09/05/09)
Men's Cross Country - McMurry Invitational (09/12/09)
Women's Cross Country - McMurry Invitational (09/12/09)
Football vs. Austin College (09/12/09)

Stay tuned ...
-- KR

Senior Diary: Danielle Kelton recaps Colorado College Tournament experience

This past week we had the opportunity to go to Colorado Springs, CO for our second tournament of the season. We had four games this weekend and went 2-2. This weekend was a great weekend for out team. Although we lost two of the games we grew together as a team and became stronger on and off the court. We played several very good volleyball teams, one in which was Puget Sounds the number 14th team in the nation. Having the opportunity to play against these teams really helped in our preparation for our first conference game this Tuesday in Brownwood.

The coaches are always wonderful not only in taking all 23 of us on each trip so we can stay unified but also giving us the opportunity to see new and exciting places. We left Wednesday afternoon and drove all 11 hours to Colorado. The next day they took us to the Olympic Training Center, we watched a video and took a tour of the training center and were able to see some male gymnasts training. Seeing and hearing how hard each of them have to train each day really inspired me to work hard in everything I do. There was a quote on the wall that read: “Practice like you are the worst, play like you are the best” –anonymous. I really think this is the kind of mindset we should all have this season. We are preparing this week for Howard Payne on Tuesday in Brownwood.

--Danielle Kelton

Watch today's press conference with Jimmy Terrell and Hal Mumme

Mullin featured internally and externally for his college debut

Sophomore Quarterback Jake Mullin is turning heads not only for his 479-yard record-setting pass performance Saturday night, but for the fact that he's been out of football for three years.

Read McMurry's feature on Mullin which includes quotes from his Burleson High School coach Mel Maxfield, and then read the Abilene Reporter News feature story on Mullin by Sam Waller. On a side note, the ARN launched a new web site design, looks good.

Stay tuned ...
--KR

Senior Diary: Kelton reflects on the ups and downs of the UD Tournament

This week we had our first tournament of the year, in Sherman. We were in great need of this weekend. Friday night was awesome; we won in three against Hendrix. It being our first game of the season everyone was excited to be there and ready to play. The game was so much fun everyone one was talking and enthusiastic the whole game; having 23 people on the team is awesome. Even though we played so well on Friday we had a rough day on Saturday. We played Austin College and University of Dallas, we lost to both teams but these two games really showed us what each of us need to work on and what we need to work as on a team. During the times we were struggling on Saturday it was great when we could bring people off the bench to come in and help us fight back. Being a team with so many new players it may take us a couple of games to get use to each other’s tendencies. There were several games when we would be ahead seven or eight points and we weren’t able to finish. That is something we have had a problem with in the past, but I know we can overcome that and be able to finish strong; we did it against Hendrix. We just need to be consistent in playing all 25 points. After the tournament we went to Great Wolf Lodge for some team bonding, we met several of the volleyball alumni that played for Coach Petree when she won her last conference tournament. It was a great time for us to get to know each other better and spend some fun and relaxing time together off the court as a team. We are practicing this week and then leaving on Wednesday to go to Colorado Springs, CO for a tournament.

-- Danielle Kelton