First, a mea culpa. The events of this report resulted from a rather hasty and last-minute decision. Thus, not surprisingly, I neglected to take my camera so no photos accompany this story. (Yes, my mobile phone has a photo function but I’ve never been comfortable using it so I rarely do.)
When I was in college or probably even into my forties, this venture would have qualified as a cool road trip. At 61 and accompanied by my 74-year-old friend Arnie, it feels more like two codgers (who fortunately haven’t had to argue about when to make the next rest stop) grasping at a YOLO shot at their former glory. What’s the trip, you ask?
Well, we left the Washington, DC area Thursday morning to drive about 930 miles (1500 km) to reach Iowa City in time on Friday to watch the University of Maryland play the University of Iowa in volleyball. We’d stay overnight to watch the schools compete in field hockey and then (American) football. Thanks to Google Maps, here’s some idea of the length of the trip.
The plan was to leave after the football game Saturday, drive part way back to Maryland and finish up the long haul on Sunday. Fortunately, we’re both retired so neither of us has to work on Monday.
Excepting an accident on I-70 West in Ohio (near Zanesville) that brought traffic to a standstill for about 20 minutes and several patches of road construction that periodically hindered our progress, Thursday’s drive was uneventful. On our departure we set a goal to reach Champaign-Urbana Illinois Thursday and though it was later than we’d planned by an hour or hour and a half we checked into a Drury Inn at about 22:30 – a time that was an hour later to our internal body clocks because we’d crossed from eastern to central time.
At Arnie’s suggestion, I reached out to Coach Aird Friday morning and wrangled an invitation to share the pregame meal with the volleyball team. Leaving Champaign, we had between three and four hours to drive to reach Iowa City (or technically Coralville). We were able to check in early to stay at our “priced at what the market will bear” motel. (That is, the same room on a non-football weekend is less than half the cost we shared.) We unwound for a few hours before heading off to meet the team for the early pregame meal at their hotel.
The dinner was quite tasty and we both enjoyed sharing some time with the staff, players, and some other boosters. Adding to my enjoyment of the dinner was the opportunity to watch the final film review of Iowa’s strengths and weaknesses and hear the plan of attack. On the other hand, having that knowledge frustrated me a bit when I watched the match.
Volleyball Friday.
Our hotel was less than two miles from Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the cavernous 15,400 seat venue for a number of Iowa’s indoor sports including volleyball and Arnie and I arrived with plenty of time to spare. We made our way down the steep stairs to find seats behind “the Maryland’s” first set bench (the teams change ends of the court at the end of each set) where we joined the family members of some of the team and a small handful of other Maryland supporters. (To understand what appears to be a typo above, please imagine a photo here of the sign we passed outside Perkins Restaurant and Bakery that read “Go Hawkeyes, beat the Maryland”.)
Midway through the first set, a contingent of football players came into the building to cheer on their fellow Terrapins. They were followed in short order by the field hockey team – many of whom were dressed in costume anticipating the (at the time) impending Halloween holiday. They added some much needed-energy as the crowd of just over 1,000 seemed dwarfed by the arena.
The potential for a Maryland win looked rather bleak at the beginning of the match. The Terps looked tense and gave away too many points on unforced errors. While the squad seemed to settle in as the set wore on, the early hole was too deep and the home team captured the set by a relatively comfortable 25-19 final score.
Now, my volleyball knowledge has increased over the years but I readily admit that much of the film review I saw went by far too quickly for me to grasp in my limited scope and understanding. However, Coach pointed out what a poker player would call a “tell” from one of Iowa’s players. That is, when this player took a certain action, Iowa’s attack was always the same.
This knowledge created the frustration I mentioned above. Although the coach had prepared them, Maryland consistently failed to react as they should have and Iowa scored regularly from this play. I want to add that this “tell” was so apparent that I could spot it from the stands and was often tempted to call out how the team should have reacted but I didn’t and, for the most part, the team didn’t either. (Because this behavior is so obvious, I think that every coach in the league has it in their scouting report but it’s information that came to me in a situation that’s not normally public, so I held and continue to hold my peace in that regard.)
In spite of this, the Terps got our weekend off to a good start when they went on to take the final three sets by scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-23, record their second consecutive win, and second conference win of the season. I couldn’t help but think that better execution would have resulted in a more comfortable win but in the end, the result is what matters most.
After the match, I chatted with the coach and saw the team off on the bus as they prepared to fly off to Lincoln for a Saturday match against the highly ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. Maryland’s freshman libero, Kelsey Wicinski, who’s from Geneva, IL, had the largest contingent of family and friends in attendance. Kelsey got a great surprise when her mom reunited Kelsey for a few minutes with her dog Ace. Kelsey cried a bit. Ace didn’t but he seemed excited and happy.