It has been almost a week since Hurricane Ike hit the coast of Texas. As a result, the University of Houston cancelled its volleyball tournament this weekend, which was originally penciled in on Arizona’s agenda.
Fortunately for everyone, pencil is erasable.
The Wildcats (8-1) made last-minute plans to travel to Los Angeles, where they will play UC Riverside today at noon, then the host school of Loyola Marymount University Saturday night at 7.
The squad thought it was going to travel to Houston on Monday, but a last-minute call Tuesday morning put UA head coach David Rubio in a scramble to find new competition.
“”We were told that the tournament was still on (despite the hurricane), Monday,”” Rubio said. “”Then (Houston) called back and said there was no way (it) could get everything together in time.””
The hurricane-struck school also got out its eraser and rescheduled a trip to play in the University of Texas Arlington Holiday Inn Invitational this weekend.
Everyone found a way to make the best of the situation – the Wildcats bettered theirs. The squad is traveling close to where the majority of their players are from. It will play at one of the Princeton Review’s “”10 Most Beautiful Campuses”” and its players now have a more relaxed schedule, instead of playing the original three-match weekend.
UA senior Brittany Leonard is arguably the most excited about the trip close to her Menlo Park home.
On Saturday night, the libero will battle her younger sister, Whitney, who is an LMU libero.
“”We’re excited to play each other,”” Brittany Leonard said. “”There’s more excitement than rivalry. My whole family is going to be there – my parents, sisters, brother, aunts and uncles – it’s going to be a lot of fun.
“”After the game on Saturday, we’ll probably all go out to dinner or something,”” she added.
UA senior Brooke Buringrud said she is also excited to venture to her home state because she will get to see her family and friends from Escondido, which is about two hours from LMU.
“”My parents are driving up,”” the outside hitter said. “”More than half of the girls on the team are from California, so there will be a lot of friends and parents at our games this weekend.””
Buringrud added that her friends, whom she hasn’t seen since Christmas Break, will be in attendance as well.
The matches seem to be shadowed by off-the-court excitement, but won’t be the case for the players or coaches.
“”Loyola is a good, solid team – they’re very similar to Santa Clara,”” Rubio said. “”It will give us good look as to where we are right now.””
Santa Clara is the only team that has defeated Arizona in a match so far this season.
“”The competition will hopefully prepare us to next week when we start up with Pac-10s,”” the head coach added.
But opponents that are comparable to the team’s only conqueror make no difference to its players.
“”I think that LMU will give us competition and it will be good preparation for next week,”” Buringrud said. “”We’re expecting to win this weekend though – 2-0.””
