Volleyball support on the rise

ESPN's SportsCenter typically highlights what takes place on the court, but that's not to say there isn't room for passionate fans to make the show. 

Gonzaga's Kennel Club packed a relatively large portion of the Martin Centre on Sept. 22 to support the volleyball team in its conference matchup with Loyola Marymount in an attempt to earn a few coveted moments on sports' signature show.

Between the first and second sets of the match, the red-clad student section held up four very large strips of paper, ranging from the top of the section to the bottom, reading "Gonzaga Loves SportsCenter."

While doing so, the Kennel Club sang the iconic six-note SportsCenter theme song.  A videotape of the event, complete with an appeal to SportsCenter anchor and Spokane native Neil Everett to get a few moments of the event onto SportsCenter, will be sent to Everett's email within the next few days.  Everett has been known to mention his beloved Bulldogs on the show whenever he gets a chance.

"If you watch SportsCenter on a consistent basis, you will realize the Spokane native loves GU," Kennel Club Events Manager Troy Darrock said.

The attempt to get on SportsCenter was part of an effort Kennel Club is making this year to attend sporting events other than basketball.

"As a board, we determined that this year we wanted to really be there for all the sports," Darrock said. "Yeah, basketball is our bread and butter, but the other sports work just as hard and deserve just as much attention and support."

Darrock remains realistic about getting on SportsCenter, though.

"Honestly, I have no idea whether or not we will get on SportsCenter from it," he said. 

"The crowd did a great job, and the concept was good, but there are always those things that you don't think about beforehand. However, even if we don't get on, there has already been talk of maybe trying to repeat the attempt before or possibly during a basketball game," Darrock said.

"At the end of the day, our main goal was to get students to cheer on our ladies and illustrate how much fun we can have at other events. I think we were quite successful in doing that. … I think some of the LMU players were a bit shocked at how great of a student section we displayed for a Thursday night volleyball match," Darrock said.

The next event Kennel Club is attending is this Saturday's noon "Dig Pink" volleyball match vs. Santa Clara that is being put on by Colleges Against Cancer.

As for the action on the court, the Bulldogs fell to Loyola Marymount 3-1 (26-28, 25-21, 18-25, 24-26) in a game of comebacks. After losing a heartbreaking first set and trailing 7-0 in the second, Gonzaga stormed back to win the set 25-21. Then, with a 24-18 lead in the fourth set, it seemed like a sure thing that the Bulldogs would force a fifth set. However, the Lions proceeded to rattle off eight consecutive points to earn the fourth set victory that sealed the match.

"It was very disappointing for us to not finish the game like that," senior defensive specialist Laura Day said.  "We usually don't look at the score while we play, we just play volleyball. But [in this instance] we looked at the score and tensed up. We got nervous and felt like we needed to play better than we did for the first 24 points."

However, Day explained that the team can take something away from the experience.

"This gave us experience in that type of situation," she said. "We will be in that type of situation again, and when we are, we will have this bitter taste in our mouth. We won't let it happen again."

Meanwhile, Gonzaga senior Denise Van de Mortel earned a double-double, finishing with 34 assists and 10 digs.  Junior Kylie Edinger had 12 kills, and sophomore Meredith Crenshaw had 10 kills.

On Saturday, No. 19 Pepperdine defeated the Zags 3-1 (22-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-18), dropping the Bulldogs to 0-2 in conference play and 6-7 overall.  Gonzaga's homestand continues this week as the Zags host San Francisco tonight at 6 p.m. and Santa Clara in the "Dig Pink" match Saturday, at noon.