Opening the Postseason...

Hardin-Simmons started what is going to be the first of many post-season volleyball matches I'll cover over the next couple of weeks with a match against East Texas Baptist in the quarterfinals of the American Southwest Conference tournament and then a couple days later with the finals against UT-Dallas. It was the first time in a few weeks that I got to see a competitive match. Lately I've been covering a lot of 3-game sweeps, so to see the team I was covering get pushed to four games was kind of welcome for once. It also left me with more opportunities for pictures.

The first match going four games happened on deadline and while I was glad for the extra time it did make me a little nervous about getting back, but I knew as long as they didn't got to a fifth game, I'd be back in plenty of time. It also gave me plenty of time to get an idea who the hitters and the best defensive players were since this was only the second time in the season I had gotten to shoot them.

For the Cowgirls championship match against UT-Dallas, I was kind of hoping for an extra game since I was getting to the match a little late after having to cover a football game that went to overtime. However, that didn't happen, the teams did stretch every game out about as far as they could though, with all three ending 25-23. I guess that was just as good, besides, I pretty much knew what my photo was going to be and it was going to happen at the end of the match. The great thing I have always like about volleyball is since they celebrate pretty much every point, I know at the end there will certainly be a good celebration there.

Soccer Time Again...

Last Sunday Hardin-Simmons was playing UT-Dallas in the championship match of the American Southwest Conference tournament. I ended up having to work, since ACU was playing in their conference championship match. It was cool, the last time I had shot college soccer was after HSU had won the national championship last year. The cool thing about having to shoot on my day off (other than overtime pay) is it's usually only one assignment and I don't have to worry about getting a shot and heading to my next assignment.

Since I didn't have to worry about time it allowed me to set up a remote behind the goal that HSU was driving to. Remotes are great and make for some really nice photos when they work. However, they often don't. There are plenty of games that I set one up and come back with a couple hundred pictures of nothing. But, it still fun to set one up and see what happens. Plus, when they do work, it usually makes a great lead photo. For this game I'd say it half worked. I was really happy with the celebration shot at the top, but I also had the header of the girl hitting the ball into the net, sadly the net cut her head in half. Oh well, I think I'd rather have the jube shot anyway... at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. The bottom photo, by the way, is the same moment that I shot at the same time with the camera I was shooting with.