Record-Setting

Congrats to ETBU Volleyball senior Traci Twardowski, who set a new career milestone this past weekend by passing former three-time ASC East Player of the Year Allison Castillo on the Lady Tigers' all-time assists list.

I would be the first to admit that I really don't know the first thing about volleyball in terms of game strategies, X's and O's, etc. It's a game pretty much, to the untrained eye, that looks like hitting the ball as hard as you possibly can either at or around an opponent on the other side of the net.

But my experience here has managed to teach me one thing -- you don't win much in volleyball without a setter, and ETBU has been fortunate enough to have three pretty good ones in a row.

Traci is the latest, and hopefully will put a lot of miles between the new record and second place before her career ends this season. Starting the setter line was Castillo, who was arguably the most dominant player in the ASC from the setter position for four years, the last of which was spent at Texas Lutheran after three years at ETBU.

In the middle part of the setter trio is current ETBU head coach Lyndsay Mashe, known back then as Lyndsay Simpson. Lyndsay was an all-state setter at Pine Tree, signed with Panola College and then finished her career at ETBU in 2004.

The setter is kind of like a point guard, or, maybe even, the quarterback, on the volleyball court. The offensive numbers and kills put up by current Lady Tigers such as Katie Graves or Jane Hays, for example, wouldn't be nearly as gaudy without Twardowski setting the table for them at the net.

The volleyball program here at ETBU has quietly been one of the most consistent and productive programs on campus over the last seven years or so. The Lady Tigers have made the playoffs seven straight years and have never finished lower than second place in the division since 2001. Lyndsay Mashe took the coaching reins of the program less than a year after graduating from ETBU, and the team hasn't missed a beat.

A big reason for that has been the consistent play at the setter position. Congratulations Traci, and to all the Lady Tigers as you finally get a chance to play before the home folks this week.