Oct. 5, 2006

	RAY DISE Ray owns and operates CVU.com and regularly contributes volleyball content to CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- VOLLEYBALL 12/16: Penn State Wins Title In Near Historic Fashion 12/14: History Meets When Stanford And Penn State Take Floor 12/13: Cal's Banner Year Ends In A Flash 12/13: This Feels Familiar 12/12: They're Something, All Right 12/5: Magee, Paolini Hit Big For Longhorns 11/28: ABC's Of The NCAA Tournament 11/20: First Time Callers 11/15: Ducks Flying High 11/7: Big 12 Gives Back 10/31: Streaks Were Made To Be Broken 10/24: The Numbers Game 10/18: Elite Company 10/10: SFA Puts Winning Streak On Line vs. Rival 10/3: Going Streaking 9/26: Conference Races Heating Up 9/18: And Then There Were Four 4/26: Semifinals About To Take Shape 4/19: Tournament Time in Conference Action 4/12: NCAA Tournament Quickly Approaching 3/29: UCSD Looks to Drop Underdog Tag 3/22: Carthage Seeing Red 3/16: Spring Breaking 'Em In 3/1: BYU Does It With Two 2/23: Touching On The Top 5 2/15: Candidates Galore For Awards 12/17: Nebraska's Run Represents A Movement 12/15: Historic Meeting In Omaha 12/14: Thompson Rides Into the Sunset 12/14: Red-Letter Day For Nebraska 12/13: Stanford Has The Players To Win Title 12/9: Two Storied Programs Meet, Stanford Downs Texas 12/8: Texas Starts Wisconsin Season, Finishes it Too 12/8: Despite Being Bay Area Rivals, Stanford Beats Cal in Texas 12/8: A Stat Lover's Paradise 11/30: Tournament ABCs 11/16: Banner Long-Overdue For Carnesecca Court 11/9: Top-Ranked Huskers Hanging Tough 11/2: Gearing Up For Conference Tournaments 10/26: In or Out 10/20: Aggies Are Digging Their Way In The WAC 10/13: National Roundup 10/5: Building Toward A Sooner National Title 9/29: Moore Success in Eugene 9/7: Revival of the Mustangs 8/31: Some (Sun) Devil 8/18: Man Down But Back For More 12/22: Silver & Tin Pure Gold FOOTBALL 1/02: Long List of Longhorn Skill

Special to CSTV.com

On the eve of the focal point, the Texas-OU football game, of the Red River Rivalry, the University of Oklahoma has something up on the University of Texas that it has never had before: a victory in volleyball.

With a 3-2 home victory on September 27, the Sooners ended a drought of 28 matches to secure the program's initial victory over the Longhorns and end a string of 12 consecutive sweeps at the hands of their school's most hated rival.

"Especially here at the University of Oklahoma it is huge," said third-year head coach Santiago Restrepo. "It's huge anytime any of the athletics teams beat the University of Texas because it is such a huge rivalry. For the volleyball program, it is obviously a tremendous win since we had never beaten Texas ever before."

While the win over Texas is the marquee win of the season so far for Oklahoma and was the first victory over a ranked opponent since 1998, the Sooners have been doing very well against teams from the entire state of Texas.

Oklahoma has victories over Sam Houston (3-0), North Texas (3-0), Texas Southern (3-0), Texas A&M (3-0), and Baylor (3-0) as part of its 13-3 overall record.

The win over the Aggies was the first since 1979 and was only the second in the 34-match series history. The Sooners' 5-1 Big 12 Conference record puts them third behind Nebraska (6-0) and Missouri (6-1).

The successes have also propelled Oklahoma into the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 poll for the first time since 1988, which was previously the only year in which Oklahoma has garnered a national ranking in volleyball.

"That is a great tribute to all of our girls," Restrepo said. "And how hard [they've worked], their dedication, and their work ethic. They deserve it."

While proud of it for his players, Restrepo said that a national ranking is a double-edged sword when it comes to striving for the team's goals.

"It doesn't help because now you have a huge target on your back," he said. "Everybody is going to go after you. It helps in the matter of obviously we have had some very successful wins against some top teams and so we should be considered for the Top 25 and we are privileged and very honored to be [ranked] in such a group of elite teams, but the bottom line is that we haven't accomplished anything for this season. We still take it one point, one game, one match at a time. We are forgetting the past. We are forgetting the [foreseeable] future. We are just working on the now."

Restrepo, who is from Bogota, Columbia, and played on the Columbian National Team before coming to the United States to play at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, had coaching stints at East Stroudsburg, Saint Louis University (as an assistant), and Southern Mississippi prior to coming to Norman as the fourth head coach of the Sooner program.

Restrepo's arrival on campus brought a renewed focus and passion for the game of volleyball at Oklahoma because of his intensity and passionate coaching style.

"Well," Restrepo chuckled. "It usually takes a couple of years [to get used to]. It was hard at the beginning because obviously they were not used to [my coaching style]. The word that I always use with them is being passionate about what they do. One of the key things that we always talk about is having fun and being passionate about what you do. These kids love the sport and have been working at it for so many years, they have to be very passionate about it and love what they do. We are intense all the time here, but we are all the time having fun too."

As Restrepo continues to build the Oklahoma program toward National Title contention, it looks like there is more fun on the horizon for Sooners volleyball.