Abby's volleyball season continued on after their first couple out of town tournaments. Once they started playing regular season games, they had games on Tuesdays and Fridays. Since their games started right away, her friends from last year were still in town before heading off to college, so they got to see Abby's first home game. They even made a poster which was so sweet. For varsity games, they announce the players at the beginning of each home game, so that's fun to hear Abby's name and get to cheer really loudly for her.
Even after the rough start to the season and Abby sitting the bench more than she wanted to, she still got to set for most games. She's the second setter so she doesn't start, but she gets to go in and play, so she's happy. Here she is serving and setting.
She had a large cheering section at her first home game. After the game, I took pictures with all of her fans. Here she is with Hugo, Nat, and Sabrina. And then one with the church girls - Braelinn, Gracie, and Sarah.
One of their first games of the season was against Coronado HS, their big rival. The players were all announced and they got to throw balls into the audience.
As each player gets announced, they'd throw the ball and then high five all of their teammates, the refs, and then the other team's coach. There were so many people in the stands. It's always a big rival game, so I barely got a seat in the top corner of the stands. I watched and cheered, but unfortunately Abby didn't get to play at all that game. The coach had told her she probably wouldn't play, so she kind of figured, but it was still hard for her to just sit the bench for the whole game.
Other games weren't so bad and she played, but sometimes the only time I got to see Abby on the court was during the warmups. The coach had two other setters that she preferred using, so Abby didn't get to play unless it was an "easy game" or if one of the other setters was hurt. Abby and one of her teammates, Selma, were two of the three or four seniors who didn't get much playing time. They tried to lift each other's spirits and cheer on their team, but it was hard for them.
Their last out of town tournament was to New Braunfels. They got to fly there as a team, and I didn't get to go to this one either. Luckily, since it's so close to San Antonio, my parents were able to go to some of the games and cheer Abby on. They even took a picture of her setting for me. When the team flew back to El Paso, we had to pick them up from the airport. I talked the other girls into going with me to pick her up. We even made some quick posters to welcome her home. I took a picture of the girls by the ELP sign in the airport while we waited for the team to get there. It was fun to cheer her home and show our posters, but I think it embarrassed her a little. The rest of her team and the coaches thought it was super cute, but we were obnoxiously over the top as we welcomed her back and I was happy to have her home even if we embarrassed her.
After a couple weeks of games, they had their big Margaret Haussmann tournament that Franklin hosts. Abby got to play during the easy games, but by the time they made it to their final games, Abby knew she wasn't going to get to play very much.
However, during the championship game of the entire tournament, they were playing Coronado again and after a few mistakes by another setter, Abby got to go in. She ended up playing all of the final set and they ended up winning the tournament. Abby was so happy to be a part of the team and that she was a part of their victory.
It was a good, close game, but we came out victorious. We took a picture with both teams at the end of the tournament - Franklin and Coronado.
I thought it was so cool because Abby started showing up on their Instagram posts the more she played through the tournament. I was so proud of her and for her dedication to not give up. Some of the seniors quit after the first couple tournaments because of their limited playing time. Abby thought about it, but she knew she had to stick it out and it paid off. She was there when the coach and team needed her and she stepped up and helped her team get the win.
After that tournament, the second setter that Abby replaced in the championship game ended up quitting too along with another player. It was hard seeing the team shrink in size, but Abby was more than happy to move up and take her spot. As they played more games, she was excited to be back on the roster playing regularly whether they won or lost. Abby did her best every time she was on the court and I was happy to just get to watch her play.
Taryn had Fall Picture Day in August. She dressed up in her new jean dress and had me braid some of her hair. Our plants were in full bloom, so I got a picture of her in front of the pretty purple flowers before we left for the day.
Aubrey ended up making the B team for volleyball this year. Originally they had cut all of these girls and Aubrey was sad that she and one other girl from last year's team were the only ones who didn't make the team this year. However, after they found another coach, they ended up calling all of the girls who didn't make the team and invited them to be on the B team. Some of Aubrey's good friends were on it too, so that made it more fun for her even though a lot of the girls were beginners.
Aubrey was one of the few who knew all the rules of the game and she even helped the coach a lot as they practiced. It was fun to see her shine and do her best. She had one of the toughest serves on the team, as long as she got it over. But when she did, it was near impossible for the other teams to return it.
Aubrey's dance team performed with dozens of other dance and cheer teams at a UTEP half time show. We were excited to go watch her perform and go to a football game. I was running kids around so I didn't get to help Aubrey get ready. She's really good at doing her own hair and makeup, but I did make it home just in time to get a picture of her as she was leaving to catch the bus. Once we made it to our seats, we were near where all of the dance teams were sitting. We were able to get some better pictures of Aubrey in her dance outfit.
I even walked over to get a picture of Aubrey with some of her teammates. Sam Kasallis also came to the game with his dad and Aubrey was happy to have him come sit with her and all of the other cute dance girls. I'm sure he didn't mind at all.
I tried to take a picture of Aubrey as they lined up for their half time performance. She mentioned that she was in the front of her row and team, but it was just too far away to really see her. I did like that the El Paso Texas sign was right above all the dancers as they lined up. I was a little sad because even though we were near where the dancers were sitting in the stands, we were on the opposite side of the pressbox, so when the dancers performed, we only saw the back of the performance. Aubrey was fairly easy to spot since she was on the end of her dance team. She's the one on the 36 yardline at the tip of their team's triangle.
It was fun watching her perform even though we didn't get to see it from the front. I took this long shot to show how far away we were from the field, but also to show how many performers there were and how full the stands were. They each did their own dances to the same music, but then came together near the end to dance the same all together. It was a good performance.
Here are a couple more closer up shots of Aubrey. They were on the end of the dance groups, next to the cheer groups, but that made it easier for us to point her out and see her.
Tyler and I had fun cheering on the UTEP team and Aubrey and her dance team. Abby invited Kyler and they were cheering everyone on too.
We took a couple more pictures after the performance with Aubrey. Abby wanted one with her and I made Sam take one with her. I thought they were really cute pictures.
At the Franklin-Coronado volleyball game, the drumline plays during the warmups. It's one of my favorite events because Abby and Tessa are both at the same event. I love cheering on the drumline and hearing them play and following them around like a groupie.
As we waited for the JV game to end, I visited with the drumline and explained to them how the volleyball scoring works. They were there early enough that Abby was even able to stop by and get her picture with them. They came over from marching band practice so they didn't even have matching shirts or uniforms on. I realized too late that it would've been awesome if they had shirts that said something about Abby, like maybe her number or something. Abby would have been totally embarrassed (especially since she didn't play at all that game), but I thought it would have been hilarious and awesome! Oh well.
Tessa had her first official cross country meet and it was the meet that Franklin hosted. It ended up being overcast and a little muddy. All the girls ran together and Tessa ended up in 4th place just below the fastest senior and two new, super fast freshmen. I was so proud of her for her 4th place finish. I even had to take a picture of the results page to remember and keep her time. It was a great start to the season.
Tessa was able to run with Varsity for one of their out of town meets because they let 10 girls compete instead of the typical 7. She did great and she had fun running. Except for that 4th place finish, she usually comes out around 8th or 9th place out of the Franklin girls which has her at the top of the open (JV) runners. For a sophomore, that's awesome!
This out of town meet was at Southlake Carroll which is outside of Dallas. She had a fun time running against some of the top runners in the state. I did not get to go, but I was happy that other parents were there and took pictures for all of us.
Tessa has also been staying busy with marching band. They decided this year that they didn't have enough percussion players to have a marching drumline and frontline, so they had everyone on frontline. Tessa was sad at first because she had worked so hard to make the tenor line and she was looking forward to marching with Gisele on tenors. But once they started learning the music, Tessa decided it wasn't too bad since they were all together, and because she was still able to play a lot of the tenor parts and be one of the top marimba players. As parents, we got to go see a little showcase after the first few weeks of school to see how much the kids had learned.
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