Christopher James

Here’s an interesting story to get you through the holiday doldrums. Remember back when the Maryville College volleyball and women’s soccer teams were playing in the NCAA tournament over in Texas? Scots volleyball coach and athletic director Kandis Schram had some surprise guests for her team’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA second round against Southwestern in Georgetown.

“We’re standing there and I mean their crowd was huge, not hostile, but it’s loud and all of a sudden when they’re calling our team in the announcement I hear this roar,” Schram said. “I look up and our women’s soccer team flew into San Antonio, got two vans, drove over to watch us play. It was incredible.
“It was about an hour and 40, probably 45 minutes, but the fact that they came a day early, gave up practice time to come and support us was an amazing experience. I was so proud at that point as an athletic director. They came in just jogging, ‘woah!’. It was our 30 kids or whatever and coaches compared to, across the net, a buttload of students. They were loud. They were boisterous. They sat behind our bench and cheered for us the whole time. It was neat.”
Despite the cheering section, the Scots dropped the match and two days later the women’s soccer team was sent home as well, losing to Trinty. It was still a fun trip for soccer coach Pepe Fernandez.
“We flew into San Antonio then jumped into vans and rode over to watch the volleyball game,” Fernandez said. “The girls started talking about it and I said, ‘Guys, what’s the chance we’re going to see one of our other teams in an NCAA tournament where we’re this close?’ We had a great time. (They volleyball team) looked like they were pretty excited to have some fans there.”