Thursday, more than 48 hours after the national nightmare began, the Southern Conference decided to postpone all athletic events, including Sunday’s two volleyball matches against Georgia Southern and Lipscomb.
Friday, head coach Deane Webb gathered his team for a meeting in which they discussed the events of the past week. With death and destruction on their minds, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
“I don’t think there was a player who wasn’t (crying),” Webb said.
For the coach, however, the terror was even more poignant in the initial hours after the attack, before he found out his brother-in-law, who works a few days a week in the Pentagon with the Marines, was unhurt.
“I think today was probably the toughest day,” Webb said for his team, which has been practicing, although “not nearly as intensely.”
“It’s hard to come into the gym and be focused,” he said.
“It’s just a really, really hard time to be a college student,” he added, noting the inability for players to grieve with their families while they attend college miles from home.
Yet before Thursday, the Southern Conference had declared all weekend games would go on in spite of recent events, in an attempt to move on undeterred by terrorism.
Webb said he was prepared to support either decision.
“I think it’s a fine line,” he said. “I see both sides.”
The players, who were unavailable for comment, likely shared that sentiment, according to Webb.
“I believe they would have liked to have played.”
Regardless, the shaken team will resume at 7 p.m. Friday at Furman, and will now open up their home schedule at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, in Brooks Gym against Appalachian State.
In addition, the makeup dates for the games originally scheduled for Sunday have been set.
Lipscomb will visit at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29, as part of a doubleheader which begins at 11 a.m. with The Citadel. The Georgia Southern Eagles will come to Brooks Gym at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13.
No arrangements have been made for the non-conference game scheduled for last Tuesday, the day of the attacks, at UNC-Asheville, and it is possible the game will not be made up.
These dates mean little, of course, in light of Sept. 11.
“How we feel now is how many countries feel every day,” Webb said.
“Our hearts and our prayers go out to the people who have been affected.

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