I wasn’t actually at the game. Does it count that I meant to be at the game? I had to be at work for a very long night (3:30 am) to do a scheduled upgrade to the computer, but I was able to watch the match thanks to the WAC digital network. Actually, I’d been watching the other tournament games too. I even saw the Aggie girls there watching the games on Thursday, which only pissed me off even more about not being able to take the week off to go to the tournament. I could have been sitting there with them, showering them with praise, basking in their presence, and fawning over them with admiration. [Honest Edit: This likely would not have occurred, but I would have told them “Good luck,” if I’d seen them.]
In the game preceding the Aggie match, the CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners were beaten by the Utah Valley Wolverines. At the time I had severely mixed feelings about that result. Not that I’ve seen a huge number of games at the university, but Bakersfield had the distinction of the being the only opposing team that I’ve ever hated. When they beat the Aggies last month, I had to cool off for a couple of days before I wrote my recap. For the tournament, I was definitely looking ahead to seeing a re-match. I wonder if the Aggie girls were thinking the same way. (Of course they were.) However, in a terrible personal admission, I would have wanted to have seen Bakersfield if they’d in the championship game, even without the Aggies there. What can I say? Like the Aggies, the Roadrunners have that almost indefinable quality of charisma, which is what makes both teams so compelling to watch.
The broadcast was well done with the familiar professional call of Adam Young. He was joined by a retired coach for color commentary and even a sideline reporter. There were some cut-away segments, including scenes from the conference awards dinner. Ariadnne Sierra (“Ari”) won libero of the year and looked very nice in an evening gown. Carol Grasso of Bakersfield won player of the year. I’d kind of wondered whether the players fraternized or not between the teams. I still don’t know. For some reason, watching the video, I could almost sense some sort of tension between the tables. Probably, my imagination.
Being at work, I wasn’t taking notes during the match, so I can’t give a play-by-play recap. I’d seen the Aggies beat UTRGV in straight sets early in October. I’d noted that the Vaqueros had a good record on the game program, though the Aggies were actually undefeated against them lifetime. (I got that stat from the paper and I kind of question it, since I haven’t heard it mentioned anywhere else.)
This night, the Aggies dropped the first two sets to the Vaqueros. The first was close, the second wasn’t that close. Coming out of halftime, the Aggies rolled on them in the third set. The fourth set was again close and tight. At one point late, four of five serves went into the net, as both teams seemed nervous. The Vaqueros got to a match/set point first, and I mentally cringed having foreseen this as a bad scenario for the Aggies to be in. Sure enough, the next point ended it. The Aggies would not be playing in the championship tomorrow. UTRGV celebrated on court. A few of the girls fell to the court, perhaps in relief. (This was okay. I just got mad about Bakersfield’s win because they were celebrating during the match.) [Honest Edit: Hey, this was a lot easier than writing out pages of play-by-play.]
The newspaper listed Alisha Watson of the Vaqueros being instrumental in their victory. UTRGV would also win the tournament the next day over Utah Valley, with Alisha named the MVP. They will go on to the NCAA tournament, some games of which will be held here in Las Cruces. [Edit: This is what's on the Aggies' schedule poster. I find no evidence elsewhere that such games will be occurring here. Did the poster-makers jinx the Aggies this year by putting that on the schedule?] The Aggies do have one more game versus UTEP, but it’s in El Paso on a weeknight and I won’t be able to go.
My Saturday night schedule just opened up in a most unwanted sort of way with this loss. My boss, who was with me during the upgrade, was all on board with seeing the Aggie girls play in the championship after going to the Aggie football game in the afternoon. How we were going to stay up all night and go to two games the next day seemed a little questionable.
After an hour and half delay on the football game, we got out of the stadium just as the volleyball championship was starting. I was tempted, but after freezing for the last couple of hours, I couldn’t ask Ron (or myself) to do anything else for the evening except eat dinner. No offense to the Vaqueros or the Wolverines, but they weren’t enough of a draw. (They played three sets, but they were all close.) I did briefly entertain the thought that the Aggie girls might have been there watching and that I still had a chance to sit with them. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. I didn’t even recognize myself in a mirror when we went over to Schlotzski’s. After a couple of hours of exposure, I looked like a German POW surrendering at Stalingrad.
I wonder what the crowd was for the game. The Thursday games were not well attended. The Aggie game got about 1000 by Adam’s estimate, which was larger than usual. It might have looked a bit sparse on the broadcast in the 13,000 seat Pan-Am center, but in-person, it would have felt like a good crowd. They seemed really loud in the broadcast for pretty much the whole match.
I suppose I need to tie a proper bow on this. Over at Bleed Crimson, which I finally recently stumbled over (and an excellent blog, I might add), they interviewed Coach Mike Jordan before the tournament. Three weeks later, he finally admitted that three of the girls were sick during the Bakersfield game. Tellingly, he also said that a couple girls had injuries that were going to have to be corrected in the off season with surgery. While Coach Jordan criticized the team for mental lapses and getting by on talent, rather than smarts, during the season (which was likely correct), late in the season, it looked like physical problems took over. Simply, this wasn’t the same team I saw in September.
Sasha-Lee Thomas’ absence from regular play has been keenly felt. I’ve seen her (on TV) absolutely takeover in a match against UMKC. Regrettably, that was likely also the game that finished her off for the rest of the season. Her ankle was already bothering her before playing. She could barely walk afterward. Thereafter, Sasha was only ever used in a limited fashion. Losing her full-time really hurt. In this match against UTRGV, they seemed to be keying their defense on Jordan Abalos. They wouldn’t have been able to have done that if Sasha had been out there more.
Team captain Abalos had been dominating earlier in the season, but I suspect she’s been hurting for a while too UTRGV game, more than she’s let on. I’ve seen Jordan before fearlessly taking shots, even after missing several, and coming up big. She seems to get better with more swings. Since Jordan plays every point, I think she has had to pace herself since (or been used more sparingly in attacking), rather than taking the lead. As Adam noted after the match, the Aggies had the Vaqueros beat on kills, which usually produces a win, but the Aggies’ attack errors did them in. Without Jordan relentlessly attacking and Sasha backing her up, the team just wasn’t aggressive enough to cover the errors.
Without their two prime offensive weapons playing up to their full potential, the Aggies suddenly became very beatable. Tatyana Battle has been carrying the team for the last few matches. Being the primary attack option was a lot of pressure to put on a sophomore and she stepped up. Tatyana just needed more help. Kassandra “KC” Tohm was really good in this match. She has star potential, but unfortunately KC has been the fourth attack option for most of the season. It was a little late to change things up in the tournament. Most of the points were pretty quick and decisive. It’s strange to talk about an Aggie match, without mentioning Ari making a bunch of great saves, but there weren’t many long points for her to shine on.
Hannah Combs has shown some potential in limited play. Bridgette Lowe has as well in other games, though I think she was only used in this match on the last point. I’m convinced Megan Hart will be a force on this team in the future. Her height makes for a downward angle on spikes that can’t be stopped. I’ve been really disappointed that I haven’t seen Lexi May used with her, like in the UMKC game. Though they play the same position, with their 6’5” height, I’d pick my spots to play the both of them on court at the same time. The intimidation factor alone would be worth it.
Regardless of any match outcome, I deeply and passionately lov . . . err . . . think very highly of these wonderful young women. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to see them playing in-person one more time this season. I’m looking forward to next season as no one will be graduating and hopefully any injury issues will have been dealt with. In the meantime, I’m going to miss these girls. I’ll miss Brianna Ainsworth’s ever present smiles and sets, Ari’s acrobatics, Alexsa “Crash” Parker serving curveballs over the net, Sasha-Lee’s passion, and just watching Jordan play period. While this has been a brief affair, it’s been a memorable one.
I still haven’t figured out what an “out of system attack” is. Maybe next year.
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