NM State Aggies vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners Volleyball 10-12-17

I feel like this report is a bit dishonest because I wasn’t actually at this game.  I wasn’t able to see it either.  The WAC Digital Network didn’t work for me, and I think AggieVision wasn’t showing it on TV.  Though I was at work, I was able to listen to the whole match on the radio and look at the Statcast, so I was virtually there, kind of.  

As you can see, I took copious notes on the match, so I decided this merited a full post.  If you ever wondered how these get written, I look at my notes and wonder myself.  This sheet is actually much worse my usual notes, since it includes several different games and sports from a couple of weeks of activity.  Like every report I do, most of the work is deciphering my random scribbles and then rifting off them.

To provide some context for tonight’s match, Aggie volleyball went one and one on their recent road trip.  The bad news was that freshman standout, Brielle Sterns, was injured.  I’m presuming it was during a match, instead of the usual practice-related injury.  I’m also guessing the injury happened during the win on the trip.  More bad news happened on the loss that occurred in the next game.  They lost another five-set match.  They’re 0-4 on the season for those.  Most of the team’s wins have come in straight-set victories.  If the team can’t dominate an opponent, they have problems.      

                  

From listening to Coach Mike Jordan on the Aggie Coaches Show, I learned that the girls have three-hour practices and whoever practices best, gets playing time.  This is illuminating on all the team’s practice injuries.  Of course, the girls who’ve had plenty playing time, probably practice the best too.  He was also thought the team was lacking in offensive options.  This came into play in longer matches.  After three sets, the other team has seen pretty much everything the Aggies have.    

At the beginning of the season, the coach obviously felt set on attacks and digs.  He immediately put in the freshmen, Brielle and Lia Mosher, to shore up the blocking game, which was seen as the main deficiency.  Unfortunately, losing Jordan Abalos and some nagging injuries to others, have really hurt the offense.  Tatyana Battle has stepped up.  Sasha-Lee Thomas is great, but her playing time seems to be limited.  (I wonder if she’s in some real pain out on court.)  KC Tohm had a great road trip, leading the team in kills in both games, including a career high.  She’s gotten over whatever problem she in the last home game, and that’s an awesome bounce back. 

But, the team really needs a couple more reliable options without Jordan.  Losing her was like losing three starting players on the team.  It’s not an easy switch out.  You can’t anticipate injuries, but it seems like a good like idea to get as many players as possible into some actual games, even for a couple of points, just to give them some experience.  I was pleased to see Julianna Salanoa got into the action on the road.  It was a rough outing, but I’m sure she learned a lot more than in practice.  (Yes, I know.  She’s my pet project.  I’m sure she’s going to be great at some point.) 

This team carries a large roster, but seems thin.  To be overly honest, even with six other defensive specialists on the team, if anything happens to Ari Sierra, they’re probably screwed.  Ari is tremendous.  She’s so good at her position, she probably gets double the number of digs as anyone else in any given game, especially with Jordan gone.  Could anybody else make up some of the difference if she was gone?  Who knows?  The most of the other DS’s aren’t playing.  What’s going to happen next year with Ari and Kaylee Neal gone?

Is this a rant or a game report?  Play-by-play has never been my specialty.  Tonight’s opponent was CSU-Bakersfield.  Last year’s meeting at the Pan-Am Center was an Aggie loss.  Moreover, the Aggie girls had a long conference home-winning streak snapped, didn’t clinch the conference regular season championship that day, and the Bakersfield girls pretty much rubbed the Aggies’ noses in it.  Celebrating after the win would have been fine, but they did it all during the final set, when the Aggies clearly had no answer for them.  (I wonder if they knew that three of the Aggies best players had the flu the day before.)  If this were baseball, the Roadrunners could have expected one in the ribs for that display.  Neither team made it to the conference tournament final, which would have been a great re-match.  (No guarantee for the Aggies there either.  By the end of the season, they were really physically hurting.)      

Oh, this is embarrassing.  Here I’d been looking forward to this game since last year and it literally snuck up on me.  Until Adam Young announced tonight’s opponent on radio, I totally didn’t realize that this was it.  Crap.  I don’t think I could have taken the night off, since I just got back off vacation.  If I’d known, maybe I would have changed my vacation dates, maybe.  As treasonous as this admission is, I kind of wanted to see the Roadrunners again.  They were an attractive, charismatic team, especially Carol Grasso.  She made me actually wonder if there was any way to meet an opposing player for an autograph and a little chat.  Wait, what?  Carol’s not on the team anymore?  She graduated?  Aww, man.  This is just one blow after another. 

This current Roadrunners team was second in the WAC with a 5-0 record.  The Aggies were missing two starters.  Adam, somewhat incredulous and apprehensive, announced their starting lineup with Kaylee Neal, Bridgette Lowe (with a bad hitting hand), and Hannah Combs, who was making her first appearance in a game all season (she may have also been injured earlier in the season).  For such an important game for the Aggies, this was a curious set of starters.  You can literally see all of my game notes up top, so this game recap will not be terribly detailed.  

Set 1 was defined by one epic point.  This may have been the longest point I’ve heard the Aggies play.  It went on long enough that I thought Adam was about to run out of breath calling it.  The Aggies took the 8-4 point.  It reminded me of a Colorado State/Boise State (10-5-17) point, where the crowd got quieter and quieter in awe as it went on.  (That one was in the fifth set in extra points.)  The Roadrunners did not recover.  They even got called for an out-of-rotation serve.  25-14 Aggies for Set 1.  I’ve seen good teams kind of give up if they go down big in a set, and seem to mentally prepare to do better in the next one. 

Lia Mosher got in some good points blocking.  Lia’s already a good player, probably on the way to being great.  I see her showing up a lot in Aggie promotional pictures on the team Twitter feed and the newspaper.  The camera loves her, not just for being attractive, but for looking great in action poses.  We await seeing her on a schedule poster someday.

The Aggies did what they could to hand Set 2 to the Roadrunners.  They had 7 service errors.  Even the cheerleaders were having problems and accidently interfered with an out-of-bounds save.  Bakersfield for its part was serving up ace after ace.  (Boy, is the team missing Jordan Abalos’ return of serve skills.)  The Aggies trailed for most of the set, but were never put of it. 

I don’t know if the line scoring would back me up on this, but I put the turning point of set on Hannah Combs.  (Great picture on the autograph poster by the way.)  She got a couple of kills and an ace.  (And I seem to remember her getting a dig.  Tall girls getting digs is great.)  Like Bridgette Lowe’s contribution in the UNLV game, reserve players doing well really seems to rally the team.  (Another reason to let them play.)  The Roadrunners got to 23, but the Aggies reeled off four straight points to pull rug out from under them.  Set point was another epic one with the crowd and even Adam roaring.  25-23 Aggies and up 2 sets to none.   

In Set 3, the Aggies went up big and never looked back.  The Roadrunners made a run at it late, but it was too late.  25-14 Aggies take the set and the match, 3-0.  Jordan Pleasants and Kiley Tonge made brief appearances in the set from the bench.  Kiley’s a bit tall for a DS on this team, but probably a bit short to play at the net.  I wonder how well she can jump and if she could be a setter.

Tatyana Battle, Sasha-Lee Thomas, and KC Tohm all finished the game with double digit kills.  Just from listening, Sasha’s kills seemed to be particularly crowd pleasing.  In Coach Jordan’s interview after the match, he praised Bridgette for making a go of it with a bad hand.  He was reasonably pleased with a three-set win over a tough foe.  There was some room for improvement.  While the team had 6 aces, they also had 10 service errors.  At times, the Aggies seem more capable of beating themselves than the other team doing it.

I’d say this was sweet revenge, but this didn’t feel like a payback game.  While Aggies didn’t graduate anybody, the Roadrunners lost quite a few players.  I remember Sydney Haynes from last year, who was still playing, but that was all.  The Aggies lineup looked different too, especially losing Jordan Abalos.  Worst of all, I feel dumb for not even knowing that this matchup was coming up (or that Carol Grasso was gone).  Regardless, this was a really good win for the team.  They showed a good ability to come back in a tough set and to close out a match.  I think they’ve found something in Hannah Combs too.  None of these girls are on the team by accident.  It’s just a question bringing out their best and giving them a chance to shine.