Unlike the last volleyball post, no rants this time
and I was there. Our last opponent was
undefeated in conference. This time, the
opponent, the GCU Lopes, was winless
in conference. Over the course of Adam Young’s radio call, he emphasized
that they have played everyone tough, but just haven’t been able to come away
with a victory. Going into this, I was
also smelling a trap. A lowly opponent
after a big win, usually seems to bring out the worst in a team. In the pre-game interview, Coach Mike Jordan called his team “the
Mother Theresa of volleyball charity,” for their numerous errors. I wonder if he was concerned about this
matchup too.
I showed up thinking, I’m
missing playoff baseball for this. This
had better be good. My loyalty to
the girls overpowered my love of baseball this afternoon. My favorite, Jordan Abalos, was still on the bench, injured. However, she wasn’t on the crutches anymore
and could walk. She also seemed in
better spirits, chatting with some of the girls on the bench. Jordan was sitting next to a young girl,
probably . . . oops, wait . . . that’s Brielle
Sterns. She looks way younger with
her hair down. Brielle is also injured
and she’s on crutches. As good as she
was, I wonder if they can red-shirt her, so we can get four full years with
her. Unfortunately, Adam seemed to
indicate that they’re both done for the year.
It was a good crowd, reported to be just under a thousand,
but I didn’t know how good until the Anthem.
There was some sound system problems.
Everyone was standing for about 30 seconds in silence until an older
fellow nearby me started singing. Given
that he had a great singing voice, there was no embarrassment on his part about
going a cappella. Of course, the rest of
the crowd and myself joined in. I
couldn’t see the Aggie players from where I was facing, but the GCU players all
turned around as the singing started. I
had my earplugs out, so I didn’t hear whatever Adam said afterward. For anyone wanting to protest the Anthem,
this is what you’re up against: everyone else.
Great patriotic moment, but these technical glitches at the Pan-Am
Center are kind of mortifying in front of opposing teams and occasional
national audiences. Work out the bugs
and be better prepared, guys.
The player introductions were different. The music for the Aggies’ intro video was
changed from Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song to Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic. I’m mentally hearing a needle scratch an LP
as I write that. Just a bit of a tonal
shift. It’s not a bad song, very catchy,
upbeat even. The lights went down and
spotlights careened across the arena, which was new, but they didn’t focus on
the girls as they were being introduced.
This didn’t entirely make sense for an introduction.
Set 1
This was a good start.
Hannah Combs got a kill for
the first point of the match. This was her
second appearance of the year, as she did well in the previous game versus Bakersfield. Megan
Hart and Lia Mosher joined her
in starting, so the Aggie went “tall,” but lots of substitutions went in and
out on the floor. 3-4 GCU, KC Tohm got her
first kill, continuing her good play over the last several games. 6-6
Ari Sierra served up an ace. It was looking tight so far, but the Aggies
seemed flat-footed and were making errors and having net violations. (I still can’t figure out what is and isn’t a
net violation. The players are hitting
the net all the time.)
9-10 GCU point and Associate
Coach Ben Wallis was out on the floor getting frustrated. 9-11
this was a long point won by the Lopes. Kaylee Neal made a great save in the
middle of it to keep the point going. 9-15 the Lopes made an error leading
into a media timeout. Coach Jordan
started in on the team. Once again, I
could hear him pretty easily, well away from the bench and over the ambient
noise. As poorly as the team was
playing, I’d judge him to be somewhat restrained in this circumstance.
10-18 KC was
blocked on a shot and the Lopes’ bench erupted.
11-18 KC whistled one through
the blockers on the next point. 12-19 KC again with the kill. 13-20
Lia pounded one into the floor for her first kill. Sasha got into the act with three kills in a
row to bring the score to 16-20. On the next point though, GCU was basically
unblocked and hit in an easy kill. Adam
seemed concerned about the lack of defense on that point. One can only imagine the coaches’
thoughts. GCU would take the set 19-25.
Set 2: Aggies 0, Lopes 1
Since the team is missing key players and having to use some
new ones and doing lots of cycling in and out, the girls were trying to figure
things out . . . in the middle of the
season . . . during a game . . . with the coach screaming at them. I give them lots of credit for not
crumbling. Meanwhile, I experienced my own
hardship with two pen malfunctions during the set and had to go to the
pencil. Always have a backup.
Bridgette Lowe started with her hitting hand still bandaged. (Is using the left hand out of the
question?) The Aggies looked even more
confused at times early in this set, with the girls having trouble on court
coverage, but they kept the score close.
3-2 Aggies Hannah got another
kill. 5-3 was an Aggie point where KC completely laid out for a dig. 7-5
Lia and Sasha combined on a block. 8-7 Sasha on a solo block. 13-9 Hannah on an overpass kill. 15-10
Lia on a block.
16-11 KC powered
one between two blockers. 16-12 was a Lopes’ point where KC
appeared to have jammed her fingers on a mishit. She got a kill on the next point, but came
out right after, holding her fingers. In
her absence, GCU went on a three-point run.
Timeout Aggies. On the video
screen, a little girl was shown dancing to Taylor
Swift’s Shake It Off. Too cute.
19-16 Sasha broke up the run
with a cross-court kill.
22-20 Lia and Tatyana Battle ran into each other
going for a tip. The Lopes players started
to get really enthusiastic. Timeout
Aggies. 23-21 KC got a clutch kill.
Timeout Lopes. The GCU girls gave
a big shout coming out of the huddle. 23-22 Lopes got an ace as KC shanked
the dig. 24-22 side out Aggies on another KC kill. 25-22
it’s all KC here as she served for the set.
Sasha got the kill to finish it.
We’re tied in sets.
Halftime
As I went out to the bathroom, I was walking behind some
younger girls, who might have been there for a volleyball clinic earlier. They were jumping around, pumped up, and
ready to play. If you have any more injuries, put me in Coach! Future Aggie stars. Back at my seat, I could see the DJ in the
corner dancing while working the music.
It wasn’t my usual aisle seat and that cost me right before the next
set. Jordan Abalos unexpectedly came
down the stairs. (Don’t they have
bathrooms in the locker rooms?) If I’d
been where I usually sit, I could have said, “Hi, how you doin’ Jordan?” At the bottom of the stairs, she messed with
Adam while he was on the air. I guess
she’s in good spirits at least.
Set 3: Aggies 1, Lopes 1
I’ve saying how the Aggies were having problems, but most of
what I’ve been listing has been Aggie highlights and how close the match has
been. The Lopes played pretty steady
ball, while the Aggies played good and bad.
Set 3 was another a tight, close affair.
3-3 Hannah was back to serve
and hit the tape on the net. The ball
fell over on the GCU side. She’s had
some serving issues (as has some other Aggies), but after this lucky shot, her later
serves easily cleared the net. 6-5 Aggies, KC got her first kill of
the third set. 10-8 on a long point, Sasha finished it definitively.
11-9 Hannah put a
beauty of a kill into the corner of the court.
12-9 she came back with a tip
kill. 13-11 Megan Hart, who’d been in and out for much of the match, got
her first kill. 14-14 an Aggie error tied the game.
16-15 Aggies, this was
another Aggie error. The players even
complained about the call as the crowd joined in. “The boo-birds are out,” as Adam said. 18-16
a GCU ball dropped between three Aggies.
Ari actually ran into Hannah in the confusion.
18-18 Timeout
Aggies. The score tied three more
times. 22-21 Aggies, KC pounded a nail into the court and pumped her fists
afterward. 23-21 KC again and she was fired up. During a break, the PA gave an Aggie soccer update. They were winning 2-1 in Seattle. A cheer went
up from the crowd. 24-21 Natalie Mikels dropped in an ace. Somewhat like the team, Nat’s serving goes
from good to bad. She also worked hard
on the setting today would lead team in that stat by the end. 25-22
KC finished it with her seventeenth kill.
2-1 Aggies in sets.
Set 4: Aggies 2, Lopes 1
During the break, a promo was shown for the Aggies’ Downtown Rally later this
month. The spot featured Pistol Pete. Some young girls down in front were trying to
figure out the Macarena. Another group in the student section had it
going. I’m getting exhausted just
watching this match. It’s been
tense.
The first point was an ace by Briana Ainsworth. (The PA
loves saying her last name.) Or was
it? The point was called for the
Lopes. One of their players had kicked
the ball off the ground on the serve.
Another player one-handed it over the net, while the Aggies were
celebrating, and it dropped in behind them.
The referees conferred and wisely gave the point to the Aggies before a
riot broke out. Adam was a bit
despondent, “If that play had stood, it would have made it on to Sports Center
tonight.” (Maybe the crowd doing the
Anthem would have gotten on too. Oh,
wait. It’s ESPN. The “Conscience of American Sports” wouldn’t
have been interested in that.)
The teams matched each other early, point-for-point. The Aggies got a lead at 8-7 on a Lopes’ error. 8-8 usually solid Ari served one
out. Adam reported Coach Jordan tossing
his playbook into the air. Service
errors and net violations abounded in this match and neither team was
immune. 9-8 Aggies, Sasha got a sweet tip kill. As hard as her shots are, that’s a great way
to mix it up. 10-9 ugly point, but Aggies got it on a block. 11-9
Hannah again on a hard kill. 14-13 Lia put in a tip kill after
missing hard on the previous point. 15-13 KC kill, her twentieth. Media timeout. There was an announcement that Aggie soccer had won their match.
17-13 Sasha-Lee
went crosscourt for the kill. Timeout
Lopes. The young girls up front had no
trouble going Gangnam-Style during
the break. 18-14 KC fired a cannon shot into the floor. The Lopes didn’t even react to it. This was the first point that I thought they
looked tired. Earlier in the set, Adam
had called it. The team was coming off
of a hard, five-set loss on Thursday, and he wondered when it would catch up
with them. 19-14 Sasha again. 20-14 Sasha! Boo-yah!
24-18 here was a great kill
by the Lopes, but it was ruled out late.
That didn’t seem right, but it wasn’t their day. 25-18
for the set and 3-1 Aggies for the
match.
Adam Young had been emphasizing that Grand Canyon was a good
team in spite of their record. He’d said
they hadn’t been swept in any of their matches.
From what I saw today, they are a hard-luck 0-7 in conference. I have to think, if the Aggies had played the
same and the Lopes had come in fresh, this probably would have ended
differently. After Set 1, I was ready to
blame an Aggie loss on the weird new player intro production.
Coach Jordan had calmed down for the post-match interview,
but he said he was furious with the team in the first set. They were not following the scouting reports
and their assignments. This was
correct. Everyone could see that the
team was a bit disorganized. I’m sure
they practiced a lot with the new personnel changes, but doing it for real in a
game was going to be a different experience.
There was going to be an adjustment period, especially with all the
players that were moved in and out in the first set. By the end of the match, play was better, but
I’m sure they’re not done with the awkward moments and confusion from changes
and experiments.
I thought this was another good win. They lost a set, but still won the
match. You can’t expect to sweep every
opponent. You’re not playing cardboard
cutouts on the other side of the net.
The other team wants to win too. I
thought it was also good that a bunch of girls got some good playing time. Sticking with Hannah Combs definitely paid off today and should in the
future. She’s been on the team all
season (though she might have been injured earlier for a bit). She just needed some play time to shine. I think some other girls on the bench could
do the same, but they’ll be rough at first.
You’d have to have the patience to let them play through it.
Here and now, it looks like KC Tohm has taken over in leading the team. Whatever happened after that bad game against
the Roos, flipped the switch and she’s been on fire. Sasha-Lee
Thomas is great, but I think her time on court is still limited by nagging
injury. Tatyana Battle, also great, isn’t a senior and still has some areas
that need work. KC finished with 21
kills. Sasha ended with 14. Taty had 11.
Hannah came in with 7. Hopefully,
this is a sign of things to come from her.
I think the team needs one more good player at the net to
win the conference. (I say this mostly
because I doubt the Coach is going to change anything in the back row or
setting.) Lia Mosher is solid, but is a raw talent right now. Megan
Hart still seems tentative, whether from injury or lack of playing
time. I think Bridgette Lowe could contribute, but not with a bad hand. Julianna
Salanoa had a rough outing on the road and didn’t appear in this game. She needs more playing time to develop. Is Savannah
Davison able to play? I thought she
looked like a smart player in the Scrimmage.
While the girls were doing interviews and sitting down for
autographs, I watched a guy at the Scorers’ table. He was doing a magic trick for some little
kids. I was just seeing it from the
back, but he must have been doing a good job because he had all of their
attention. Coach Jordan was also doing
interviews. He stopped to talk to some
young girl volleyball players, who seem to gravitate around him. No doubt they’re dreaming of the day when he
could be yelling at them on the bench. Before
he left, I caught the guy who started the Anthem earlier and congratulated
him. He’d almost forgotten doing it. I was satisfied with watching a good match
today. Schlotzsky’s for lunch!
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