NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Volleyball 10-21-17 Part 2

Continued from Part 1

(There’s a little bonus NM State Baseball coverage at the bottom.)

Halftime

The team went to the locker room.  Injured Brielle Sterns was now on a scooter for her bad knee.  Hannah Combs changed court sides and sat down over a couple of chairs.  I think I saw her laughing a little, which was good sign.  Today’s entertainment featured a bunch of young people serving over the net, trying to hit sweatshirts laid out on the other side.  It was a “Catur-day” promotion with Chester Cheetah on the sweatshirts.  It was a bit disorganized, but spirited.  A texting-based contest was announced for a private showing of the new Star Wars film for “you and 99 of your friends.”

The UTRGV Vaquero girls were out dancing on their end of the court and practicing their moves.  It’s hard to work up any animosity towards these young women.  With 30 seconds left before the next set, I saw the PA nervously looking down the tunnel, wondering where the Aggies were.  They finally came out and went directly to the court without much of a warmup.  As Adam Young on the radio call put it, “Coach Mike Jordan was using every last second to instruct his team.”  As it turned out, it was time well spent.

  

Set 3: Aggies 1, Vaqueros 1

Bridgette Lowe was out starting this set.  A couple of her fingers were wrapped, but I didn’t see the rest of her hand wrapped like before.  The third set started with a bang as Lia Mosher hammered a shot, 1-0 Aggies.  5-3 Bridgette got her first kill on an awesome shot.  6-4 KC Tohm got her first kill of the set.  9-4 Megan Hart was in and came up with a kill.  10-4 Megan cranked another one.  Adam (and myself) called that shot, “The best swing of her career.”  (Spoilers, she wasn’t done yet for the day.)  12-6 Lia and Sasha-Lee Thomas combined on a block. 

14-12 the Vaqueros started a comeback.  Timeout Aggies.  16-12 a Tatyana Battle shot that went out was called an Aggie point on a touch.  The Vaqueros were stunned.  I wouldn’t have blamed their coach for complaining enough to get a yellow card on that point.  Maybe Coach Jordan was right about the officiating.  18-13 Bridgette got a kill on a mis-hit.  She couldn’t help smiling at her luck.  18-14 Barbara Silva got a tip kill for the Vaqueros.  She got revved up on the point.  She is their sparkplug.  19-15 Sasha came right back with one of her usual rally-killing spikes.  21-15 Megan Hart with another kill.  Timeout Vaqueros. 

The music volume seemed to get turned up during the break with the crowd into it.  23-15 the Vaqueros put in Talita Olveria from the reserves, perhaps conceding the set.  The Brazilian girl was very tall at 6’3”, but waifish-ly thin and way too fragile-looking to be playing.  She also had a bit of a hunchback.  I do not say any of this in criticism, but rather in admiration, and dare I say, she’s a pretty girl.  25-15 Aggies for the final in this set. 

      

Set 4: Aggies 2, Vaqueros 1

The players changed sides again.  Hannah Combs painfully crossed the court again.  I’m sure she was hoping more than anybody in attendance that the Aggies would end the match quickly.  Jordan Abalos was chatting with a little girl as she crossed, maybe a coaches’ daughter.  I noticed Brooke Salas and Sara Lopez from the Aggie Women’s Basketball team in the student section (and probably a couple of other members that I didn’t recognize from a distance).  After the match, I saw an Aggie football captain, Dalton Herrington, on court, chatting with Adam, so there were probably some other football players there.  The girls on the Vaquero bench were still dancing to the PA music and working it.  These girls are probably fun dates.      

This set started off on a bad foot right from the start.  At 0-2 Vaqueros, Coach Jordan argued a point.  He sent Tatyana, as current court captain, over to talk to the up official.  The ref had had enough and issued a red card.  I’d wondered what would happen if somebody got a red card, which I hadn’t seen happen before.  Now I know; the other team gets a free point.  That’s a pretty good discouragement, 0-3 Vaqueros.  Coach Jordan continued to stand at the side of the court during play.  At 0-5 Lia missed a set into the net.  The girls looked discombobulated.  The coach finally sat back down.

Tatyana scored the first Aggie point at 1-5.  3-6 Megan Hart made a solo block.  4-6 KC powered a shot through the defenders.  5-6 the Vaqueros were called for being out-of-rotation again, while the Aggies were serving.  I swear I didn’t see this called all last year and now I’d seen it three times in one game.  Things must be tense.  6-6 Megan and KC teamed up on a block.  7-7 Megan slammed a confident kill.  I knew she could be good.  She just needed two legs underneath her and some regular playing time.  8-7 Aggies, KC got fired up after a kill.

It was all Aggies after getting the lead.  12-9 Megan and Sasha on a block.  14-10 Tatyana with a kill.  16-11 Lia with her tenth kill.  17-12 Lia went crosscourt for a kill.  19-13 another kill for Lia.  She came out.  Associate Coach Ben Wallis gave her a big smile as she went to the bench.  19-16 KC missed on a bad set.  This was another thing I kept seeing this morning that I’d pretty much never seen.  The star player on the Vaqueros, Bojana Mitrovic, was also firing shots into the net on bad sets.  It was happening on both sides of the court.  More tension, I guess. 

20-16 “roofing” was called on the Vaqueros (hitting the top of the ball going over the net).  I called it too.  I must finally be learning the rules here (except for the mysterious “net violation”).  21-17 KC put one down with some heat.  22-17 Megan got a block.  23-17 Megan got her eleventh block.  23-18 “lifting” was called on the Aggies.  I didn’t call that one.  I think it’s hitting the bottom of the ball going over the net.  25-20 the Aggie girls roared on the court with the set and match win (3-1).  This match had to be emotional in about every way: big game with the conference leader, dramatically losing a player, and getting big performances from Lia and Megan.

After such a hobbled start, it seemed unlikely the Aggies would get the lead and pull away in the final set, but that’s what they did.  Adam suggested they were rallying for the coach.  I certainly give Coach Jordan credit for some tremendous halftime adjustments.  I don’t think the Vaqueros got tired or mentally broken.  It seemed more like confusion.  They were very prepared Tatyana Battle and might have been okay with KC Tohm (led with 16 kills) and Sasha-Lee Thomas getting points, but didn’t foresee freshman Lia Mosher killing them (second with 12 kills).  They were also not prepared for Megan Hart being a factor (4 kills, 11 blocks!).  If it’s possible to a hide 6’5” girl and surprise an opposing volleyball team with her, the Aggies did it. 

After this match, I don’t think other teams will be overlooking Lia and Megan, but with all the Aggies’ attacking and blocking options, they’re going to be hard to game plan against.  And, I’m still convinced Julianna Salanoa (3 kills) will click and be a force before the end.  If you’re going to lose your star player and two other starters, you may as well try and win by throwing the kitchen sink at your opponents.  For the moment (pending tonight’s games), the Aggies are tied for first.                 

During the match, they were promoting the next game with a video image featuring Hannah’s picture.  I don’t know if it was a bad coincidence or they quickly put one together for her.  She was out on the court on crutches, while the other girls were settling down for autographs.  Hannah didn’t look happy, but at least she didn’t seem traumatized (unlike myself).  I’m going to guess what she was thinking: I was finally starting and doing well!  This sucks!  Hang in there.  You can come back from this, and you’ve shown the coach you can play. 

In the post-match interview, Coach Jordan wasn’t happy.  Man, if there was ever a time to give your girls a little pat on the back, this was it.  Sheesh.  You really got some stepping up from your players in the face of adversity.  He singled out Julianna in his grumbling, but at least he thought she had some use.  For my part, this was a great game, a great win, and was totally terrible being there.  Even if I’d just been listening over the radio, I still would have heard that scream that I was hearing in the back of my head for the rest of the afternoon.  That’s always a risk.  You never know what’s going to happen at a sporting event, good or bad.

 

     

This doesn’t really merit a separate post, so I thought I’d stick it here, since it ties into the volleyball.  I decided to check out the Aggie Baseball inter-squad scrimmage at the nearby ballpark, since I’d finally gotten the times for their games.  I’d gotten cold at the Pan-Am center, maybe from some shock, and thought some fresh air and warm sunshine would be a good idea.  I was more than surprised to find the parking lot full and a couple of RV’s parked there.  I couldn’t hear much going on from outside the stadium, but inside, there was a good crowd.  I heard someone say there were 101 people there for Family Weekend.  I think there were more.  I may have seen fewer fans at actual games.   

I took the opportunity to sit in the reserved section behind home plate.  (By the way, the seats at the ballpark are more comfortable than those at the Pan-Am Center.)  It was higher up than I usually sit, but it was a better view of the field.  There were definitely moms and dads and brothers and sisters there.  Drinks were flowing with the moms and dads.  Hot chicks in little shorts were in attendance.  (These ball players have it good.)  The crowd had a lot of chatter going, but they were fairly quiet in terms of game cheering.       

The players mostly wearing the same uniforms and all those were without numbers.  I’d brought a roster from last year, which was no help.  A couple of players were doing the umpiring.  One player stood behind the pitcher to call balls and strikes.  I had no idea what the score or inning was with the scoreboard off.  After I’d been there for a while, it was a bit like The Sandlot reenacted (without the dog), an endless game, played seriously, but for fun.  Without any names, I can’t give much of a scouting report.  There was a home run to right center that got the crowd going.  Marcus Still, the one guy I could identify, made it to third base on a bad throw to first on a grounder.  His mom shouted out, “He gets that from me!” 

Suddenly, the game ended.  I don’t know what the score was or who won.  As the crowd slowly dispersed, I noticed three members of the volleyball team were there.  Well, I definitely had something to say to them.  I caught up with Megan McGuire, Kiley Tonge, and Savannah Davison and congratulated them on their win.  Megan spoke up for the group, and they were indeed happy.  Of course, I asked next about Hannah Combs’ condition.  The doctor on site didn’t think anything was torn in her knee, but they’d be checking with an MRI.  Hannah sounded like her soul was being torn from her body after the injury, so this was encouraging news.  Megan sounded so professional and polite speaking to me about the game, I wonder if the girls take a “charm” class in dealing with fans and the media (or maybe some Jordan Abalos rubbed off on the team). 

Okay, interesting morning and afternoon at the university and a lot to digest (and write).  It was a good time with a very bad moment mixed in.  I went to What-a-burger afterward and finally used that free burger coupon I’d gotten at baseball in the spring.  It was great, and I told the guy at the counter.  “Of course,” he said.  Now that’s a great attitude.