NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Volleyball 10-21-17 Part 1

Ever have one of those days where you get everything you wanted handed to you in the worst possible way?  Read on. 

Today’s match had an early start time, which was a change made last week.  A good crowd showed up on time anyway for this big match up with the current conference number one, the UTRGV Vaqueros.  The Aggies were playing for a share of that first place.  In their first meeting, the Aggies lost in five.  Coach Mike Jordan partially blamed the officials for that loss in the pre-game interview.  That seemed like a risky position to take with the referees before a match.  Not to mention, I’d think the WAC wouldn’t take kindly to those kind of comments to the media either.  More troubling, the coach didn’t sound very confident going into this match.        

I saw Jordan Abalos’ grandma at the ticket office.  She was wearing a shirt pretty much identifying her.  Jordan herself looked good spirits, chatting with fellow injured players, Brielle Sterns and Jordan George.  The two injured “Jordans” would be helping out during practice.  There was an announcement about Jordan during the game, but I didn’t really hear it with the radio call going in my ears.  I think it was about her grandmother and breast cancer awareness.  The “Pink” campaign seems to be winding down this year.  I realize I’m spending way too much space on somebody who isn’t playing, but Jordan’s my favorite. 

On one level, I hate the UTRGV Vaqueros because their nickname and school name are a pain in the ass to type.  There’s no easy abbreviation for them either.  I have no idea where they’re from.   On the other hand, they’re a good team.  Last year, they beat the Aggies in the WAC Tournament here on their way to winning the whole thing.  They also remind me of the Aggies, in that they’re an interesting-looking team with a variety of appearances and sizes.  Teams where all the players look alike seem to have some inherent weaknesses in play and in appeal.  (Except for UCLA. They were awesome and very easy on the eyes.)  The team is composed of a very international cast with 11 of their 16 players from outside the US.  (I doubt anybody in the US knows where UTRGV is, much less foreign nationals.)  To add to the compliments, their girls are having fun on the court and the sidelines, which is good to see.  They also play with high socks.  The look works for them.

To be totally treasonous, I have to pick Barbara Silva on the Vaqueros as one of my favorite enemy players.  I remember her from last year.  She’s fairly tall with a healthy build, but really cute and very passionate.  I guess with Carol Grasso gone, Barb’s my new favorite hot Brazilian player.  Also of note on the Vaqueros was Veronika Jandova.  She’s a tall, lean blonde from Prague.  The European blondes just always look different from American ones somehow. 

Up front at the Pan-Am entrance, a couple of sharp-looking new Aggie Men’s Basketball posters were being given out.  I skipped the Concessions again since I’d just had breakfast.  For player introductions, I noticed that the Vaqueros line up their entire team on court, not just their starters.  For the Aggies, their intro music went back to Led Zepplin’s Immigrant Song.  The arena staff also got the spotlights figured out and shined them on the players as they were introduced.  The Vaqueros watched the Aggie team video and seem to enjoy the show.  The crowd was good-looking and enthusiastic and ready for volleyball.

Set 1

The match started off tight, as I’m sure most people there anticipated.  3-2 Aggies, KC Tohm had already gotten her second kill and she was pumped.  4-2 Aggies got the point on some good blocking.  The Aggies were going “tall” with Megan Hart, Lia Mosher, and Hannah Combs starting.  5-3 Another Aggie point.  Megan didn’t get the kill, but had two good swings during the point.  This was looking like a good match. 

On the next point, there was a joust at the net.  Suddenly, one of the girls went down.  Above the din of the crowd, a scream seemed to fill the entire building.  The crowd went dead silent as the scream continued.  I had my earplugs in, listening to Adam Young’s radio call.  Five seconds later with the delay, I got to hear it all over again.  It was Hannah that was hurt.  The training staff and a doctor (there’s always a doctor there during events) tended to her.  The Aggies on court huddled up in prayer.  Eventually, the staff was able to help Hannah up and off the court.  I’d assumed they were going to be taking her directly to a hospital, but instead took her to the side of the court to work on her, more or less out of sight.    

No matter how gruesome, seeing somebody injured in a recorded clip is nothing compared to seeing it live.  This is always the worst part of watching women’s sports.  When one of the girls gets injured, it hurts ten times worse than watching a guy in a similar situation.  It’s one of the reasons why female race car drivers have had problems getting sponsors: they don’t want their name on the car in the event of a fatal wreck with a woman driver.  If and when it happens, you’ll see why, because it will be an entirely different reaction than a male driver dying in a race. 

I’m sure I wasn’t the only fan there that was rattled.  Both teams, to their credit, refocused quickly.  Given that kind of accident could happen to any of them at any time (and has happened to some of them), you couldn’t play if you couldn’t completely put that out of your mind, even after just seeing it happen.  Julianna Salanoa came in for the Aggies.  As much as I wanted to see her get some playing time, this wasn’t how I wanted it to happen.  The point was actually replayed.  That is a good and fair rule for such a circumstance.  After a couple of points, KC cycled out and ran over to check on Hannah.  The Aggie reserves could see her clearly where they were standing and kept looking back at her treatment.  I swear all I could hear for the next five minutes was that scream.

Well, back to the game recap.  7-7 Vaquero point.  Coach Jordan got a yellow card for arguing a questionable call.  Surely this wasn’t the same crew from the last time these two teams played, but their relationship picked up right where it left off anyway.  7-8 Vaqueros’ point on a good block.  They are a really good blocking team.  This is why Coach Jordan wanted more blockers; it’s intimidating.  Ask Tatyana Battle, one of the Aggies’ leading scorers.  She had five swings in a row blocked. 

Even this early in the match and set, the points were really hard fought.  8-8 Sasha-Lee Thomas did what she does best, score big points.  10-10 Lia got a kill for another big point.  11-10 Tatyana finally broke through with her first kill.  13-10 Aggies, after an Aggie ace, the Vaqueros were called for being out-of-rotation.  That is a hard-to-believe call on such a good team.  15-10 Julianna and Megan combined for a block.  Timeout Vaqueros.  15-15 Vaqueros went on a run, punctuated by an ace.  Timeout Aggies.  18-17 Aggies, Sasha put it between two blockers for the kill.  18-19 Vaqueros’ point.  Timeout Aggies.  When the team returned to the court, they actually huddled up for a moment for a couple words of encouragement. 

19-23 the Vaqueros continued their run.  Taty was blocked again.  They had her played well.  20-23 another big kill for Sasha, trying to hold off set point.  20-24 Barbara Silva got the Vaqueros to set point with an emotional outburst.  Oh, this one wasn’t over yet.  22-24 this was an ugly-looking point, but the Aggies took it on a block.  23-24 timeout Vaqueros.  24-24 Tatyana didn’t give up and got the kill to tie it.  25-24 Aggies, timeout Vaqueros again.  We’re going to extra points.   

I apologize that events were coming so fast and so dramatically that I couldn’t keep taking notes and watch.  Megan got a big block on one of the extra points.  26-26 Tatyana may have gotten the dig of the year here.  Bojana Mitrovic, the Vaqueros’ standout player, slammed a monster kill that Taty somehow managed to return.  I was ducking for cover on that swing.  27-27 KC forced it through the Vaquero blockers for a kill. 

With another set point, Coach Jordan sent in freshman reserve player, Jordan Pleasants, to serve for it.  Adam tagged her as one the team’s best servers in practice.  29-27 the Aggies finally took it on a long point that involved Julianna saving a ball that bounced off the net.  With Hannah’s injury, the hard-fought play, and that thrilling final point, the crowd was amped up and exploded with the win.  That may have been the loudest I’ve heard a volleyball crowd at the Pan-Am.     

Set 2: Aggies 1, Vaqueros 0

The teams switched sides.  Hannah Combs came slowly across the court on crutches to join the team at the other end.  Her knee was bandaged up pretty tightly.  Of course, she got a round of applause as she crossed.  I’m sure everyone watching was in some measure of sympathetic pain.  At least she was still there and not being carted off to an emergency room. 

Early on at 2-3 Vaqueros, Julianna got her first kill.  She looked as upbeat as she usually does with the reserves.  When she got called back to the bench, Julianna had an animated conversation with Associate Coach Ben Wallis, not an angry or defensive one, but an edifying one.  I really like her attitude.  In the meantime, Coach Jordan received another yellow card for arguing.  He was not letting up on the officials. 

7-11 KC got in a kill to break up a run.  8-11 Julianna got an overpass kill.  11-11 KC tied it on a kill.  Timeout Vaqueros.  12-16 an out-of-rotation call was made on the Aggies.  This was entirely uncharacteristic.  It seemed to be on Julianna.  The coach didn’t argue it.  15-19 the Aggies got a dump shot to break up a run.  16-19 Lia got an overpass kill.  17-21 Lia again with a kill.  Timeout Vaqueros.  18-22 Lia with another kill, but the Vaqueros would take the set 20-25.  The Aggies had some good moments here, but UTRGV had recovered from Set 1 and their game plan looked pretty solid.

 

Continuedin Part 2