Thursday, November 16, 2017

Sports Journal November 2-4, 2017

11-2-17
I’m so backed up on writing recaps, I almost forgot about this.  The Aggies took on the Utah Valley Wolverines Thursday night in volleyball at the Pan-Am Center.  I was at work, but was able to watch via the WAC Digital Network.  I was actually really busy.  My notes on the match are so scattered and scant as to be nearly useless. 

The Wolverines featured Madison Dennison, top blocker in the country.  Adam Young, doing the commentary, had fun with another visiting player, Seren Merrill, whom he kept calling, “Merrill the Libero.”  The younger PA guy, who does the soccer, was working the game.  Bridgette Lowe started for the Aggies tonight.  

Again, I was pretty busy.  Set 1 was very close at 25-23 Aggies.  The two teams stayed within a point of each other for almost the entire set.  UV only got 1 block for the set.  In Set 2, the Aggies had a five-point run.  Ari Sierra served up two aces in a row to add to it.  Lia Mosher had a good set.  Late in the set, the Wolverines went on a four-point run to fight off several set points.  The Aggies took it, 25-20, coming out of a time out.  Set point featured the Aggies making an emergency save and a kill off a bad set.
  
Set 3 was a bit of a wipeout.  The Aggies went up by 10 and held that lead, winning 25-15 and 3-0 in sets for the match.  Kiley Tonge came in to serve for match point and got a dig.  KC Tohm led the Aggies with 13 kills.  Tatyana Battle and Sasha-Lee Thomas had 10 a piece.  Megan Hart had 7 kills.  My notes say that the Aggies had 17 team blocks in three sets.  I’m kind of questioning that number, but they certainly voided a really good blocking Utah Valley team. 

Before the Aggie match and during halftime, I caught a bit of the UTRGV Vaqueros versus the Seattle U Redhawks, which was going on at the same time.  The Vaqueros play in a large gym, like a high school arena.  This is where the WAC Championship will be held.  A pair of student announcers were really into calling the match.  They had nicknamed their star player, Mitrovic Bojana, the “Bionic Woman.”  They seemed to be having fun pronouncing all of the Slavic names on the team.  I appreciated the camera work as they got in some close-ups of my favorite hot Brazilian player, Barbara Silva.  The Vaqueros dropped the first two sets and came back to win in the fifth.  The announcers, the team, and the crowd went crazy with the win.  The announcers gave an update from the Las Cruces game, so they were following the standings closely.  


11-4-17
After an emotional Aggie Volleyball game (which I’ll be posting tomorrow), I came home after lunch and listened to the last quarter and a half of Aggie Football versus Texas State.  I could have been listening to the game the whole time, since there wasn’t any radio call for the volleyball, but I figured it wouldn’t be worth the effort and would be a distraction.  I remembered last years’ meeting here (11-19-16) against the Bobcats football team.  Their team bus was in an accident on the way to the game, and they played like they’d been wreck.  In their house, this was a chance for some revenge.

This is going to be a very cursory summary of what I heard.  (I may have been watching something on TV at the same time, but I can’t remember what.)  I came in about halfway through the third quarter with the Aggies up 24-21.  At that point, I was regretting not listening to the whole thing, since it appeared to be a pretty good game.  The Aggies fumbled, but Dalton Herrington came up with a big interception.  This guy really does it on defense.  Driving downfield in the Texas State red zone, Quarterback Tyler Rogers was briefly knocked out of the game on a hard hit.  No problem.  Nick Jeanty came right in and tossed a touchdown, 31-21. 

The Bobcats came back in short order on a good drive and made it 31-28 after a touchdown.  The Aggies’ next possession was mostly on the legs of All-American running back, Larry Rose III.  He rattled off a monster run and then finished it on a short drive, 38-28.  The Bobcats had some tricks up their sleeve.  They got a big play on a gadget play to make it 38-35 late in the fourth quarter. 

Time to end this.  Rogers, back in the game, hit OJ Clark for another touchdown, 45-35.  With two minutes left, the Aggie defense forced a fumble on the Bobcats’ first play.  Larry Rose almost scored another touchdown right before the end of the game, but it was waved off on a penalty.  The Aggies were content to just run out the clock after that for a 45-35 win.  That’s #4.  They just need two more in the next three games, two of which are at home, to end the program’s 50+ year bowl drought.        

Let’s do another Women’s college soccer entry.  Tonight, the Stadium Network was broadcasting the Mountain West Championship game between the UNM Lobos and the SDSU Aztecs.  They were in Las Vegas with the Strip in the background.  They never showed the grandstand on camera, but the small bleachers on the other side of the field did have a decent crowd, especially since UNLV wasn’t playing.  This was a surprise match up for conference experts.  While the Aztecs were picked first in the pre-season poll, the Lobos were picked for last.  Their championship run makes the Aggies win over them early in the season even more impressive.    

The main play-by-play guy may have been the Aztecs’ announcer that I’d enjoyed before, but he had some low energy tonight.  He sounded like he had a cold.  There was a former female player that did the color commentary and an on-field reporter.  I liked the camera work in general, since there were some close-ups of the girls playing (sometimes real close as the action came by the sidelines suddenly).  It was emphasized in the commentary that the Lobos had played a lot more minutes in the tournament than the Aztecs.  The players typically run four to five miles during a match, so those minutes are significant.  It was also cold there.  The fans were bundled up and the players on the sidelines were clearly cold. 

It was the match of the flip throw-ins.  Really, this became something of an obsession in the commentary.  Jessica Nelson on the Lobos would flip in the ball on most of the throw-ins, so it came up a lot.  Late in the first half, one of the Aztec girls Aliyah Utush did one with a throw-in close to the Lobo box.  She seemed to hesitate on it for a moment before doing it as it was her first attempt of the year.  It was a good throw, but their only attempt at it during the match.    

The flip throw-in can be effective, especially when close enough to catapult the ball into the opponent’s box, though it leaves the player in a bad position to follow up.  Earlier in the tournament, Jessica got an assist on a goal doing it.  During the halftime interview, the SDSU coach, who must have called for that one in the first half, said he didn’t like them.  “It’s not soccer,” he said.  There was even a halftime feature on Jessica and doing flip throw-ins.  She mentioned her coach doesn’t watch when she does it (even though the coach is the one who calls for it).  Jessica said she started doing it as a kid, almost implying it wouldn’t be a good skill to try to learn to use in college for the first time. 

The Lobos came out attacking in the first half, but later in the half, the Aztecs took over attacking.  Each team had some good chances, including a crossbar shot for both, neither scored.  Action picked up in the second half.  Early on, after a flip throw-in by Jessica, Jenna Killman (great name) attempted a bicycle kick in the box on goal.  The announcers were loving the showmanship, “Are we watching a Premier League match?”

Finally in the 56’, Aliyah Utush got out on a breakaway.  She was one-on-one with the goalie, who came out, but Aliyah went around her.  A trailing Lobo player tried to kick it out, but the shot rolled in.  Let’s do it again in the 76’.  It was virtually the same play, as Aliyah got behind the defenders and out ran them to the goal.  She was really quick and must have a lot of stamina.  2-0 Aztecs.

Aliyah must be living right.  In the 82’, she completed the hat trick with a low, hard kick from outside the box.  The Lobo goalie laid flat out for it.  3-0 Aztecs.  By this point, the announcer was actually rooting for the Lobos to get a goal and not get shutout.  Poor Jessica.  By the end of the match, I completely lost count of the number of flip throw-ins she’d done, many of them in the closing minutes.  She must have been a little dizzy. 


The SDSU Aztecs won the match and championship.  Aliyah Utush was the unsurprising tournament MVP with her three-goal performance.  The announcers mentioned that the Aztecs had a hat trick in last years’ championship, but actually lost that match.  In the interview afterward, Aliyah was very happy and excited.  She’s also cute and well-spoken.  The Aztecs’ play here reminded me of the Aggies: stay back defensively and counter by putting the ball over the top to a speedy attacker (Aileen Galicia) for a breakaway chance.  So, this style can work.  At the end, after announcing all the awards, the stadium PA finished by thanking the fans, telling them to drive safely, and reminding everyone to set their clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings Time.  That got a chuckle out of the announcers.

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