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.
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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