Sports Journal Women's College Volleyball Edition 10-27-19

After two volleyball games this week (10-24-19 and 10-26-19) and one on Monday, how about a double header on Sunday?  I’m usually a bit skeptical when Stadium schedules live college sports since I’ve burned any number of times.  (Actually, they had a volleyball game scheduled for Saturday that didn’t come on, which was okay since it conflicted with Aggie Volleyball.)  I was more surprised than anyone when the two scheduled volleyball games came on Sunday.  I kicked back for the next four hours and watched.

First up was a Mountain West match in Las Vegas with UNLV.  This match happened on Tuesday, but it was new to me.  Since the coverage was a bit chopped in places for time, it initially skipped who the opponent was.  Strangely, I recognized the opposing libero.  I couldn’t remember where until they finally announced the other team was the UNM Lobos.  I’d seen them in person last month (vs Pacific and vs A&MCC).  The player was the rather sexy Alena Moldan.  I also remembered their star player, Lauren Twitty, as well. 

I’d seen UNLV in person too, but that was two years ago (vs UCLA and vs Aggies).  I’d also seen them on TV (10-13-18).  Mostly I remembered the pretty Norwegian blonde, Thea Sweder, who was still playing with them.  (Her name is not pronounced how it looks apparently.)  It was a sparse crowd for the home team.  The arena has the look of a big warehouse, but I do like the big hanging banners of the players up on the walls.  The Rebels were decked in pink for an awareness game. 

The Rebels were a good team at 10-9 (6-2 conference).  They were on a winning streak and had comeback on Boise State, down two sets and down 24-22 in the third, for the win.  The Aggies had had their way with the Lobos (9-7-19) and so had most everyone else.  They were 6-15 (1-8 conference).  Colorado State and Kirstie Hillyer (#13) were mentioned as undefeated in conference.  I’m not surprised.

Set 1 started badly with an overturned call.  I liked the Rebel’s announcer, whose name I didn’t catch.  After a UNLV ace, he made a comment about the team serving well, and then the next one went into the net.  “The announcer’s jinx strikes again.”  He described ace serves as being, “High risk, high reward,” propositions.  The Rebels got three aces in the set.  “The Lobos look like they’re stuck in cement.”  Aces were good for the fans.  T-shirts were thrown out with each one.  (There weren’t any cheerleaders there doing it though.)  After holding the Lobos to a negative hitting percentage, the Rebels won Set 1, 25-12, with an ace.

Set 2 was joined in progress, 11 points in.  Those Rebel aces were coming at a price.  They had 9 service errors to this point.  The Lobos took Set 2, 25-19.  While that set was cut short, they showed half of the five-minute break before Set 3.  The Rebels took that set, 25-16.  They had their sixth ace.

They showed the break before Set 4 too.  They weren’t editing the match well.  Early in the set, there were two back-to-back challenges on the same point.  That took awhile.  The Mountain West conference doesn’t have the high-speed cameras and silhouette system of international volleyball, so reviews take some time and aren’t generally conclusive.  It’s probably a good thing the WAC doesn’t have challenges.  They don’t seem worth the time and the effort without the technology.  The UNLV girls danced and posed for the cameras during the break.

The Rebels got a point by digging a ball they hit off the net.  Then they had another net serve.  “The net is either you best friend or your worst enemy.”  Alena made a great save on a play by going into her own bench for a dig.  Later, there was another challenge.  Alison French started jazz dancing to entertain the crowd.  The announcer was painfully honest during this delay.  “I’m sitting here talking to myself.  You can only give the stats and scores so many times when the game gets brought to a screeching halt.” 

UNLV was serving at match point.  “This would be a great time for another ace.”  The serve went way out.  “I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.”  They went ahead and won 25-19 and 3-1.  Three Rebels were in double figures.  Only Twitty had as many as 10 for the Lobos. 

Following that match was a live contest from the Patriot League between the Lafayette Leopards and the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.  I was informed that this was a rivalry game.  I wouldn’t know otherwise. What I was fascinated by was where they were playing, Grace Hall.  This was Lehigh’s home court there in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Your typical volleyball court is laid out inside of a basketball court.  In this case, the volleyball court was laid out across perpendicular across the center of the basketball court.  This was because the stands pulled out over the ends of the basketball court.  On one end of the volleyball court was a glass window wall covering a large stairwell.  Servers stood right next to it.  Servers stood up against a blank wall on the other side.  Balconies lined both ends of the court.  I saw a couple of balls rebound out there.  Of course, there was a low ceiling and it was in play.  It was like they were playing in phone booth.

The announcer kept talking about the weather as it was interfering with a Lehigh soccer match.  It was suspended, but would have to be replayed because there were postseason implications.  (That could have happened with that darkness match the Aggies had on 10-4-19.)  I didn’t entirely understand this weather talk until later.  The clouds apparently broke and sunlight came down on the court.  I never figured out where the light was coming from, but it was natural.

There was good attendance in the bleachers, at least on one side.  You couldn’t put a very big crowd in there.  They were raucous though.  The small venue amplified the acoustics well.  Balls that were struck hard enough boomed.  As for the teams, Lehigh was in dark brown.  Lafayette was in dark blue.  Both liberos were wearing white shirts.  You could barely tell the teams apart.  

While Lafayette had the better record, you could throw that out for a rivalry game.  In Set 1, Lehigh went down big, but came back to tie it with a 14-4 run!  They lost it 25-23 though.  During Set 2, in spite of the action on court, I drifted off.  I’m embarrassed.  I missed the end of the set.  I was woken up by Morgan Uber giving the Patriot League report.  I couldn’t sleep through that.  The scorekeeper fell asleep too and forgot to update the set score.  Lehigh had tied it. 

Set point #1 for Lehigh in Set 3 was an epic rally.  They took that in extra points, 26-24.  They won the match in Set 4 with an ace, 25-15 and 3-1.  The Lafayette coach only called one timeout during the match.  He preferred to let his team play through any issues.  Interesting philosophy.  Okay, that was a fun afternoon, if not quite restful even.  Hopefully, Stadium will show a couple more volleyball matches before the season ends.