Big news in Aggie Land this week, NMSU will join Conference-USA
in 2023. I’d mentioned this possibility
a couple of weeks ago (10-23-21). They’d gone from 14 members to five members in a week. By this week, they were down to three and
couldn’t be choosey. The good news is
that the football program will finally have a home. The bad news is that most of the other teams
in the conference are in the Eastern Time zone.
UTEP, the only western team
in the conference, can attest to the difficulty of playing back East; they’re
winless in football in over 20 attempts and their basketball program hasn’t
mattered since the move.
This brings up another issue. For whatever reason, UTEP does not seem to want
to be in the same conference with NMSU.
Both programs have wanted to get into the Mountain West Conference. UTEP
had begged them for membership when the C-USA exodus started. UTEP’s football team has had enough of a
resurgence this season that they’re probably hoping to convince them to change
their minds. UTEP might appreciate
having an opponent in the same time zone, but will more likely try to leave
before 2023. (At least, John Tischer, calling UTEP Football
that night, was excited about it. He
suggested their annual conference game be set for Thanksgiving week every
year. It’d be nice for the teams to not
have to travel over the holiday.)
I’m questioning the viability of the conference
altogether. Their TV and bowl deals may
go down the drain with their new membership.
NMSU is glad to not have to scramble for football opponents now, but
they had to leave the WAC in all
sports to make the deal. I know they
didn’t like being in two conferences before (the WAC and the Sunbelt, and who would have figured
them as a winner in all these conference musical chairs?), but now the crown
jewel of the Men’s Basketball
program is going to have to figure out a new conference. The other new members might not be that
great, so the Aggies could be very competitive, but there’s that time zone
difference thing again. The Miners
haven’t really been competitive in basketball since they joined the
conference. Regardless, this was an
opportunity NMSU couldn’t pass on.
For here and now, Aggie
Football was cross-scheduled at home with the Volleyball which me and Ron were coming for. I thought for sure that volleyball would be
rescheduled to earlier in the morning, but I’m not in charge. I’m not actually sure how much crossover
there is between the fans of the sports.
I don’t know about football attendance, but volleyball was about normal. The Aggie
Pride Band and the Flag Corps were practicing outside of the Pan-Am Center when we got there.
The Volleyball team went one-and-three on their long road
trip. They won at home on Thursday
against Dixie State in straight
sets. I wasn’t able to listen to all of
the game, but I noticed Cat Kelly did
well and played a lot. I didn’t realize,
until Ron told me, that one of the regular starter girls was out for testing
positive. That turned out to be Lindsay Blakey. Later that night, Cal Baptist lost to Chicago
State, who are not a joke this year, so that helped the Aggies in the
standings. (They may be tied with GCU for the division lead.)
(One quick other recap notice, Aggie Soccer’s season came to an end in the first round of the WAC Tournament. They heartbreakingly lost to Lamar 1-0. From the account, the Aggies peppered the
Lamar goalie with twice the number of shots as theirs, but couldn’t get any of
them into the net. It was still an
encouraging season. Surprisingly, the games
were being played in Abilene, and not at GCU in Phoenix.)
When I bought my ticket, a large, nice-looking family came
in after me. They were apparently with Utah Valley. (Tickets were $5. I cannot figure out why the price keeps going
up and down on conference games.) They
sat behind the team across the court from us.
They didn’t wear the mandatory masks as demanded by our beloved
governor. The Aggie fans around them also
discarded them. The rest of us compliant
dummies kept them on, regardless of how unscientific they are. Pan-Am staff was short-handed because of the
football game going on, so there weren’t any attendants walking up and down the
aisles with mask signs.
Out on court, Shaney
Lipscomb wasn’t warming up with the team.
She was working out on an exercise bike with a jacket on and her left
knee bandaged, but she looked like she’d be playing. Lia
Mosher was stretching on the floor and not working out with the team. I was a bit concerned, since the Aggie bench
was short. The two girls did play a
little one-on-one basketball with a volleyball against each other before the
match, so they were okay to play. Ron
watched the Wolverines and scouted the team.
He thought they were pretty tall.
They also danced around to I Love
It by Icona Pop over the
PA.
The crowd was pretty good.
A couple of middle school girl volleyball teams came in to watch. The video board showed a couple of
commercials for Jersey Mike’s
subs. Neither Ron nor I knew there was a
Jersey Mike’s in town. A quick search on
Ron’s phone though, showed there wasn’t.
What a tease! The subs looked so
good, we were making lunch plans.
There was some crowd singing along with the Anthem. It was a bit of a poor chorus, but
patriotic. I don’t know if people
wearing masks encouraged the singing (since you couldn’t see who was singing)
or muffled it. The Utah Valley team (hereafter
designated UV) was their own cheering section and they were loud. During player introductions, they jauntily
waved to the crowd, like they forgot where they were. There was another new team video. It was okay.
Regular PA, Ed Carnathan, was
at the football game, but his replacement (whose name I haven’t been able to
catch), did an impersonation of him calling out Lia “Mooooosher’s” name. The up official had a friendly chat with one
of the ball girls on the sidelines for a moment. And with that, we were underway.
Set 1
Shaney started off the match on the bench. After a long rally on the first point, Lia
Mosher (without the vowel emphasis, it’s not as impressive) started the set off
with a whiff at the net. It was an
inauspicious beginning. This was
followed by Cat getting blocked, Katie Birtcil
getting blocked, and pair of overpass kills by UV. Just like that, it was 0-5 Wolverines. Umm . . . Timeout Aggies.
I was watching from across the court with his back turned,
but Coach Jordan seemed fairly calm
talking to the girls. However, it was
Shaney who seemed to do all the yelling when her teammates went back out on
court, “Come on! Get your heads in the
game! Let’s go!” Okay, this is something I’ve wanted to see
with this team, player leadership. It
doesn’t have to take the form of yelling and screaming, but somebody on the
team needs to set the example and motivate her teammates. It’s a little thing, but it’s what makes a
talented team great.
Coach Jordan might have offered up something more
practical, though, in his talk. Katie
dropped in a tip shot for the first Aggie point, instead of trying to get past
the blocking. 2-6 Lia dunked one and
Shaney came in. I didn’t realize at the
time that the seven starting players were going to be pretty much all of the
rotation for the match. 3-7 Katie got a
conventional kill. 4-8 Shaney got her
first kill getting a touch on a crosscourt shot. 5-8 Cat kept the UV blockers honest with
another tip. 6-8 Katie came flying in
from the backcourt with a kill. That’s
becoming her signature shot.
7-8 Shaney powered one down the line. 8-9 Cat came up with a kill. She was all smiles afterward. I think she was glad to getting more playing
time. 9-10 Lia made her move with what I
call, the Bearpaw. 10-10 Katie and Lia
come up with a block to tie it. The
Aggies took the lead on the next point with an ace by setter, Carly Aigner-Swesey. The PA kept pronouncing it, “Shwayzee.” Hopefully, she wasn’t offended. 12-11 Cat painted the corner. 13-13 Lia with a slap kill. 14-13 Shaney on a block. This is turning into a dogfight as the teams
traded points.
16-16 Shaney pounded one into the pretty, small-looking
blonde Wolverine libero, Bryton Bishop. 17-17 Carly improvised a dump shot on an
overpass by Aggie libero, Darian Markham. However, UV got out to a 17-20 lead on an
ace. Timeout Aggies. At point, let me offer a small apology. The action in this match was mostly furious
enough that I had enough trouble just noting good Aggie plays. Obviously, I’m pretty biased here in any
case. The Wolverines played well in the
match, but I wasn’t able to note their most of their good plays.
18-20 Katie came flying in from the backcourt, but tipped
it for the kill. 19-20 a rare long rally
in the match was terminated by Cat with a kill.
21-21 now the coach was screaming.
He was apparently trying to get a sub in to serve, but wasn’t allowed by
the officials. While the argument was
going on, Cat went ahead and served and the Aggies took the point. Lauryn
Taylor then came in to serve. 22-21
Katie with another kill. Timeout
UV. 23-22 the Wolverines and Aggies kept
trading points. Katie got another kill
here. 24-24 Mari Sharp saved a set point with a kill. Finally though, Shaney was denied on a shot
and the Wolverines took Set 1 in extra points, 24-26.
I went long in describing the conference situation. Continued in Part 2
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