It was hard not to wonder how the Aggies would respond after Thursday’s shock loss. Still that was no reason to show up Saturday to the Pan-Am Center an hour early for the game. Ron and I did go by the ticket office first to buy tickets for tonight’s Aggie Football game. I’ll get to that later. (Actually chronologically, Friday night we went to a Chihuahuas game. I’d rather do that first, but I need to get some pictures and scans and finish filling out the scorecard.) It was shaping up to be a long day and night of Aggie Sports.
We pretty much got there before the teams did. There were only a couple of Cal Baptist players on court warming
up, along with a few scattered fans. At
the top of the steps, we ran into Rito on the Aggievision crew, who’s the son of a co-worker. I chatted with him for a minute. He’d already been there a while and would be
there working the football game, too.
Going down the stairs, we ran into Marketing Director, Nicole Sack. Ron began haranguing her with some ticket
ideas (mostly discounts). I spitballed a
couple as well. Ron told me after that
he’d been hoping to run into her.
The rest of the CBU players came out quietly. The Aggies were howling down the tunnel
before they came out to a round of applause from the fans that were there. They seemed in good spirits and loose. Coach
Jordan apparently hadn’t broken their will to live in his postgame
comments.
Ryleigh Whitekettle was dressed out to play after sitting out Thursday for injury. She was practicing digging with Kacia Brown, who accidently bumped one into a group of fans. They were laughing and embarrassed. Ashley Herman, who seems to be the team’s exuberant mascot, and senior, Lia Mosher, were dancing to the Jackson 5’s, ABC, in a near-choreographed routine.
Lia and star, Katie Birtcil, met with the CBU captains and referees at the scorer’s table. It was all smiles and everyone shook hands. The Aggie girls burst into the Aggie Fight Song while waiting to use the court to practice. Okay, the Coach fired these girls up in the right way. While practicing hitting, Ryleigh accidently slapped one into the seats where the CBU coaching staff were sitting, including their very attractive blonde assistant coach, Michelle Wright. (I’d remembered seeing her before, 10-28-19.) The Lancers were wearing tank tops with arm sleeves to play in. A boldly bad fashion choice, though not as bad the pants some of the Aggie girls are wearing. Mia Jerue (pictured) on their team looked cute. She was singing along with Icona Pop’s, I Love It, on court.
It was a good crowd of over 800. During the Anthem, I could hear a chorus of
girls singing, but I didn’t figure out who it was. The Cheerleaders
were not here. They were going to be
busy with Football later. Pistol Pete was here and looked kind of
lonely.
Set 1
Our starters were Lia, Katie, Darian Marham, Taylor Snow,
Molly Johnson, Bianca Perez, and Mari Sharp. Mari had the first Aggie kill at 1-2
CBU. Katie had the next two, before Jayde Shelton and Rylee Fay (pictured at the top) subbed in. Katie
had another kill at 4-5. The up official
wanted the ball, examined it, and then threw it out of play. Did Katie bust the ball? I could believe it.
The Aggies went on a run as Mari got a couple more kills
and Jayde spiked one into the corner.
10-6 Aggies and timeout CBU. A
group of pretty young blonde girls came in and sat at the courtside table. They might have been family members, as they
met with the team after the game. CBU
got back into it with a block and an ace, 10-9.
12-10 we had our first long rally.
Mari and Taylor ended it on a block.
The Aggies extended the lead to 13-10, but Reese Reed on CBU made a great dive trying to save the point.
Mari had a tip kill and Molly got her first kill. Taylor aced at 16-13. Katie buried one and CBU took a timeout on
the next point, 18-14. Coach Jordan
seemed calm and approving of the play so far.
Pete tossed t-shirts into the crowd during the break. A second Aggie service error got the Lancers
back into it. 18-16 a serve that was
going out was instead dug on the Aggie side.
Two players then collided in the confusion. Nobody was hurt, other than their pride.
Katie put in another kill and Mari added another on a
touch call. 22-16 was another long
rally. Lia and Jayde ended it with a
block. Morgan Stewart came in to serve.
Lia buried another attack. 22-20
CBU got back into it after winning a long rally. The Aggies showed effort, but looked bad on
the point. Timeout Aggies. Mari put in a kill out of the break. On the next point, she dove over the scorer’s
table going for a dig. Katie got two
more kills to finish off the set, 25-22.
Set
2: Aggies 1, Lancers 0
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’d just seen all the
players that were going to play today for the Aggies. (Mia
Peterson is listed in the official scoring as being in Set 1 for at least a
point. I never saw her, but I might have
blinked and missed her.) There were no
starting changes for Set 2. Ron changed
seats to the other side of me. I swapped
seats to the side of him in the next set.
There’s been a guy sitting in front of us these last few games that
likes to stand up a lot cheering and we can’t see the court around him.
Mari chipped in an early kill at 1-1. Taylor added a couple of kills. 4-2 Aggies, Lia and Molly combined for a
block. Taylor had a service error and
the Coach yelled at her. Molly had another
kill at 5-3. Meanwhile, Pete was talking
with another, out-of-uniform Pete. There’s
several guys running around games with big, black mustaches. Other Pete would help with the next t-shirt
toss.
7-5 Katie with an offspeed kill. There was a delay as the camera at the net
was dislodged. I’m surprised that doesn’t
happen more often. The Aggies had their
fourth service error, but it wasn’t hurting them. Lia came in with the tip kill, Mari had a
kill off a block, Taylor slapped a kill, and Bianca put in an ace. 12-7 Aggies and CBU took a timeout. No problem.
Bianca came back with another ace.
The next point was another insane rally.
A CBU player got a dig with her shoulder at one point. It was initially ruled for the Aggies as
Katie leaned out of the way of an out-swing.
However, it was overruled on a challenge.
15-9 Bianca did it with a dump shot here. 16-10 this was the kill of match. Molly hit one hard enough that the dig ricocheted
straight up and hit the bottom of the scoreboard and dropped in for the
kill. After another kill by Katie and an
ace by Rylee, CBU took a timeout, 18-11.
Morgan came in after another Katie kill.
20-13 Morgan did her signature move as she ducked under a serve at her that
went out. When she comes in, being a
reserve player, she gets aimed at.
Mari got another kill.
Morgan had a couple of good digs on the next point, but it ended on an
Aggie Double Touch. This got the Coach
going at the refs. 21-15 Jayde put
another kill into a corner. That’s her
shot. CBU challenged another call and
prevailed, but the Molly had another kill and the Aggies took Set 2, 25-17.
Set
3: Aggies 2, Lancers 0
At the start of the set, Lia went over to fist-bump Assistant Coach Whitis. He ignored her until it was obvious she
wouldn’t go away and finally gave in. He
was really vocal from the bench during the match. Ashley usually high-fives everyone before a
set starts. She started with Coach
Jordan, who reluctantly gave her a slap.
(How could she not be his favorite?)
Mari and Taylor started the set with a block. Molly hit the backline on a kill. 6-2 Aggies, Katie had a solo block. She was doing this in addition to the kills
and getting a bunch of digs in the match.
Katie also had a couple of kills in between Lia accidently slamming a
shot into the net. 9-4 timeout CBU.
The Aggies ran up the score. Jayde and Mari had two kills each. Lia came back with her bearpaw slap and a tip
kill. Bianca and Katie had aces. 18-8 timeout again CBU. The Aggie reserves were whooping it up. I didn’t recognize the movie, but there was a
clip about fireworks on the video screen to promote the fireworks show after
Football tonight. Even the down ref was
laughing.
The Lancers cycled in some of their reserves, including Mia Jerue (who did get a kill). This might have sparked a rally for the team along with some Aggie errors. 19-13 Molly hammered a kill. 20-15 yet another long rally. This one ended on a tip by Taylor. 20-17 probably the longest rally of the match. Though CBU took this point, the crowd applauded the effort by both teams. Timeout Aggies after losing 7 points of their 10-point lead. Maybe it was for a blow after that point, maybe it was for strategy. The coaches huddled amongst themselves for a minute before talking to the team.
22-17 Rylee dialed up an ace. That was number 7. The Cane’s Challenge was achieved. More on that in a minute. 23-18 no more messing around, Lia pounded
one. Morgan (pictured) came in to serve. Jayde and Lia combined for a block on next
point. For match point, Morgan hit the
tape. The ball hung there for an instant
and then fell over on the CBU side for an ace.
25-18 and 3-0 Aggies win! The crowd was really going there on the last
point. Morgan maybe got a little
tight. She was totally embarrassed by that
serve, putting her hand to her mouth in shock.
The rest of team razzed her.
Katie
Birtcil pretty much did it all and led in kills with 14. Mari
Sharp came a bit out-of-nowhere with 12 kills. Molly
Johnson had 9. Christine Graf led the Lancers with 9. The Aggies led convincingly in all the
categories, though the blocks were low and nearly even. It was 49 to 29 in kills and 8 to 1 in aces (with
5 errors). Bianca Perez had 3 of the aces.
While this was a sweep, CBU played very tenaciously. I don’t know when I’ve seen so many long
rallies in one match. Lastly, props to
the PA (whose name I keep not getting), who did a great job, including doing fan
commentary on Flex-cam and Dance-com.
It was like Thursday’s disastrous game never
happened. I’d attribute the change to
Coach Jordan. He finally decided on a
line up and stuck with it. In an
interview done after this game played during the football broadcast, he was
actually pleased with the outcome. I’d
hate to put the UTRGV game on Alana Embry being worked in as a third
setter, but that seemed to throw the offense all off, even the other setters
(which doesn’t make sense). As Ron said,
“They were six players on court Thursday.
Today, they were a team.”
Still, this can be a problem. There’s a bunch of good players sitting on
the bench right now. I don’t know how
good they’ll be if needed in a pinch if they’re not getting some work in. They’re too good to be sitting around
watching the game for the rest of the season.
They’ll transfer to somebody else’s team next year, unless they’re told
they’ll be starting next year.
We ran into the usher that Ron had befriended during
Baseball season. He asked her about the Raising Cane’s Challenge. If you take your game ticket to Cane’s, you can
buy one meal and get one free. We didn’t
have tickets, just the passes. She
suggested showing the passes. We went by
the ticket office and they didn’t know for sure either. They gave us two old tickets.
We went to Raising Canes and mentioned the Challenge and
they just gave it to us. I wonder if
this success might depend on who the manager was on duty and how busy they
were. I didn’t realize though that it
was for the four-piece meal. I ended up
giving a strip to Ron, who guzzled it instantly.
Ron had forgotten his radio again for the Football game. We went by my apartment and I grabbed my extra one. Then Ron decided to go back home to get his. He lives on the outskirts of town. In other words, we had plenty of time to get back before the Football game started.
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