Ron and I were
eager and cautious about today’s Aggie
Volleyball match against UC-Santa
Barbara Gauchos. The Aggies had been
competitive in yesterday’s
loss, but the teams were so evenly matched, there was no telling how
today’s match would go. The Aggies had
exhausted themselves at the end of yesterday’s match. Today’s game was in the morning. Would the girls be refreshed and ready? Would Coach
Jordan make a change in strategy (foreshadowing)?
Dad had expressed
interest in going with us beforehand, but pulled out at the last minute . .
. again.
We got to the Pan-Am Center
way too early. The Aggies weren’t even
out on the floor yet, though the Gauchos were there stretching. Today’s program did not have updated player
stats on it. I was still worried at the
time, because the website wasn’t giving the right numbers on last night’s
game. (As if this blog wholly depends
factual accuracy.)
The Aggies did come
charging out the tunnel with a low howl to begin their warmup. Ron likes to watch sports teams’ warmup. I’m more ambivalent. Former star player and current Director of
Player Operations, Tatyana Battle,
looked relaxed and coach-like sitting on the bench casually observing
activities. Coach Jordan came in wearing
a natty sweater vest ensemble.
Setter Alana Embry (pictured at the top)
didn’t seem to have any injured fingers wrapped or bound, but still wasn’t
cleared to play today. The pants count
on the players now appears to be six. I’m
not really entirely approving. The crowd
eventually filed in. Attendance was
listed at 690. It eyeballed at a bit
less than last night. Everyone seemed in
good spirits. One of the TV producers
was singing and dancing before the broadcast.
Set 1
Indeed, the Coach
did make a strategy change. Our starters
today were Darian Markham, Lia Mosher, Taylor Snow, Katie Birtcil,
and a couple of changes. Bianca Perez was the starting Setter,
and Jayde Shelton and Mari Sharp were in. Mia
Peterson, though she did well yesterday, did not play today. The Coach may have been resting her.
Katie got her first
kill quick on the second point of the match with a touch call. Jayde and Mari followed that with kills on
touches and Jayde put in a tip kill. Rylee Fay came in to serve. Katie had a tip kill and Lia had a
stuff. The Aggies were getting off to a
much better start than yesterday.
However, they were only up 6-3 after a couple of net serves.
Katie tooled a kill
of a block (forgive me for stealing that phrase from broadcaster, Adam Young) and combined with Taylor on
a block to put the Aggies out to a 10-4 lead.
Timeout UCSB. That didn’t
help. Katie had another kill. Jayde and Taylor combined on block. Jayde painted the line on a swing. There was an overrule by the up official that
gave her the kill. Katie killed to drive
up the lead to 14-7.
But the Gauchos
came back off of a couple of attack errors and an ace, 14-11. Coach Jordan even caught a ball hit
out-of-bounds and flung it to a ball attendant.
Timeout Aggies. Katie made an
awkward swing on the next point, but still got the kill. Jayde fired another one out, 15-14, and Molly Johnson came in.
Lia was the
stopper. She came in with a couple of
big blocks. Darian made a great
one-handed, off-court save before one of those blocks. Keke
Holloway was in serving and aced to make it 19-17. 20-17 Aggies, Lia, to quote PA Ed Carnathan, “Boom!” for the
kill. Ryleigh Whitekettle was in and got a kill on a touch. Katie killed on a touch. Molly made a flying kill, 23-20. Macall
Peed, the UCSB libero, made a nice off-court save before the kill. UCSB took a timeout, but Katie came back with
a kill and the Aggies finished it out, 25-20.
Set 2: Aggies 1, Gauchos 0
Jayde was put back
out to start, but fired out again on the first point of this set. Mari came back with a kill. UCSB Setter, Mehana Ma’a, got a kill on a well-timed dump shot. The Gauchos took an early lead after a kill
and a couple of Aggie out shots. There
were offsetting net serves, before Katie and Lia combined on a block. Ryleigh fired a kill down the line to tie the
score at 6.
Taylor put the
Aggies in front with an overpass kill.
Katie killed it off a block.
Bianca aced into a corner. Katie
killed off another block and straight buried another into the middle of the
court. But Jayde lost a dig and UCSB
went back up, 11-12. Timeout
Aggies. I was bombed by a Cheerleader during their t-shirt
toss. I wasn’t even calling for
one. I have a bunch of Aggie
shirts. Oddly, this is the second time
this has happened to me at an Aggie sporting event. (I’m not even going to try and find that
post. That shirt bundle went directly
into my lap.) Unfortunately, it was an
XL and I ended up giving it away later.
Taylor gave the
Aggies back the lead with an ace, 13-12.
The Coach stuck with Jayde out of the break and she hit the backline on
the next point. UCSB challenged, but the
kill was confirmed. Reserves Morgan Stewart and Kayleigh Thomas attempted a Cheerleader lift during the break, but
they should stick to Volleyball. (That
near injury would have been really hard to explain to the Coach.)
Lia and Mari
combined on the block. Right after,
Ryleigh mishit off a bad set. The Coach
was mad enough that he started to lecture the reserves. Ryleigh came back with a kill on the next
play. Katie added another kill to make
it 19-16. Timeout UCSB. Unfortunately, there was no coaching answer
to Katie Birtcil, who rattled off five more kills to win the set, 25-20.
Set 3: Aggies 2, Gauchos 0
Freshman Ashley Herman, whose potential the
Coach is high on, high-fived the rest of the reserves before the set and
low-fived the shorter defensive players.
The usually useless scoreboard player scoring had Katie at 17 kills in
the match. UCSB came out of halftime
firing. They took the first two points,
including an ace off the net. Taylor and
Mari got kills. At 4-8, Katie got a
hard-earned kill. The UCSB coach
questioned the call, but it stood. At
4-11, the Gauchos called a timeout.
(That’s what I have written.
That’s seems wrong.)
The Aggies were not
digging well this set. Ryleigh had a
kill coming out the break, but a late double touch call gave UCSB the next
point. Jayde and Mari had kills, but the
gap kept growing. There was also another
DT call and the Coach was furious with the refs. 7-18 UCSB, Kacia Brown, Morgan, and Molly came in. (Yay!
Morgan!) Morgan was only in for a
few points and didn’t have any digs, however she did duck under two shots which
went out for Aggie points. She was
smiling afterward.
I kept hearing a
loud woman’s voice during some points. I
finally figured out it was Darian. She
works up a bunch of chatter before serves.
I’m not sure if it’s instructions or encouragement. Ashley and Sydney McIntosh (who I saw at Aggie
Soccer last night) came in.
Bianca mixed in another ace and Molly had a kill, before the set ended 16-25 UCSB.
Set 4: Aggies 2, Gauchos 1
Molly started for
Set 4. Her and Lia combined on a block
early. Ryleigh had a kill to give the
Aggies a 3-2 lead. 5-2 Lia and Mari on a
block, then Lia with her signature slap kill, and then Mari aced. 8-4 Aggies and timeout UCSB. During the break, they played The Hustle. Slightly odd choice, but everybody and even
players were dancing to it. (What
happened to Jump in the Line? I haven’t heard that yet this season.)
10-4 Aggies, Mari
aced again and followed that up with a backcourt kill into a block. The next point was a long rally that ended on
a UCSB out shot, but they started crawling back into afterward. 13-7 Taylor tooled the block for a kill. 14-8 Mari went crosscourt for a kill. I put an asterisk on this play. She got the kill after getting stuffed
twice. Even after winning the point,
Coach Jordan still chewed out Bianca on court for her setting. But the Gauchos kept coming. After losing the point at 15-13, the Aggies
took a timeout.
Lia hit one out
after the break, but came back with a kill, 16-14, and Katie added a kill on
the next point. Keke was back in
serving. Lia and Ryleigh combined on a
block, but the Coach was furious on the next point after a missed dig. UCSB tied it on a missed shot by Lia, but she
got the lead right back with a slap kill, 19-18. UCSB was getting really vocal and intense, but
unfazed, Darian dropped in an ace to force a Gaucho timeout, 21-18.
Ryleigh got a kill
coming out of the break, but the Gauchos took the next two points to force an
Aggie timeout. “They’re gonna blow it,”
Ron grumbled. UCSB did tie it at 22 on
an overpass kill. Down 22-23, Coach
Jordan was out of timeouts. He
challenged the play call, though it was fairly obviously correct, and
lost. During the break, he got in a
quick word with the team. Ron said
afterward, this was just “Gamesmanship.”
I really don’t like “icing the kicker” in football (especially right at
the snap), but I thought this was okay. Regardless,
it worked. The next UCSB serve went out. Taylor finished it out definitively with slam
kill. Aggies take the set 23-23 and the match 3-1.
That felt pretty
good. The Aggies had six aces today, one
off from the necessary seven that would have activated free Raising Canes for everyone. I shamefully admit I was yelling, “Free
Chicken!” on Aggie serves late. We didn’t
even have tickets that were needed to redeem the offer (as we had season
passes).
For the Gauchos, Michelle Ohwobete led with 11 kills and
Tallulah Froley had 9. I noticed Megan Shimoda, who had the big toss Brazilian-style serve, switched
to a jump serve during the match. I
guessing that was orders from her coach.
I kind of enjoyed that showy serve though.
Our Aggie MVP today
was Katie Birtcil with 20
kills. Ryleigh Whittlekettle and Mari
Sharp followed with 7 each. Mari
also had 2 aces and had a couple other clutch plays. Taylor
Snow and Lia Mosher were big up
front. The Coach stuck with Jayde Shelton longer than he has in
other matches after bad plays. He can
see the talent, but she’s not quite there in development. Overall, the stats for this match were very
close. The Aggies only definitively lead
in aces, 6 to 3.
Well, without a
reason to go to Raising Canes, Ron and I actually went across town to Popeye’s for their chicken
sandwiches. I don’t know why. We’ve kind of exhausted all of the fast food
places in the immediate area. Ron also
wanted to take the scenic route back. We
drove along the road in front of the Organ
Mountains. It was very pretty, as
were the Sonic Blasts we got
after.
It was a nice
afternoon. In the evening, I listened to
the 99-th Aggie/Miner football game
on the radio. It was an encouraging loss
for a rebuilding program, 20-13
Miners. Not bad considering the Aggies were 17-point underdogs. It was 17-0 at the half, but the
Aggie defense held on well in the second half.
Once again, the Aggies were using two quarterbacks. Gavin
Frakes was not able to move the ball in the first half, but Diego Pavia came in and passed for 100
yards and was once again the team’s leading rusher with 78. It helped that the receivers stopped dropping
balls. The Aggies were in position to
score the tying touchdown in the final seconds, but a forced fumble ended the
game.
I’ve got my lucky shirt ready for some more Aggie Soccer this weekend.
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