NM State Volleyball vs Sam Houston Bearkats Volleyball 11-4-23 Part 2

Aggie Volleyball posing for Senior Day.

Continued from Part 1.

 

Set 3: Bearkats 2, Aggies 0

Wait, what just happened?  The Aggies had a big lead halfway through and a led late in the second set.  I may get my quick match anyway, but not the way I wanted.  I've really been looking forward to getting a Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich at Dominos for weeks.  I can almost taste it.  Coach Jordan went after the officials during the break.  They were having a rough match, admittedly.  The up official showed a yellow card before the start of the third set.          

 

Kacia Brown started the set with an ace.  Ryleigh Whitekettle was blocked early.  The set tied at 2 when SH aced.  Mari Sharp misjudged the serve and watched it land in.  Ry got a kill and Aleka Darko gave the Aggies a 4-3 lead with a kill.  5-3 Aggies, Starr Williams had a tip kill. 

 

I don't know what happened to precipitate this, but suddenly Mari was shuttling between the Coach and the up official.  There was an argument going on between them.  Finally, the ref told him (and it was quiet enough to hear it) that he'd had enough and was about to give him a red card.  Coach Jordan had a long talk with the down official before sitting down and was much more subdued for the rest of the match.  Wow, how angry would the Coach have been if they'd lost that point?

 

Play resumed and SH tied it at 5 on another ace that Mari let go.  SH then service errored right after.  Bella Castro came back with an ace.  Ashley Herman and Aleka teamed up on a block.  Mari aced.  The Bearkats took a timeout at 9-5 Aggies.  The Coach talked some more with the down official.  Rilen Garcia talked to the huddle.

 

Play resumed and Bella put in an ace on the back line that SH watched go in.  Ash and Aleka combined on a block.  11-6 Aggies, Bella finally faulted, but that was a five-point run.  Ash and Aleka got the serve back on another block.  Ashley followed with a kill.  Darian Markham was on serve and put in an ace.  Timeout SH, 14-6 Aggies. 

 

Back to play, Ash slapped down an overpass.  Next, Mari got a kill on a touch.  The officials delayed calling it.  Coach Jordan was getting up when they finally decided.  Darian faulted to end her run.  SH came right back with a service error.  Bella let the serve go as it went out. 

 

17-8 Aggies, SH took the point, but Rilen made a dive save during it.  Kacia came back with a kill.  19-8 Aggies, after a long rally, Starr ended it with a kill.  Kacia had another kill.  Maggie Lightheart was in on serve and put in two consecutive aces.  Ry had kill before Maggie served one out.  That was a five-point run.  Starr had two kills to finish the set, 25-10 Aggies. 

 

Set 4: Bearkats 2, Aggies 1

That was six aces for the Aggies (and two for the Bearkats) in that last set.  That exchange with the officials seemed to fire up the Aggies.  Maggie started on serve, but faulted on the first point.  Ryleigh was blocked.  SH shot out twice.  2-3 SH, Kacia faulted on serve.  3-3 “What?” I wrote in my notes.  The Aggies won the point, but I couldn't figure out what happened.  (Official stats said it was an SH attack error.)

 

Ashley put the Aggies up, 5-4, with a kill.  7-6 Aggies, SH took the point.  Maggie went into the press table going for a dig.  I noticed the Bearkats were aiming at the freshman as much as possible, but her digging skills are pretty solid.  Aleka put in a kill and Maggie and Kacia teamed for a block to put the Aggies up, 9-6.  Maggie was fired up on court.  Kacia and Ash teamed on a block on the next point and SH took a timeout.  Maggie was jumping up and down in excitement.  (Yes, she’s my favorite!) 

 

Out of that break, Maggie and Kacia had another block.  SH made a comeback after some Aggie attack errors and putting in an ace.  11-10 Aggies and they took a timeout.  Maggie was a bit too excited and had hit a ball way long on a point.  The Coach took her out for a couple of points and had her sit beside him for a chat.  Back to play, Mari tooled a block.  13-10 Aggies, on a long rally, Darian tipped a ball to Mari, who tipped it over the net for a kill.  Our PA stepped out for a few points and the assistant took over.  He did a decent job in a pinch. 

 

I could hear the Band warming up outside for the Football game.  Kacia and Starr had kills, then Kacia, the Bearkats, and Bianca Perez all service errored on three consecutive points.  Maximum futility.  SH did come back with an ace to make it 16-15 Aggies.  When the Aggies got the serve back, Bella’s serve was waived off by the up official.  She might have been early.  Coach Jordan started yelling.  The Aggies took the point on her re-serve. 

 

Maggie had a block and a couple of kills to make it, 19-17 Aggies.  Darian then aced on the next two points.  After Maggie and Kacia had a block, Darian aced again.  You think this girl maybe wanted to win on her Senior Day?  An SH attack error ended it, 25-17 Aggies.

 

Set 5: Aggies 2, Bearkats 2

I’d forgotten about lunch by this point.  September by Earth, Wind, and Fire played on the PA during an extended break.  I was bopping along with it.  Since there wasn’t a fan cam for this game, I didn’t have to worry about being on camera. 

 

Starr, Ryleigh, and Morgan Stewart were in to start.  SH took the first three points of this first-to-15 set.  They made a couple of pancake saves on the points.  An out-swing by Ry was challenged, but the call stood.  Kacia got the first Aggie point with a kill.  SH then had a mis-set and Mari made a clever dump shot to tie it at 3.

 

Mari tied it at 4 with a kill.  Ashley had a DT and was blocked to make it 4-6 SH.  Timeout Aggies.  The Bearkats came back with an ace.  Mari got a kill and Maggie and Bella came in.  6-7 SH, Aleka got a kill.  SH made a great off court save on the point and Bianca made a pancake save.  Maggie hit another shot way out, 6-9 SH.  Timeout Aggies. 

 

Out of the break, Ashley had a kill, but Maggie then had a swing into the net.  The Coach took her out and put Sydney McIntosh in.  Next, SH got called for four touches and Ry tooled a block.  9-11 SH, the Bearkats took a timeout.  Maggie looked like she was on the verge of tears in the huddle.  Back to play, Syd hit a big kill to make it 10-11 SH.  That’s where the tide turned.  SH tied it at 11 by hitting into the net and took a timeout.  Coach Jordan gave Sydney some extra instruction right before she went back out on court. 

 

Kacia came back with a kill, but SH responded with a kill.  This ended Rilen’s four-point serving run.  Next point, Kacia pounded a kill.  The crowd let out a cheer as the Aggies went up 13-12.  Morgan came in to serve.  14-12 Ryleigh made a kill.  The final point was an insane long rally.  Both teams were desperate to not lose it.  Finally, Kacia tooled a block to win it 15-12 and the match 3-2.  It was a “reverse sweep.”   

 

Sam Houston shook hands and immediately vacated the court.  After playing so hard the last two days and losing in such a tantalizing fashion, they had to be very disappointed.  Unfortunately, they weren’t there when the Senior Ceremony started and the PA recognized the one senior on their team.  The crowd applauded anyway.  In the Aggie huddle afterward, Maggie wrapped her arms around Sydney and gave her a big hug.  That’s teamwork. 

 

I got a bunch of stats.  Both teams had 9 aces.  Unfortunately service error-wise, the Aggies had 16 and SH had 10.  That’s pretty terrible for both teams even with all of those aces.  The Aggies were up 9 to 8 in blocks, 58 to 41 in kills, and were hitting .230 to SH’s .072.  The Aggies nearly lost to a team hitting .072. 

 

Individually, Kacia Brown led with 12 kills and 6 blocks.  Mari Sharp had 11 kills, Ashley Herman had 10 kills and 4 blocks, and Ryleigh Whitekettle had 10 kills.  Maggie Lightheart and Aleka Darko had 3 blocks.  For Sam Houston, Hailey Heider led everyone with 13 kills and Alyssa Fielder had 10 kills.  McKenzie Morvant had 5 kills with 6 blocks.  In support, Darian Markham had 16 digs and 4 aces.  Rilen Garcia had 29 assists. 

 

For these last two games, Assistant Coach Hertel wasn’t here.  I wonder if this hurt the team.  No offense, the Aggies should have rolled Sam Houston.  I know they were playing really hard and trying to get into the tournament.  (Sorry, I wasn’t naming their players in the match.  No malice was intended.  It’s too much effort for me to cover both teams.)  I can say coaching-wise for this game, SH had Ryleigh game-planned pretty well after her 20-kill game.  The Aggies had Morvant locked down after she’d also had a big game.  This didn’t really stop either team, though.            

 

For the Senior Ceremony, Coach Jordan said, “This is hardest day of the year for me, except when we lose.”  Local girl Kaitlin Espiritu was introduced first.  Unfortunately, her accomplishments were a bunch of injuries, including a torn ACL, which prevented her from playing.  The Coach heaped praise on her support work for the team.  Certainly after four years of not playing, she was dedicated to the program to have stayed.  Her family is good-looking like her, though none of them are as tall.  Her dad is handsome enough that some of her teammates have probably said inappropriate things about him. 

 

Darian Markham had a bunch of playing honors.  The biggest number was her 1,500 digs.  The Coach praised her effort in doing so much on court.  He turned to the team, “She’s doing so many jobs that aren’t being done.”  Ouch!   

 

While Darian was giving her speech, my phone went off.  Embarrassing.  When I got outside a few minutes later (I couldn’t have heard anything inside during the ceremony), I answered it and it was surprisingly Ron.  He was in town from his truck driving job.  I told him the football game was about to start, but he said he’d rather just listen to it and eat pizza.  

The 12-th Man was there in force for Aggie Football.

And that we did back at my apartment.  I’d had bad pizza like for four days this week and I really didn’t want more, but Ron brought Little Caesar’s.  It was okay, but I think I got pepperoni poisoning later in the evening from having too much this week.  If only I’d gotten that Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich.       

 

While watching some other college football games on TV, we listened to Aggie Football play Middle Tennessee State.  The Aggies would be bowl-eligible with a win.  It was a defensive struggle to say the least.  In the second half, the Aggies only managed a field goal.  MTSU didn’t even get that.  The last play was a Blue Raider pass into the endzone that was broken up.  Jack Nixon had this pregnant pause before the announcing that the Aggies had won, 13-7.      

 

The crowd was great, though official attendance is listed at 0.  [Edit: AD Moccia said on Monday’s Men’s Basketball game that it was 15,000.]  They were the player of the game.  The fans and their cowbells kept backing up the Blue Raiders with false starts.  The game really wasn’t enjoyable, though.  It was too tense and not enough scoring.  Regardless, the Aggies will go bowling for a second year in a row.  Who could have imaged this at the beginning of the Coach Kill era?

 

On Sunday, Aggie Soccer played Liberty at the C-USA tournament for the championship.  It was a tough 2-1 loss.  The Aggies did beat them on the road and win the conference regular season, but Liberty is a very good team.  Gia Valenti scored the team’s goal.  (She scored all of their goals in the tournament.)  This was a great season for them, regardless.  If they’re less injured and get some more good recruits, the Aggies should be even better next season.

 

This was Aggie Volleyball’s final home game.  It’s been an up-and-down season.  This post went unintentionally way long.  I plan on going to some Women’s Basketball games, including this Monday against Arizona.  I’ll post some updates of Volleyball in upcoming sports posts.