The first match I went to today didn’t take 90
minutes. I’m not sure if the second one
even took that long. I was going to be
waiting for a while for the 7:00pm match between the Aggies and the Abilene Christian Wildcats.
I wasn’t hungry after lunch, but I was thirsty. I made the mistake of going over to McDonald’s. I think it took about 20 minutes to get a
smoothie. I should have gone to the
concessions. Thankfully, I didn’t have
my heart set on ice cream. They’ve taken
the McFlurry off the menu and the
machine has a permanent-looking out-of-order sign on it. They’ve given up on ever getting it
fixed. Civilization has fallen. I also went over to the Toucan Market and bought some fruit. (They looked like they needed the business.)
I still had plenty of time. I called dad.
He questioned me staying over at the Pan-Am Center all day. I
should have listened to him. The crowd
for the match still seemed a bit light. Arizona players were up in the
stands. They were probably waiting for
dinner. Aggie Grad Assistant, Lia Mosher, had changed clothes and her
hairstyle from this afternoon. She had a
talk with the team’s middle blockers and Aleka
Darko.
Local player and new freshman, Tess Fuqua, was on the bench, injured. Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten to see her
play. She still attracts attention on
the sidelines with her long, silky, shiny, golden brown hair. Tess turned around and smiled and waved to
her family seated behind the bench. Assistant Coach Whitis said something
to her that made her laugh. He seems to
be tough, but keeps things loose.
During serving practice, Coach Whitis stood in the middle
of the court and made Lia join him there as the balls were flying around. I don’t know if the goal was to hit them or
not hit them. During hitting practice,
our other local player, Maggie
Lightheart (our sweetheart), slapped the net hard on a swing. She put her hand to her mouth in mortified
embarrassment.
The ballgirls, working their fourth game of the day, were
still energetic. They held hands and
skipped over to their stations. PA Ed Carnathan was working this
game. I think a student was working the
other games. A different Pistol Pete than this morning was here,
along with the Cheerleaders. The Aggie girls tossed autographed souvenir
balls to the crowd during introductions.
Kacia Brown tossed one to a
little girl in a dress, who jumped up and down in joy. Yasso
Amin tossed hers to one of the ballgirls.
Set 1
Both teams seemed a little tight and started off with some
errors. The Aggies did build up a 6-2
lead with kills by Starr Williams
and Kacia. Mari Sharp put in an ace. On
another play, she bloodied her elbow and there was a stoppage to bandage it
up. Coach
Jordan was more animated in this match.
He called for a challenge after a long, insane rally. It might have been mostly to give the girls a
blow, but the call was overturned and the Aggies led, 8-3.
Nelle
Reese was the starting setter.
Claudia Rossi, who was not in
the previous game, rotated in for her.
(I’m still confusing the two at times because of their similar
looks.) Rilen Garcia might have been in the Coach’s doghouse for a misplay
in the last game. Nelle sat by the Coach
for additional instruction after she came out.
Nicole
Briggs and Ashley Herman
combined on a block to make it, 12-6 Aggies.
Nicole was all fired up. AC took
a timeout. There was a near drop of a
Cheerleader in the break by the guy trying to hold her up left her up on his
hands. Scary. As always, the Cheerleader got up, smiled,
and finished the routine.
13-9 Aggies was another long rally. The Wildcats took that point. Mari had a pancake save and AC made a save
out-of-bounds. Nicole had a stuff at
15-9, but AC came back with an overpass dunk.
Darian Markham aced at
17-10. Both teams exchanged service
errors a couple of points later. Yasso
had a kill at 20-12 Aggies. She came up
to serve and, with her high-toss, Brazilian jump serve, literally knocked down
the receiver. The girl did manage to
return it. It happened again on the next
point, too.
AC was happy to side out Yasso and went on a four-point
run. Coach Jordan called a timeout and
was pissed, though he didn’t actually talk to the team in the huddle. Rilen did come in to set. Claudia sat down beside the Coach for a
talk. Nelle finished the set with an
ace, 25-17 Aggies.
Set
2: Aggies 1, Wildcats 0
Arizona left by this point. The AC Coach challenged the first point of
the set, after mixed calls by the officials, but it was upheld. Nelle put in an ace to make it, 2-0
Aggies. Yasso put a shot into the open
court for a 5-3 lead, but then had a service error. The Coach threw up his hands. Yasso came back with a kill by tooling a
block to make it 8-5.
Makayla
Martinez came in for the first time to serve. She took a fearless dive into a sideline
table going after a ball. Makayla is a
very plucky defender. AC challenged a
block successfully and adjusted the score to 8-8. After they took the lead on the next point,
the Aggies took a timeout.
The score remained knotted until Mari put the Aggies up
12-11. The score remained close. AC even got in a setter dump. 19-16 Aggies, Ashley made a kill that AC nearly
saved way off the court. AC
timeout. The Aggies made it to 20 on a
busted confused play that Mari finished with an overpass. After Kacia pounded another overpass, AC took
another timeout.
I think the Women’s
Basketball team was in attendance. I
think I saw Ryleigh Whitekettle get
a cup of water for Molly Kaiser,
who’s coming back for another season.
The Aggies finished the set with a seven-point run. Makayla was on serve for it and had an
ace. 25-16 Aggies.
Set
3: Aggies 2, Wildcats 0
Nicole ran up the stairs with the trainer between
sets. Her teammates looked concerned,
but Nicole came back fine. (Can women
not go to the bathroom alone?) PA Ed
shouted out, “Show us your boobs!”
Wait. I misheard that. He said, “Show us your moves!” I was getting ready to flash the crowd. Even better than that show would have been,
it was Dance Cam, featuring Pedro the baby raccoon. Cute beyond words. A smiling Pistol Pete came by to rally the
crowd.
The Aggies started off with the lead, but after a couple
of attack errors and a block, it was tied at 6.
Mari fired a facial into Izabelle
Larson to tie it at 7. Izzy just
smiled after that shot. The score
remained close. Aleka Darko came in and missed a block. The Coach started rubbing his eyes. 13-12 Aggies was a replayed point. The up official accidently interfered.
Izzy hit a kill to tie it at 13. “Boom!” said PA Ed, as Yasso tied it at
14. 15-14 Aggies was the Media
timeout. The video board ran an ad for Aggie Soccer and then showed some of
the players in the crowd. They were
embarrassed. (No, they weren’t. They love attention.)
Ashley got a kill out of the break, but it was overturned
on a challenge. Two service errors in a
row tied the score. AC took the lead on
an out call, but the Coach challenged and Mari got the touch on the kill to put
the Aggies up, 18-17. “Boom! Starr Williams!” shouted PA Ed, after a big
kill. AC took a timeout. Darian ran to the huddle, “Yes! Let’s go!”
Starr had another kill.
Yasso served up another facial. The
Coach got a call overturned for another point.
Still, AC hung tough. The Aggies
called a timeout at 22-20 Aggies. 23-21
Aggies, Aleka and Yasso teamed up for a big block after a long rally. The Coach nearly jumped out on the court to
help. However, the play was overturned
on a challenge, 22-22.
Alright. Yasso came
back with a kill. Ash had a kill that
was upheld on another challenge. (This
is why we watch sports: to see the officiating.) But after an Aggie service error and a shot
wide, we were tied at 24. The Coach took
a timeout and gave the team an angry motivational speech. (I have no idea what he said. I was on the other side of the court.) Whatever the Coach said, Mari was
listening. She finished off the match
with a pair of kills to win it, 26-24
and 3-0.
Mari was all smiles
afterward. She’d earned it. Her and Yasso
Amin led the scoring with 12 kills and Starr
Williams had 10. Three Aggies were
in double digits in digs. Bryley Steinhiber led the Wildcats with 11. The Aggies led in all the stats, except
blocks (6 to 2). That seems like a
problem.
I was all smiles, too.
My very long day with Volleyball was over. We still had another match ***tomorrow,***
but let’s get in some sleep first.
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