Boy, this is hard. Two days later and I’m still upset. I actually re-wrote parts of this three times, which is why it’s late. Things started bad for me right off the bat. I’d heard the radio commercial offering free t-shirts to the first hundred fans. I showed up an hour early only to hear a lady in front of me get told that they’d already run out. I never found out what the shirt looked like, so I’m not sure how sorry I should be about it. This turned out to be the least of my disappointments.
At least I came prepared for a wait and listened to Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson on audiobook. Unfortunately, I could just barely hear it over the stadium music. The CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners were practicing on court. They have some pretty good-looking warm up uniforms. The program listed them as a senior heavy team, and they don’t have a lot of height up front. The Aggies came out in pink sweatshirts. There was stretching, practicing digs and sets with the coaches, and remind me to never show up this early again.
The cheerleaders arrived the worst for wear and looking unhappy. One-gunned Pistol Pete was with them. Adam Young was at the broadcast table looking bored, waiting to start calling the game. The crowd filled in nicely right before the match, perhaps about 900 to 1000 (though it was listed at 700+). They were the smart ones. The regular PA voice was not present. For some reason that felt like a bad sign. The soccer PA would have been a good alternate, but he would be working a soccer match later that afternoon. The Roadrunners were unimpressed with the introductions, especially when they got muffed and the Aggies got introduced out of order.
Set 1
Honestly, the action was so fast and furious I couldn’t hardly keep up with any notes. Both teams seemed well-matched and playing well. For the Aggies’ part, #6 Tatyana Battle got a pair of aces in a row on serve. Bakersfield #16 Carol Grasso was tagged by Adam on the radio as their star player. She had a massive, hard beach volleyball style serve, but her first was dug out well by #4 Ariadnne Sierra (“Ari”), and turned into a kill by #20 Sasha-Lee Thomas. I noticed #12 Megan Hart seemed to be jumping better than I’d seen before and got a kill.
At 11-8, Ari made three great digs and #3 Jordan Abalos finished it with a kill. Ari came right off after that play and stared gulping Gatorade. She was gassed. Adam had said earlier that her, Jordan, and Sasha-Lee had all been sick with the flu. (Those were the ones I heard mentioned.) This was the first evidence I really saw of it. Anybody in the crowd who wasn’t listening to the radio, or didn't know the girls personally, probably wouldn’t have known about this. Ari came back in after a minute. Late in the set, Tatyana served up two more aces and the Aggies won 10 points in a row off her serve. The Aggies took the first set 25-14. That score really doesn’t give you an idea of the high level of play that both teams had going.
Ari was all smiles afterward, so she seemed okay. 6’5” Megan Hart started high-fiving her teammates. She teased 5’2” Ari, who couldn’t hope to reach her raised palms. Jordan Abalos’ grandmother was again in attendance and was featured on Flex cam with Pete. The music was good from the DJ. Everything seemed well.
Set 2, Aggies 1, Roadrunners 0
The girls changed sides. Now that I had a good view of their bench, I immediately noticed that the Roadrunners had no lack of confidence and had a lot of spirit. They took an early lead. On one point, one of the girls tried to climb the official’s ladder to save a point, so they really were into it. The Aggies managed to tie it at 9-9 on a blocked shot. 11-14, there was major contention after a kill by Jordan was called off. Coach Jordan and crowd screamed at the official. (I should mention that it was mostly an adult crowd, not a huge number of kids.)
Adam had said in a previous game that Tatyana’s defense was a bit suspect. She had a couple of missed digs in this set in a row. She seemed surprised by them. Maybe there was a coverage issue. I suspect the Roadrunners were actually aiming at her. To her credit, Tatyana did much better in the rest of the match. At 12-17, Jordan got a kill shot hard enough to knock down the defender, but this was pretty much the only Aggie highlight of the set. The Aggies won an ugly point at 17-21, which prompted a Bakersfield timeout. They would come back out and win the set 18-25.
Set 3, 1 all
To cut to the quick of it, same score for this set, 18-25 Roadrunners. Jordan seemed exhausted and was making errors on offense and defense. I’ve seen her play a bit hurt, but her steady presence still allowed her teammates to take up the slack. She’s played every point in every game I’ve seen, while the other girls all get cycled in and out. Jordan is just so valuable in every part of the game. If she wasn’t well, I would have suggested taking her out for a spell and letting Sasha-Lee captain the team. Unfortunately, Sasha was having an even more quiet game and likely wasn’t well herself.
There were a few highlights. #1 Brianna Ainsworth got a great dump kill. Tatyana reeled off another ace. #15 Hannah Combs made the first appearance that I’d seen and got a kill. #14 Kassandra Tohm (“KC”) got a kill and an ace. And, that attractive sideline reporter from the football game appeared. She was in shorts this time. Whew. I am cheating on the volleyball girls here, looking at another girl at the same event?
Set 4, Aggies 1, Roadrunners 2
My first note of this set reads, “Aggies looking peaked.” It’s looking like they were playing that first set on pure adrenaline. When they had that shock loss to the Lobos a couple of weeks ago, it was right after having played the day before. I’m sure the Lobos did too, but they were playing at home. The Aggies were no doubt fatigued from play and the trip. This is feeling the same.
Coach Mike Jordan blows up over another questioned call. He has his captain, Jordan, talk to the official, but the coach gets the yellow card. (I wonder what the etiquette is about talking to officials in this sport?) The Roadrunners are, meanwhile, all enthusiasm. At 4-3 KC gets a kill and it’s the first Aggie lead since the first set. Roadrunner #13 Sydney Haynes rattled off several points on her serve. (I hate to admit this, but I kept noticing her during the match. She was rather striking.) Jordan comes back with a kill and an ace. With the score tied at 12, Bakersfield takes a timeout.
14-14 the Aggies take the point, but only after an overrule by the head ref. The crowd was standing and up and arms over the original call. The Bakersfield coach almost got yellow carded on the overrule. I don’t know if the officiating was bad this day, or if the emotions were just really running high here. I wouldn’t say this was a turning point in the match, but rather the last gasp.
At 15-18, I finally see Jordan get frustrated on court. It’s a bit of a shock. Having some small idea of what she’s like, no doubt she was mad at herself. The Bakersfield girls are out-cheering the crowd at this point and running on to court every time they win a point. I even see one of the young men ballhawking on the sidelines clearly get irritated with them. (The usual young girls that work the sidelines seem almost oblivious to the score.) Adam called out the Aggies getting blocked on a point by “the worst blocking team in the conference.”
The crowd started getting into it late, and I can’t hear the game call in my earplugs. (I couldn’t cheer myself as I was having my own problems getting over a cold.) 18-23 was a truly epic point that seemed to take a full minute, which would be an eternity for a volleyball point. The Roadrunners took it and that was it. 19-25 final, 1 set to 3, Bakersfield wins. The Roadrunner girls storm the court like it was a championship. The Aggies’ 26 match WAC winning streak comes to an end. I suppose the Aggies could take it as a point of pride that beating them in a game that probably didn’t hugely matter would elicit this kind of emotional reaction. (I don’t think there’s bad blood between the teams either, certainly not a long-standing rivialry.)
Looking over the stats from the paper, the girls got close to their usual numbers. Tatyana may have really carried the team this day for the most part, but she needed help. Unfortunately, the team got an abundance of stats they didn't want in errors. Grasso for the Roadrunners did well, even with her flamboyant serve not working, but nothing really jumps out on the other side. In other words, the Aggies did themselves in. Credit the team’s talent that they kept it close in the three losing sets, but they didn’t have that extra energy to beat an inspired opponent. Not that I know anything about volleyball, but cycling out all of the sick girls more to keep them fresher might have helped. Having the team’s two 6’5” towers, Megan Hart and #24 Lexi May (who I don’t think ever entered the game) playing together would have really maximized the Aggies’ height advantage.
Well this sucked. I found myself taking this loss overly personally, to the point of even questioning my own self worth during the end of the match. Oh well, the crowd deserted the arena immediately, and me with them. I’m not sure where everyone else was going, but I was already late to get to the nearby Aggie soccer match. I’d already figured out beforehand that somebody was going to have to win this match real efficiently for me to be on time for both events. I would have been okay with being late for a win.
Just to make me feel even worse, there were tables set up in the concourse where the players would be doing another autograph signing. I felt like I was running out on them. I already had a signed poster and doubted I could be charming and informed in front of the girls again, but I would liked to have said something supportive to them. I hope they still had a good crowd for autographs, though if some of the girls are sick, should they really be meeting with the fans?
This would normally not merit mentioning in a recap, but I’d been fighting a cold all week. (I’m calling it a cold because I never needed to puke.) I was still going to work, and I was mostly okay until Thursday night when I exerted myself helping to set up a meeting. I shouldn’t have gone in Friday (certainly not as grumpy as I was), but I was better by the end of the night. After taking some Thera-flu-ish stuff and sleeping all Saturday morning, I was okay to go to sit down to watch volleyball (and soccer afterward) that afternoon.
That said, I can’t imagine having full-blown flu and going out and playing volleyball at a high-level the next day. Since the girls played great on Thursday and the radio broadcast didn’t mention anyone being sick that heard (unless I missed it), I kind of have to assume they got sick the day before the game. At least three key Aggie players were likely either doped up on cold medication or, if that’s not allowed by the NCAA, they were really gritting it out hard. In either case, even getting one good set out of them was impressive. They weren’t going to be making good decisions or playing sharp consistently under these conditions.
Of course, nobody on the team would make an excuse of this. “We were terrible,” and “Honestly, we deserved that,” and “They outcompeted us,” were the LC-Sun News quotes from Coach Jordan and KC Tohm. I’ve seen some good, even impressive performances, by individual injured players this season, but this may have been multiple players playing through an induced mental fog and exhaustion. I realize I’m highly biased, and I’m not going to get mad at the team whether they win or lose, but I’ll say they didn’t lose this game for overconfidence or overlooking this opponent, or even from playing sloppy. This was a potential conference winning game. You bet the Aggies wanted to win this.
After the game in the radio interview, Coach Jordan said he wished he’d put in the reserves. In the paper, he thought this loss was good for the team, to help re-focus them to closing out the season. Perhaps there’s even some thought that these teams are going to meet again in the conference final, and the coach wanted to make sure the team would really want to beat the Roadrunners bad next time. All that said, the coach really wanted to win this match. Three of his best players sick, were still likely better than leaving freshmen out on the court for most of the game. If this wasn’t an important game, winning the conference in front of the home fans, he might have done things differently. As it was, all Coach Jordan could do was get frustrated that there wasn’t any combination of players he could use on this day that could win after Set One.
The worst of all is this might be the last time I get to see the team this year. I found out I can’t take the week of the WAC tournament off. I could see the championship game on Saturday, but there’s no certainty of who’s going to be playing. I say let’s try today’s match up again in the conference final with the Aggies at full strength. We'll see what happens then.
I hope this isn’t my last New Mexico State volleyball post this year. If it is, I’ll just say now how much I have enjoyed watching and briefly meeting these lovely, pleasant, and talented young women. Since nobody’s graduating this year, I can look forward to seeing them all again next year. (I hope to see some of #2 Analyssa Acosta then. She was so sweet during the autograph signing.) Even with today’s loss, it’s hard to imagine the team improving on their record, but if they can improve their play with this year’s experience added to them, they’re going to be awesome.
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