My vacation started on Saturday, but today (Tuesday) was
the first day I was actually missing work.
Unlike yesterday’s trip to see the Chihuahuas, today I didn’t have much on the agenda until this
evening’s Aggie Volleyball
game. I checked out a couple of Stadium’s new daily programs. They were a nice effort, but there wasn’t
enough baseball content to keep my interest.
Your mileage will probably vary, especially if you’re more into football
than I am. Nike today made the mainstream news by shooting themselves in the
foot. (See what I did there? Nike, a shoe company, shooting itself in the
foot.) All I have to say is thank
goodness NM State is an Under Armor school.
Today’s match was at 6:00pm to accommodate people’s
weekday schedules. A decent crowd showed
up. I think I noticed a few members of
the football team putting in an appearance.
If they’re scoping out potential girlfriends, who can blame them? (I think the baseball team has claimed the
soccer girls as their territory.) There
was a super awesome poster of Tatyana
Battle at the courtesy table. Leave
your hair down, Taty! I’m out of places
to put posters up at home or work though.
These cool posters are making it hard on me to not put them up.
In the boosters’ section was Ari Sierra, who’d finished her eligibility last year. She was chatting with some people there. I guess she’s still working on a degree. She looked happy. I was unhappy seeing Lia Mosher on the bench wearing a boot. Later, Adam
Young said that she’d been checked out and it was just a strain. She’s even hoping to play this weekend, but
it probably won’t happen. I’m sure they
could use her at full strength against Arizona
if at all possible. Also, that beautiful
blonde assistant from last year is apparently not with the team anymore. That is truly disappointing. Now I have no excuse to not concentrate on
the game. Freshman Zoe Abeyta, who I’d noticed at the Scrimmage, was also not
suited out. I hope she’s okay.
Tonight’s opponent was the Grambling State Lady Tigers.
I think this is the same Grambling that plays Southern in the Bayou
Classic football game, which is actually more famous for their Battle of the Bands competition at
halftime. I’ve never heard them called Grambling
State though. The girls looked athletic,
but had a terrible record at 0-6. Adam
reported that they hadn’t had a home game yet and were playing their much of
their schedule on the road. (I couldn’t
have heard the number of visiting matches they were going to play
correctly.)
I wonder if the crowd knew about their scheduling. During the starters’ introductions, the
Tigers got a much louder ovation than any other visiting team I’d seen. #18 Kayla
Dougherty on the team got my attention for her friendly attitude. The Aggies’ new sizzle reel looked good on
the video board. Cat Kelly was in starting for the Aggies. Coach
Jordan was hoping to use some of the bench for this game. Natalie
Mikels looked like she was wearing her hair a bit different. It looked good. Up on the video board with a close-up, Julianna Salanoa gave a shattering
smile during her intro. Ooooh, my
heart. Coach Jordan gave the opposing
coach a hug and kiss before the game, so they must be friendly.
Set 1
I was not going to be rooting for the underdogs
here. Before the match, they announced
that Raising Canes would be handing
out coupons for an Aggie sweep. Given
the volleyball team lost one game on their home court last year, there may be
lots of chicken fingers in Aggie fans’ future.
Honestly, the Aggies looked a bit sloppy coming out of
the gate. This could be lethal against
some opponents. However, the Lady Tigers
looked even worse. Just in the first
set, they had two double touch calls and an out-of-rotation call. The Aggies really didn’t need help from the
refs though. Actually, the Aggies just
barely needed to play as the Tigers kept hurting themselves on a bunch of
points.
The first time out came at 15-6 Aggies for a media
break. Megan Hart and Taty combined for a block on that point. Megan pounded out a couple of tremendous
kills in the set. She has turned into
what she looked like she could be. Cat
was making the most of her start with some kills. That girl can really fly. At 18-8, Jordan
George cycled in. She came out a
couple of plays later. The Coach had her
sit next to him for a quick lecture.
Megan hammered another confident kill at 23-15. 25-15
Aggies was the set final. It was on
another double contact by the Tigers.
Cat had 5 kills here.
Set 2: Aggies 1, Lady Tigers 0
Freshman Halle
Razo was now wearing the libero shirt for the Aggies. Adam and PA
Ed disagreed on how to pronounce her name.
6’3” freshman Lindsay Blakey
also came in. 3-2 Aggies Lindsay got a
block. Then Megan did a set for Savannah Davison, who hit a kill right
down the line. Megan must love getting
an assist during a game. I remember Jordan Abalos, who did everything else
on court, just beaming whenever she could set someone.
6-2 the Grambling bench showed some spirit with some
singing and clapping. That was good to
see. (If the Lobo team did that here, I’d be booing.) Cat Kelly continued racking up the
kills. Lindsay also slapped down some
kills with authority. 14-10 Grambling
went on a run and had a good kill on this point. 17-10 Grambling made a great save on a ball
way off the court and got it back into play, but Lindsay did get another kill
to finish the point.
Halle took a couple of turns serving during this
set. She couldn’t get it in, but she
needs to keep working on it and I’m sure the coach wants her to get it working
too. Halle was essentially serving a
knuckleball. The ball would float over
the net with no rotation. I’m curious
how an opposing team would react to having to field one of those.
24-17 Cat made a solo block. She’s everywhere. Krysten
Garrison came in right after. The coach
definitely wanted her to get in some work as a setter. Senior Briana
Ainsworth met her coming out and gave her some last moment instructions or
a pep talk. She seemed happy for her to
be coming into the game. Taty served up
an ace to end the set 25-17. Cat finished the set with double digit kills.
Set 3: Aggies 2, Lady Tigers 0
Halftime was now indeed just a five-minute break. This match was already going by pretty
quick. Jordan George was now in the
libero shirt. As the girls were huddled
up, Bri was giving them some fluid out of an eye dropper. I seriously have no idea what that was. (Hopefully, this doesn’t turn into an NCAA
investigation. I hate you sanctimonious
f’s, by the way.) The Aggie girls were
loose and all smiles. On the other side
of the court, the Lady Tigers were all seated on their bench getting instructions
from their coach.
On the first serve, Jordan G got targeted and came up
with the dig. Savannah came flying in
for a kill, 1-0. Jordan did a good job
in her time in with serves, digs, and assists.
All she needed was a different colored shirt apparently. Krysten was back in and served an ace at
12-6. 16-8 Cat slammed in another
kill.
Analyssa
Acosta came in to serve and play at 17-9. She got a good cheer from the bench and the
crowd. It was good to see her
playing. 21-9 crowd-pleasing overpass
kill by Lindsay. Krysten showed some
more talent than just setting as she got a kill at 24-12. She got another at 25-13 to end the set and the match (3-0 Aggies). The coach might
be rethinking her position after those hits.
Cat
Kelly was high-scorer for the evening with 13. Lindsay
Blakey had 8. If there are any more
starting injuries (I sure hope not), there seem to be a couple options on the
bench that are ready to go. In the
interview after the match, the Coach Jordan said that Lindsay was an enthusiastic
recommendation from her high school coach.
(Something like that, I was busy in the bathroom at the time.)
I think the whole match took under an
hour-and-a-half. The sun wasn’t even
down when I got out. It took me longer
to leave the building and get out of the parking lot than it did to play the
third set. The girls swept, so that meant
Raising Canes coupons for everyone. The
coupon was a two-for-one offer that was only good for that night and tomorrow. I called dad and invited him to lunch the
next day. For tonight though, ice cream
is for winners! I scooped out a dish of
salted caramel chocolate ice cream at home to celebrate.
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