Invitational Game 2: Arizona Wildcats vs UTEP
Miners
I was home for three-and-a-half hours waiting for the
next match. I ate, exercised, showered,
and quickly tried to write up the previous match. That last item didn’t work out well. I didn’t finish, didn’t write it in order,
and, after seeing the next two matches, I changed my mind about what I’d
written and had to revise it. So much
for getting ahead on writing.
I went to the bathroom when I got back to the Pan-Am and saw the Arizona coach inside. If we
hadn’t been going in opposite directions, I probably would have talked to him
for a minute. As I found out later, he’s
the brother of Aggie Assistant Coach
Keith Rubio. He was there to watch
this game along with Coach Wallis. Some of the Aggie girls sat with them.
Also here, acting as the ballgirls, were members of the Softball team. Surprisingly, there were some seniors there, Kayla Green (she looks like she’s put
on some more muscle) and Victoria Castro. (If Kelsey
Horton had been there, me and some other people probably would have gone
down to talk to her.) There was a new
girl with them. She was cute as
heck. Something else to look forward to
for next season.
I got a look at the UTEP team while they were
practicing. I noticed Briana Arellano because she’s one of
the few college female athletes I’ve seen with short hair. As practical as that would seem for an
athlete, I think I’ve come to the conclusion most wear it long because it helps
with sweat. In this case, she was
wearing a headband instead.
I recognized one of the other girls and a quick check of
the program confirmed it. Briana Bustillos, who was on the Aggies
a couple of years ago, was now the Miners’ libero. The program listed her as being from the New Mexico Military Institute. She must want to play volleyball pretty bad
to keep moving around. She’s a very
pretty girl who’s always wearing a great smile like Briana Ainsworth. I remember
seeing her with the team at a baseball game in some little cutoffs. I still haven’t gotten over it. On court, she was a vocal leader, so I’m glad
she found a place to play.
There was a bigger crowd for this game than in the
morning. UTEP fans had traveled to see
their team and the AZ fans were back.
The Miners were clearly pumped for this game. Arizona was fully warmed up and had been
challenged by the morning game. They were likely a bit tired, but that wouldn’t
show up until later. That evened things
out a bit, so we could look forward to a better match than this would appear to
be on paper.
Set 1
UTEP took an early lead with an overpass kill by Cheyenne Jones and kept it close for
most of the set. I noticed Briana
Arellano and Martine Kragholm had
really good serves with a hard downward angle.
After hearing some familiar cheering, I noticed Tom across the
court. He was in an Aggie shirt, but was
wearing an Arizona hat and cheering loudly for them. I never imagined he cheered for any other
team. This divided loyalty might cause
him some problems on Saturday when the two teams meet.
The score was tied at 15 before Arizona went on a
run. Just that quick, it was 19-15 and
the coach was calling a timeout. UTEP
wasn’t able to recover and AZ took Set 1 25-21.
Set 2: Wildcats 1, Miners 0
UTEP was indefatigable in enthusiasm and came out with
another early lead, which forced an AZ timeout.
One of the Miner girls took an extremely deliberate swing in the run and
still caught the Wildcats flat-footed.
UTEP expanded on their lead to 11-5.
Adam Young came in for the
broadcast tonight. He made a good catch
of a loose ball sitting at the table. A
couple of points later, UTEP even got a kill on a facial.
But Arizona came back and tied it 20. I noticed Coach Jordan had arrived and was standing up in the shadows at one
end of the court watching. The rest of
the Aggie girls were with him. They needed
to get ready for their game, but I think they wanted to keep watching, just to
see who was going win. This was pretty
good sports drama. AZ had a set point at
24-23. UTEP then had a set point at
25-24. Arizona then went through three
more set points before winning it 28-26. Briana Bustillos almost dove straight into
the scorer’s table trying to save the last point.
Set 3: Wildcats 2, Miners 0
The Aggievision
production staff had a meeting at the broadcast table next to the court. The person I tagged as the director sat with
his back turned to the action. I think
that crosses the line between brave and foolish into dangerous
indifference. Surely, he’s watched
enough games to know that the ball and the players don’t stay on the court for
the whole match.
Once again, this match was tight early on. Victoria
Svornic for Arizona had a heck of serve.
She made a standing serve all the way back at the basketball foul line,
but it still had a tremendous angle and heat on it. UTEP must have been glad to side her
out. Late, UTEP took a three-point
lead. AZ timeout. Svornic bombed one in serving, but UTEP held
and won Set 3 25-20.
Set 4: Wildcats 2, Miners 1
Adam walked by between sets. I thanked him for sending that interview
audio the other day and asked him about Briana Bustillos. He confirmed it was her and he was surprised
to see her with UTEP too. On court,
Arizona definitely seemed fatigued by this point. I doubt they were really expecting this much
resistance in today’s games.
UTEP had another early lead. After a contested call, I think there was a media
timeout. The UTEP players then got mad
about a double touch call, but held the lead.
Tempers were flaring a bit. AZ
took their second timeout. They came
back and took a two-point lead. Timeout
UTEP.
Major distraction.
Adam returned to the broadcast table with his color commentator, Kelsi Meredith, a honey blonde former
player that totally filled out her slinky dress. If Adam had been wearing a fedora, I’d say
they’d walked off a private eye show. This
is the problem with going to the games: I can’t watch the TV coverage from a
seat at the Pan-Am Center. Wow. At least I got a good view of her spectacular
hair during the next game.
UTEP tied it up at 18, but AZ got back ahead late. UTEP took their last timeout. The Miners closed it up to 24-23 after the
Wildcats shanked a couple of hits on match point. Arizona took their last time out. They won the set 25-23 and the match 3-1
on a Miner out serve.
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