NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Soccer 10-27-18

I almost did it.  I almost saw every Aggie Soccer home game.  Aggie Volleyball this afternoon had run long (and disappointing).  After driving through an obstacle course in the parking lot with the Pack the Pan-Am crowd leaving and the crowd for the Battle of the Bands at the next door football stadium, Ron and I arrived at the soccer complex an hour after the match had started.  So, I had to settle for seeing seven-and-a-half games this season.

I was pleased that there was finally a program out for this match.  After seeing it, I didn’t want to look at the scoreboard.  Today’s opponent, UTRGV (who was also playing the volleyball team today), was a much better team.  I don’t know what the conference standings are, but I assume they’re at or near the top.  But upon entering the stadium, we had to look.  Surprisingly, it was 1-0 Aggies with about a minute left in the half. 

The main grandstand was also full with fans, friends, and family of the team.  Just as we found an empty spot to sit at, Alexa Barrera charged at the Vaquero goal and just floated one into the net.  Gooooal!  She did it with all of four seconds left on the clock, and it was announced as her second goal of the match.  2-0 Aggies at the half.  Well, that was a bit of a pick-me-up after the volleyball loss.  There was the odd line on the scoreboard with the Vaqueros having a six to one advantage in shots on goal.  How did the Aggies have two goals, but only one SOG?  (The official scoring didn’t clear that up either.  Maybe it was just wrong on the scoreboard.  There were some lights out on the board.) 

Second Half

Nothing of interest happened during halftime.  Just to set the players here, Ashley Martin was in goal for the Aggies.  #27 Kinga Szemik from Poland was keeping for the Vaqueros.  She was pretty easy to spot being tall and in a bright green top.  Actually, most of their team was tall and, like their volleyball team, international or Texan.  I noticed #10 Emily Zapata on field because she wore her long hair loose, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before.  My dear Aileen Galicia was out on field.  She looked beautiful.  It looked like she was wearing a bit of makeup and had her hair curled.  She wanted to look good for her last game as a senior.  Our hero of the first half, Alexa, did not start the second half.

We had a couple of distractions to begin the match.  One was of our own doing.  Aggie Football was playing on the road and their game started at about the same time.  Ron and I both had radios and earplugs in to listen.  (I’ll recap that in some fashion elsewhere.)  The other issue was a bee that started buzzing around the area.  After a few nervous minutes, he finally flew off.

The Aggies attacked first at 44’ left in the match with Audrey Chavez taking a long shot on goal that was caught.  From here the Vaqueros took the initiative.  38’ Ashley stopped a roller on goal.  We can hear the bands playing next door at this point.  It added a little music to the proceedings.  34’ Ash saved a close shot.  There was a header off a corner right after that went over the net. 

Lovely Briana Ainsworth came into the stadium here.  She was the only one from the volleyball that came today that I saw.  The team had announced an autograph session after the match.  They might have had quite a few fans there for it.  She’s close to a parent or fan in the regular soccer crowd.  Bri was smiling, but she’s always smiling, so I don’t know how she was feeling about her match.

33’ #8 Kelzy Jepsen scored for the Vaqueros.  I basically missed it, so I can’t say how it happened.  I was scribbling at the time and it developed very quickly.  Ron didn’t even seem to know how it happened, and he was watching.  2-1 Aggies.  28’ Alexa came back in. 

A couple of Aggie players in vests were shagging balls on the sidelines and by the goals.  Senior Sarina Stockton was working by the grandstand.  This was the first time I’d gotten a good look at her; she’s pretty.  Sarina played a little hacky with a ball during a stoppage.  Later in the game, she talked to her family in the stands. 

The game got a bit more aggressive.  23’ Aileen got in a shove in the back on a player with an elbow.  That’s my girl.  22’ Alexa made a judo throw on a Vaquero player at midfield.  That resulted in a free kick that Ash caught.  21’ on the other end, Rebecca Mazzie got tacked to the ground.  Kinga would catch the free kick there.  I never figured out if Becca was the team captain or not.

16’ the Vaqueros fired a free kick just outside the Aggie box.  The ball hovered around the net for a moment before being kicked out.  14’ Ashley came under heavy fire here.  She came out and made a save.  She backed up and made a catch.  But another immediate attack by Emily Zapata (with the loose hair) from outside the box went in.  Tied 2-2.  She’d actually slipped on a ball earlier that got a chuckle from the crowd.

13’ Emily got in another shot.  9’ Ash caught another shot.  6’ Aileen got another knock down of an opposing player.  I wonder if she keeps count of those, like there’s a board somewhere with pictures of flattened players, like a WWII pilot counting kills on their plane.  3’ Micaela Milavec made an impressive trip of a Vaquero.  With under a minute, Ashley smothered a Vaquero free kick from outside of the box. 

First Overtime

I wasn’t feeling good about seeing a win by this point.  I was perhaps hoping for a tie.  Ron received a call from his brother about coming to a family dinner that was just starting.  He had to beg off.  I felt bad about that he was missing out on that.  He’d also invited me to the dinner, but we didn’t know how long this was going to take.  Much of the crowd apparently had somewhere else to be too and left, including Briana. 

We didn’t have to wait that long.  My only note for the overtime was at 5’.  The Vaqueros took a high bouncing shot.  Ashley came out to stop it and it went over her into the net.  3-2 UTRGV final.  There wasn’t an announcement of the scoring player.  Your stat of the match, for what it’s worth, shots on goal 12 to 3 for the Vaqueros.

Senior Day Ceremonies?

The rest of the stands cleared with the families and friends remaining.  They took bundles of flowers down to the field for the girls.  Next door, the football stadium was emptying at the same time to create a bigger traffic mess.  Ron and I waited in the stands for the Senior Day ceremonies.

Which didn’t happen.  Ceremonies are for winners?  The graduating girls’ numbers were sprayed on the sidelines.  Did they do something before the match?  If so, they did it well before the match, because regulation finished two hours after the announced start time.  I just don’t know.  Last year (10-22-17), the seniors gave little speeches on field to the crowd.  This time, nothing.  The girls had to be coaxed back on field.  They met with friends and family by the grandstand.

And here’s where I likely fumbled the ball.  After waiting for several minutes, I figured out that there wasn’t going to be a ceremony and I nudged Ron to leave.  He still needed to go to work soon.  I saw Aileen on the other end of the field.  I kind of hoped to catch her on the way out, but missed her as she walked downfield.  I was initially going to try and catch up with her, but decided not to and told Ron we could go.

He was surprised by my ambivalence.  I was too.  Maybe if I’d been there by myself, I might have stayed for awhile and met some of the girls even though it’s a bit awkward after a loss.  As it was, I felt like I was holding up Ron.  But, I felt so depressed after these two disheartening losses today and no senior day ceremony, I think I was afraid meeting Aileen would go badly too somehow.  I’m sure it would have actually been pleasant, but at time I didn’t want any more heartbreak.

I guess I’m going to have to sum up the soccer season here.  It was bad.  They finished 2-16.  Aileen was the top goal scorer with four.  Four.  And I’m not sure if she even scored in the second half of the season.  Total goals were 16 to 43 for their opponents.  I’m not a soccer analyst, but the team has taken a definitive step backward in Coach Rob Baarts’ first season.  Losing eight seniors from this team (and probably a few more players) will give him an opportunity to remake the team to his style of play.  Also, the coach wasn’t happy with the pre-conference schedule, so he’ll be able to set that as well.

I was coming this season to see Aileen and goalie Dmitri Fong.  Unfortunately, Dmitri spent almost the entire season injured.  She seems to have so much potential, but wonder if she’ll be back or even the primary goalie.  I think Aileen was injured, maybe with a concussion, earlier in the season.  After she missed a game, she never seemed the same.  Aileen was still physically aggressive, but wasn’t attacking the net.  That might have been a strategy move by the coach or something else.  I don’t know.  I think I meant to ask her.  I had some other questions about the team, but I don’t I think I could have asked them there on the field.   

Aggie Soccer has always been on probation with me.  I have some intention of going back, but I don’t think I’ll be trying to go to every match like I did this year.  That was causing me some issues going to those 4:00 weekday games and getting to work late.  I’m even questioning whether I should be meeting Aggie players and getting autographs.  I’ve had good and bad experiences.  Aileen was a good one.  Saying “goodbye forever” in person was going to be hard.  Maybe that was why I didn’t want to see her afterward.  Good luck to Aileen and the other seniors and to the team next year.

NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Volleyball 10-27-18

I’m going to break format here and say right up front that the Aggies lost this match in five sets to the Vaqueros.  I wouldn’t want to build up any false hope over the course of this narrative.  I’m still so disappointed over how the day went for Aggie Sports that I cannot fake enthusiasm for writing this out.

At least a couple things went right today.  Ron had sent a couple of missives during the week that he probably wouldn’t be going, but called Saturday morning and said he was ready for lunch.  Said lunch was courtesy of What-a-burger and a coupon from work.  It was delicious and we chatted about Babylon 5, which is being rerun on the Comet network. 

Anticipating a big crowd for this “Pack the Pan-Am” event, we arrived early.  The parking lot was already like for a normal crowd, so it was going to get bigger.  The next door parking lot was also busy with several busses, which were disgorging marching band members and flag corps.  Ron remembered that the “Battle of the Bands” was going on at the nearby football stadium. 

Okay, so we had three busy events going on right next to each other on the NMSU campus.  The third event was Senior Day for the final Aggie Soccer game, which would be well-attended.  The volleyball match was going to overlap with the soccer unless one of the teams was real efficient in winning.  Since there aren’t any lights at the soccer field, there’s a hard start time at this time of year that would be the latest they could get in a match.  The Vaqueros were both teams’ opponents, so their teams are likely traveling together.  This being the case, why not move up the start time of the volleyball match an hour to accommodate the fans wanting to go to both?  They even announced at the volleyball match that your ticket would get you into both events.  Quite a deal if you got a free ticket.

And there were a lot of those free tickets.  Aggie marketing had sold 10,500 at $1 apiece to a bunch of local businesses (including my own) and some individuals.  Many were donated back so that the university could give them away to the Boys and Girls Club and such.  They weren’t expecting all the tickets to be used, which would have put fans up in the rafters, but were hopeful for about a 10% return. 

They got a bit more than that at nearly 2,500 announced, which was well more than double their usual attendance.  In the pregame (actually in several pregames), Coach Jordan still gets misty-eyed over having 7,000 come to a game versus Hawaii (which they lost).  This time, he explained why though.  When he started here 20 years ago, they were getting 300 to 400 for games and now they’re in the top 50 nationally in attendance.  (At 7,000 a game, they’d be number one.)   

The Pan-Am Center was prepared for a crowd.  They’d opened up another concession stand, the one with the grill.  I’d cursed myself that I’d just eaten and wouldn’t be able to finally try an Aggie Burger.  (I’m sure it’s nothing special, not better than a What-a-burger, but still I want to try one.)  Actually, they weren’t cooking today, except for hot dogs, so it didn’t matter.  There were a couple of lemonade and nut vendors up front.  I quickly picked up a bag of cinnamon-roasted almonds.  After the match, I was tempted to get one of those good-looking lemonades too, but I was pretty sure the ice was melted.

The Aggie girls seemed to be in a pretty good mood warming up.  They stopped to take a group picture with a high school team.  Cat Kelly now had left side hair braids like Natalie Mikels.  Maybe they’ll all be wearing that by the end of the season.  Lia Mosher and Jordan George looked like they were off their scooters.  Last year, this match up (10-21-17) was the game where Hannah Combs was injured (which is an understatement), but they had won.  They’d also won a couple of weeks ago at UTRGV in five sets.

On the other side, #2 Barbara Silva was back with the Vaqueros.  She was one of my favorite opposing players last year and is my favorite Brazilian player.  I’d noticed #5 Talita Oliveira last year because she was so thin and bit hunchbacked.  She seemed a bit healthier-looking this year.  Being so tall, Talita was a blocker in this game, but she didn’t seem to have the strength to attack well. 

UTRGV’s entire roster is either from Texas or an international student.  They were a pretty good-looking group, in addition to playing well.  #11 Antonela Jularic was particularly pretty with long red-ish blonde hair.  The girls even have their last names on the back of their uniforms.  On that matter, PA Ed was fired up today announcing.  During player introductions though, even he stumbled over one of the girl’s last names.  (I think it was eastern European.)  The girl laughed it off.

Set 1

The crowd was still coming in after the start of the match.  It was definitely larger than usual, but not crowded to the point of being uncomfortable.  No one was running the stats on the scoreboard again, but we did have Adam Young on the radio call. 

The Vaqueros took an early 2-1 lead after a foot fault was called on Savannah Davison doing a jump serve.  I couldn’t believe I saw two of those called in the last match (10-20-18).  I attributed it to some nerves in front of the big crowd against a good opponent.  Julianna Salanoa tied it up on an overpass dunk.  The set went point-for-point, though the Aggies were missing on several of their attacks.  Again, it seemed like some nerves.  Savannah was allowed to serve again and she kept with the jump serve to better success.

10-10 the Aggies made an awesome save on a tip (I wasn’t able to note the player at the time) and Ashley Anselmo got the kill.  Beautiful Megan Hart got a great overpass kill, which started a run.  15-11 Captain Tatyana Battle got the kill going into a media timeout.  The crowd went insane for a cheerleader t-shirt toss into the seats.  It was a good-looking one today.  The crowd was still coming in to this point.

19-13 Sav got the kill and the Vaqueros took a timeout.  The Aggies were the first to 20 with a block by Sav and Jules.  The crowd and Adam loved it.  (I noticed that Julianna apparently goes with Jules, so I’ll start using it.)  21-13 Megan had had net serve earlier, but put in an ace here.  22-16 Jules broke up a run with a kill.  22-18 the Vaqueros were making a comeback.  Ashley slapped a ball in frustration.  Timeout Aggies. 

Adam got the groaner of the match with his “Handful of double touches” comment.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a joke.  Both teams were getting called for it over-and-over.  23-19 right after being called for a DT, Sav crushed a kill.  The Aggies got it to set point, but that was our last Aggie highlight for the set.  Gysell Zayas came up to serve, as the Vaqueros clapped along, and dropped in two aces.  24-22 timeout Aggies.  24-24 a third ace.  What happened next seemed almost inevitable by this point.  The Vaqueros took the set 26-24. 

Zayas went on a 7-0 run with the Aggies holding set point the whole time.  Choke or clutch?  Whatever.  It wasn’t as bad as Hannah’s injury last year, but it was still shocking.  It cast a pall over the crowd and the team for the rest of the game. 

Set 2: Vaqueros 1, Aggies 0

I noticed that pretty long-haired red head in the Aggie booster section again.  She even got her picture in the paper on Sunday, so it’s not just me noticing her.  On court, I didn’t notice at first, but Savannah was out for the set.  Sav has played every set and nearly every point, only getting taken out for serving sometimes.  She’d had a rough first set with errors.  Sav, given that this is her first year playing, has had plenty of shaky moments on court, but normally made up for it with her kills.  Her problems seem more mental than physical.  Taking out your second leading scorer, especially against a tough opponent, was a risky move.  Savannah was clearly unhappy on the sidelines.

Briana Ainsworth started off the set with an ace.  Jules added a kill at 4-3 Aggies.  Taty increased the lead to 5-3.  Cat, who’d had a career game against the Vaqueros two weeks ago, had a four-point run on serve.  I hadn’t seen her serve before (according to the stats, she hasn’t been).  7-4 libero Halle Razo served up an ace.  9-5 Brigette Lowe entered the game.  I keep hoping to see her breakout like she did last year.  With Sav out, this would have been a good spot for it, but she was cycled right back out.

10-5 Aggies as Meg slapped down a kill.  Timeout Vaqueros.  13-6 UTRGV was called for a double touch.  I don’t know how many there’s been to this point.  It’s the DT match.  13-7 Ragni Knudsen got the kill on this point.  She’s the Vaqueros’ star player from Norway.  To this point, she’s gotten just about all their kills.  This point was also memorable as Coach Jordan argued that UTRGV was out-of-rotation on their serve.  He sent Taty over to argue with the up official.  She’d get a monster kill on the next point anyway.

15-8 Cat put in a sneaky tip.  The Aggies get two more points on yet another DT and a block.  Timeout Vaqueros and the crowd went nuts for a hat toss into the stands.  21-9 was one of the few long points of the match, which Jules ended on a hard kill.  22-10 Jules and Taty combined on a block.  The Aggies had no trouble taking this one 25-13.

Set 3: Aggies 1, Vaqueros 1

Anticipating this match going longer, I went to the bathroom.  I managed to drop my notes and nuts (almonds that is) into a spilled pool of water (and thankfully I knew it was water) right before I left.  I missed a troop of little girls performing for halftime.  There were quite a few kids in attendance.  I passed over grabbing a poster at the courtesy table thinking there’d be a bunch of takers today.  There were.  There were a few young fans waving the volleyball posters whenever Bri or Taty came up to serve.

Savannah was still on the bench for Set 3.  Brigette would cycle back in early.  1-1 Megan was blocked on a low set.  UTRGV was not known as a good blocking team, until today.  7-5 Vaqueros Barbara Silva went on a serving run.  10-6 the Vaqueros dropped in an ace, prompting an Aggie timeout.  Again, the crowd went wild for another t-shirt toss. 

Down 11-8, Bri saved a dump shot and Cat got the kill on the point.  The Aggies continued to stay behind, but kept it close.  Jules got another kill and combined with Ashley on a block.  15-11 Vaqueros, Meg was blocked again.  I think they scouted her out well, because they’re not that tall.  On the next point, Savannah came back in.  I’d seen her talking to the coach earlier. 

Unfortunately, the Aggies fell further behind and took a timeout at 17-12.  Sav wasn’t finding her footing and had a net violation and a netted a serve.  She came back out and Brigette was back in.  Megan got a kill at 20-13 Vaqueros, but the team looked down anyway.  The Aggies went on a run with Tatyana on serve.  Brigette, Cat, and Taty got kills.  Timeout Vaqueros at 20-16. 

The Aggies had gotten their last point on a phantom touch.  Yet another DT gave UTRGV a point back right after.  Trailing 21-18 Cat got another big kill.  21-19 Jules got a massive overpass slap.  The crowd roared and a Vaqueros player got yellow carded for hitting the net afterward.  The Aggies closed to 21-20 on a Cat and Jules’ block.  Timeout UTRGV.  Cat was all over it and kept the Aggies in it with a couple more big kills, but the Vaqueros took the set on an overpass kill, 25-22.

Set 4: Vaqueros 2, Aggies 1

About a third of the crowd got up and left en mass before the start of this set.  Some went to the concessions and bathroom, but the rest apparently had somewhere to be at 4:00.  The Vaquero reserves were dancing to the Macarena.  The Aggies were all huddled around the coach.  It was an interesting contrast.

Savannah was back out to start Set 4 serving and not using the jump serve this time.  She picked up the first two points of the set on kills.  4-3 Aggies, the Vaqueros won the point, but Halle had two diving saves.  7-4 Meg got an overpass block.  8-4 Megan and Cat combined to block Knudsen on a shot, which didn’t happen a whole lot in this match.  9-4 Megan got a tip kill and the Vaqueros took a timeout.

“I’m getting exhausted just watching,” I said to Ron.  13-7 Sav went back to the jump serve.  The ball hit the net and dropped over for an ace.  But the Vaqueros came back with Barbara Silva on serve and got it to 14-13.  The Vaqueros were flat-out out-blocking the Aggies.  Cat hammered a pair of points to get the lead back 17-14.  20-19 Jules and Sav combined on a block.  Sav got a kill at 21-16 on a great set by Halle to force a UTRGV timeout. 

22-18 Jordan Pleasants came in to serve.  The Vaqueros took the point and Jordan cycled out.  The coach ripped on her as she got to the bench, and Jordan just walked away.  It didn’t seem like a bad serve and she wasn’t involved in the rest of the point, so the reaction seemed unwarranted.  It was an ugly moment.  24-21 was a hard fought epic point for the Aggies.  Two of Knudsen’s shots got dug out to keep the point going.  That was impressive.  Because she was hitting the ball so hard and getting fed the ball so often, very few of the points in the match were going long.  That said, Taty finished the set on the hardest hit ball of the match, 25-23.  The crowd roared for the team.

Set 5: Aggies 2, Vaqueros 2

“Okay Ron, it’s nearly 4:00.  Let’s go to the soccer match,” I said jokingly.  “Hell, no!” was Ron’s reply.  Ashley got the set started with a kill.  Halle put in an ace and Megan and Cat got kills for an early 5-2 lead.  5-3 Taty netted her serve.  Were I the coach, I’d cycle her out on serve in situations like this.  She’s done that too many times.  Knudsen got a kill and an overpass kill tied the score at 5.  Timeout Aggies.  Back in play, Barbara Silva served one out, so the bad serving was contagious.

Kundsen drove in another kill to tie it at 7.  Savannah hit three of the next four points out (two on kills, one on serve).  Ashley got a kill in the middle of that and another to bring the score to 10-9 Vaqueros.  She combined with Megan on a block to tie it at 10.  The team was called for a net violation next, but tied it again with Meg and Taty on a block at 11.  Barbara Silva and Cat traded kills for the next four points, but the Vaqueros got to 14 first.  UTRGV won it on match point #1 with a tip, 15-13 and 3-2.

If Coach Jordan had any hair to pull out, it would have been gone after looking at the match statistics.  He was mad in the postgame interview and little wonder.  The Aggies had 20 more kills and lead in most of the stats.  The ones they trailed in were aces by one and blocks by six.  Given how well the Aggies blocked in their last match, it was unbelievable.    

Ragni Knudsen led all scorers with 21 kills.  Barbara Silva was second with 11.  That was pretty much it for the Vaqueros.  Everything went through Knudsen.  The Aggies had three girls in double figures.  Cat Kelly led with 18.  Adam said that there was something specific she was doing that was giving UTRGV trouble, but I can’t remember what it was and I didn’t write it down at the time.  Regardless, she had a great game.  Tatyana Battle had 15 and 10 digs.  Megan Hart had 10.  Savannah Davison had 9 and Julianna Salanoa had 8.  So, the Aggies had no trouble getting production from several players.

Where the stats hurt was in attack errors.  The Aggies were 34 to 23 in errors.  Savannah had nearly as many errors than kills.  Were the Aggies playing more tight with the large crowd there?  Sav had a really rough first set.  Taking her out for the second set worked, but the Aggies were missing their number two scorer by Set 3.  She had good moments after that, but also played tentative and was finally was overplaying by the end. 

I can tell Sav is very competitive and intense (even among a team of girls who are the same), but her playing abilities go hot and cold, lacking a full season of experience.  I remember Jordan Abalos fearlessly taking bad shot after bad shot, but the coach would stick with her as she would invariably finish with double the kills than errors.  She was also always an asset on defense, which made it hard to take her out of a game.  If Savannah can be that kind of defensive player, I think everything else would fall into place. 

Right now, I’m not sure if the coach should have stuck with Savannah after the first set, or if he should have left her on the bench for the rest of the match.  I don’t think it helped her psyche to have gotten pulled twice in the match.  Maybe it motivates her for the next match, but it didn’t get a win here, which was the only thing that mattered.

I suspect Savannah is the type of player that isn’t going to do well coming on and off the bench.  You might have to either play her the whole time or not at all.  I wouldn’t want another controversy on the team over who’s playing, like what happened with the libero position, but Cat Kelly seems like the better player right now, but that might only apply to this particular opponent.  Ashley Anselmo is really good, but I think she’s limited in playing time because of nagging injuries.  The coach was really high on freshman Krysten Garrison, but she may be red-shirted. 

 

Overall, the Vaqueros won because they played better as a team than the Aggies and were able to execute their game plan.  With Cal-Baptist losing today, the Aggies could have had a share of first, but instead dropped to fourth place.  The Aggies 20-game home winning streak was snapped.  Almost worse, this all happened in front of their largest crowd of the season.  I think they’ll get some new fans out of this, but for the most part, newcomers probably came away saying, “Typical Aggies,” that incredibly frustrating local anti-provincialism against NMSU teams. 

I suspected this match would go long and it did.  There wasn’t much time for reflection after the match.  Ron and I wouldn’t arrive at the next door soccer match until it was half done.  The last time I saw Aggie Volleyball have a bad loss (10-29-16), I got a pickup from a soccer win right after.  There would be no such luck today.

NM State Aggies vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners Volleyball 10-20-18

These Saturday noon games kind of suck for someone who gets up late, but I’m always happy to see the Aggie Volleyball girls.  Ron worked all night, but he wanted to see them too, so off we went.  The road to the football stadium was not completely blocked off, even though it was gameday for them.  Either we were early, or they weren’t expecting a big crowd for the game.  I’d asked Ron if he was interested in going to the football after volleyball, but he was going to be working this evening.  I was irritated that these two events were essentially scheduled back-to-back, thinking it would reduce the volleyball attendance, like the double-scheduling with Women’s Basketball did last year (12-2-17).  I don’t think it did today.  (In fact, it might have been the opposite.)

The Women’s Basketball posters were no longer out on the courtesy table today.  Maybe they all got taken by the school girls on Thursday.  The lady that was signing people up for Medicare was still there and was talking to some people.  Out on court, I saw Lia Mosher and Jordan George were now riding scooters because of their injuries.  Adam Young had mentioned that Jordan G. had gotten injured between home dates.  Poor thing.  This is her second year out with an injury, but at least she was libero for a set in that epic game against Arizona (9-8-18).  She’d also straightened out her hair.  It looked very nice.

On the other side, the Roadrunners had really cool-looking warmup shirts on.  It was a blue and white speckled pattern.  They’ve rolled out good-looking uniforms in the years that I’ve seen them with their blue, yellow, and white school colors.  The team did their pregame ritual out-of-sight, but the crowd could hear them shouting.  They were a very spirited bunch for the whole match.  They had a reason to be upbeat; they’d beaten the Aggies in five sets last month in Bakersfield. 

It was a good crowd, a bit less than Thursday.  I wouldn’t have thought it, but it appears to be easier to get kids here on a school night than Saturday at noon.  Ron nudged me with the observation that he thought Utah Valley only used three girls to serve in the last game.  I hadn’t noticed that, but I had noticed that their star player only served once.  I have no idea how serving rotation works (never figured it out in P.E. either). 

Set 1
Before the match, #6 Desiree Sukhov on CSUB chatted amicably with the up official about their libero (from the way she was pointing).  On the Aggie side, Halle Razo was in at libero today.  Right off the bat, she missed a couple of digs, probably giving Coach Jordan some second thoughts.  She’d look better as the match went on.  Halle also showed some good judgment on out balls. 

The Roadrunners looked sharp early and had a lead.  5-3 CSUB, they got a good save by the media table and won the point on a tip.  7-5 CSUB, they got some good blocking and stopped Megan Hart on a kill.  But, the Aggies came back.  Savannah Davison got it to within one on a great tip.  Captain Tatyana Battle tied it with a kill at 7.  Megan got a kill at 8-8.  The Aggies took the lead with Megan serving an ace that kissed the sideline, 9-8.

Taty came up on her serve.  10-8 Aggies, Briana Ainsworth got a great save on a tipped ball.  At 14-10, CSUB took a timeout.  16-10 Sav and Julianna Salanoa combined on a block.  The crowd loved it.  19-10 Juli was blocked on an overpass tap, but came back with a kill shot.  20-10 Aggies, CSUB took their second timeout.  21-11 the Roadrunners finally side out Tatyana on serve!  That was at least 11-straight points!  That may have been the most dominate run I’ve ever seen the Aggies go on against a decent opponent.  I’m still in shock.  Needless to say, the Aggies took the set, 25-13.               

Set 2: Aggies 1, Roadrunners 0
Between sets, Aggie Ashley Anselmo smiled and said something to the up official as the teams changed sides.  He must be a popular guy.  We pick up the action at 3-1 Aggies.  There were three jousts at the net between blocking players, until Savannah finished it with a kill.  4-2 Aggies, a second foot fault was called on the Roadrunner libero serving.  The other one happened in the first set.  I’d never seen such a call in a game.  I conferred with Ron.  He confirmed that it happened and that it was pretty obvious.

6-2 Aggies, Natalie Mikels borrowed Bri’s signature dump shot for a kill.  7-2 Aggies, Meg and Sav on a block.  Timeout CSUB.  Since I had a moment, I noted here that Taty kept jumping Halle’s digs in this set.  They would have been pretty easy ones for Halle, so that wasn’t really necessary.  Taty’s trying to do too much sometimes. 

The Roadrunners came back on a run and closed it to one point.  Timeout Aggies.  10-8 Aggies, Megan broke up the run with a kill.  Jordan Pleasants came in to serve for Savannah.  In the first set, Sav was using her jump serve.  Her first one was good, but the second one went into the net.  I almost think there’s some arrangement between her and the coach: she only gets to serve until she faults. 

CSUB would tie it at 10, but the Aggies retook the lead 11-10 on an epic rally.  That point may have been the whole match with neither team willing to concede it easily.  Halle had a pancake dig to start the point.  Briana dug out one shot from her knees.  Taty finished the point with a kill.  13-10 Julianna and Ashley combined on a block.  Timeout Roadrunners. 

Ron’s unofficial niece came in with her family earlier.  Good to see she’s still able to support the Aggies, though I get the impression she’s probably on several teams of her own.  During the break, she was singing along with Sweet Caroline. 

Back on court, Juli and Ash combined for another block, 14-13.  We were then tied at 15.  The CSUB shot was initially ruled out, but after a conference, the official called Taty for a touch.  16-15 Aggies, on the next close shot, Taty let a close shot go out cleanly.  19-15 Megan triggered an overpass kill.  23-18 Megan and Ashley combined on a block.  The Aggies would finish it off 25-20.   

Set 3: Aggies 2, Roadrunners 0
Here’s where I actually noticed that Lia and Jordan G. were on scooters as the teams changed sides.  I’m 100% sure they’ve raced each other at some point against the coach’s orders.  Behind the Aggie bench, I spotted a woman with spectacular long red hair.  Now I was sorry I wasn’t sitting where I usually like to at the Pan-Am.  On court, Taty went over and smiled and chatted with the up official before play.  Who is this guy?  I’m getting jealous of a freaking referee.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the players be this friendly with the refs.

6-2 Briana got the Aggies up in the lead with one of her good serving runs.  7-3 Aggies, Megan got a definitive kill on a low set.  You wouldn’t think it for such a tall girl, but she seems to like those low sets.  Meg and Taty combined for a block at 8-4.  With Megan serving the Aggies went up 10-4.  She’s everywhere.  Timeout CSUB.  10-5 Megan slid across the court for a dig.  I cringed as she came up slow.  Whoa, beautiful.  Don’t do that.  Your knees are more important than the point.

11-5 Aggies, Julianna and Ashley combined on block.  15-8 timeout CSUB.  16-10 Juli got the kill after the officials overruled an out call with a touch.  On the previous point, she’d whiffed on a swing, which had the coach screaming.  There’d also been a couple of near collisions on digs this set that probably upset him. 

18-11 the Roadrunner libero netted a serve.  This after two foot faults and an out serve.  She’s officially the hard luck player of the match.  Maybe it’s better that I didn’t note her number to name her.  19-11 Meg and Ash on a block, and 20-11 Meg and Sav on a block.  Have Trump talk to these girls about building a wall.

21-16 the Roadrunners went on a run, which prompted an Aggie timeout.  The cheerleaders packed up and left early.  They’ve got a long day ahead of them with the football game next.  22-18 Megan laid out to dive for another ball.  I charged the court at this point and got in her face and told her to stop doing that.  Hopefully, she heard me loud and clear.  I would have normally been ejected at this point, but the security guard agreed with me and escorted me back to my seat. 

23-19 Ashley got in a kill.  24-20 the Aggies got the point on an apparent out ball by them, but it was called as a touch by CSUB.  As spirited and upbeat as the Roadrunners were during the match, #2 Brooke Boiseau finally let off some negative emotion as she got visibly angry about the call.  The coach joined her, though, as per the rules, he couldn’t go complain directly to the up official. 

Ron didn’t think there was a touch, but did note that two officials called it.  The officials had shown that they were willing to overrule, but seemed sure on this one.  I think the match was more-or-less decided by this point anyway.  The Aggies finished it out 25-20 and 3-0, but it was a little downbeat way to end it. 

Once again, there were stats on the scoreboard.  For CSU-Bakersfield, Brooke Boiseau and #7 Rafa Bonifacio from Brazil both had 7 kills, and #19 Milica Vukobrat from Serbia had 6.  For the Aggies, Tatyana Battle led with 10 kills, Megan Hart with 7, Savannah Davison with 6, and Julianna Salanoa with 5. 

Checking out the blocking totals.  The Aggies were up 13 to 3 in blocks.  The Aggies’ defense at the net was the real star here today.    It featured several of the girls contributing.  The Aggies did a good job today against a .500 team and cleaned up some mistakes from the last game.  Taty’s serving run in the Set 1 was absolutely inspired and set up a great team effort for the win. 

The arena emptied almost instantly after the match.  I wrote down the stats and we stopped by the restroom.  With the straight-sets win, the Raising Canes promotion paid off.  I just caught the marketing person for a coupon before he left.  (He’d just given one to the spectacular redhead right before I got there.)  Outside, the cheerleaders and the band had lined up in front of the Pan-Am Center with the football team to march to the stadium.     

We took off to the Canes.  Along with some Aggie fans, a bunch of people from a convention or something were also there, so it was a madhouse.  A bus full of kids rolled up after we were served, saw the crowd, and drove on.  I was going out for an early “business” dinner, but I couldn’t resist getting a full meal here anyway.  While at Top Golf, I ended up getting a kids’ meal burger.  I thought about getting the Canes’ kids’ meal, but didn’t want to drink out of a sippy cup.  Sorry the volleyball girls didn’t come by, so I could have thanked them again for the meal.

NM State Aggies vs Utah Valley Wolverines Volleyball 10-18-18

The last day of my vacation started off with a bang.  At 7:30am a clap of thunder of monstrous proportions instantly woke me out of a deep sleep.  After talking to a few other people, everyone in town heard it, including people outside of town.  I’m still in shock that the power didn’t go out.  (See what I did there?)  It rained pretty hard after that and off-and-on for much of the day.  It was another day of confinement in which to go stir crazy before returning to my miserable job.

I never really got back to sleep, but it was so humid (which disagrees with me) in the morning, I couldn’t physically get up until late.  After a shiftless day, I called Ron in the afternoon about going to tonight’s Aggie Volleyball game.  He was all for it and for going to dinner beforehand.  Thankfully, he’d already been woken up earlier.  Otherwise, he said he wasn’t planning on going.     

I’d had a bowl cereal after I’d woken up late and had gotten really hungry in the meantime.  I’d also been a craving for a Southwest Turkey Melt at next door McAlister’s for the last two weeks.  I was able to greedily satisfy both desires shortly thereafter.  Ron greeted me with a “Long time, no see.”  Off the top of my head, I don’t remember the last time we saw each other, though we’d been in regular communication.  He’d just gotten back from having driven to Arkansas and back inside of two days.  Going to this match was going to make him a bit late for his caretaking job, but I’m pretty sure he wanted a little fun entertainment this week regardless.

At the Pan-Am Center later (and with a full belly), I finally got what I’d been wanting for four years at the courtesy table.  They finally put out a Brooke Salas poster.  Me and a bunch of little 10-year old girls are very happy.  Aggie Women’s Basketball also put the lovely Mills sisters (Monique and Dominique) on another schedule poster.  I have nowhere to put these, but I’ll make room.

They were also handing out pink hair headbands like my ultimate sports crush, Alex Morgan, wears for games.  (Actually, they’re not quite like what she wears, but close enough.)  This was sort of for Breast Cancer Awareness, I guess.  It would make better sense to hand these out at a soccer match actually.  There was also a lady in the concourse with a stand to sign people up for Medicare.  Given the age of some of the fans, this might make sense, sort of.  AD Mario Moccia was also up front, nervously pacing while on his phone.  Ron said, “Hey,” to him.  (They’ve met.  I actually haven’t met him.)

The game was on the radio tonight.  Adam Young reiterated something he’d said on yesterday’s Aggie Coaches Show that Aggie Volleyball was in the top 50 in attendance nationally.  Having watched some other volleyball matches on Stadium this week, I can believe that.  Playing in an arena, instead of a gym, I think helps.

In two weeks, they’re having a “Pack the Pan-Am” event for volleyball.  They’ve already sold 10,000 tickets.  (That’s $1 a ticket if you’re buying 20 for group sales.)  If you’re wondering (as I was), the Pan-Am’s capacity is 12,500.  This could be interesting?  There was another good crowd tonight, probably around 1,000.  There were a lot of young girls there.  I saw what was probably the Mayfield High School Volleyball team and some girls from other teams.   

Something else I’d heard on the Coaches Show was Coach Jordan saying that team captain, Tatyana Battle, was wearing a boot.  I fell to my knees and cried out to the Lord, “Why, God, why!”  Seriously, how many more injuries can this team and my delicate sensibilities take?  And to make it worse, Taty leads the team in kills and digs.  Nooooo!  Thankfully, she was out on court warming up, sans boot, when we got there.  Whew!

This was actually Ron’s first volleyball game of the season.  He’s kind of ruing getting that Aggie Country pass to this point and not being able to use it.  I pointed out several of the girls to him.  Cat Kelly and Julianna Salanoa were both starting tonight as they’d had career games while on the road.  The Coach was even starting to be convinced of what I’d thought of Juli the first time I saw her: that she’s going to be a star.  Natalie Mikels also started.  She was sporting some braids in her hair tonight.

On the other side of the net, the Utah Valley Wolverines were a tall group.  They were also #5 in the nation in blocking.  That’s pretty impressive.  They also have the top scorer in the conference, freshman Kanza Tarawhiti.  She’s also a rather striking young woman with her hair in tight braids.  (See what I did there again, though in this case I meant to say that Kanza’s good looking.)  The team also has a Hawaiian girl, Jasmine Niutupuivaha.  I can’t tell you how to pronounce that last name, but I will say it has five syllables.  It’s kind of name that separates professional announcers like Adam Young and PA Ed from the rest of us.  One of their assistant coaches was gorgeous with dramatic long hair. 

Set 1
The Aggies’ last match was a tough five-set win at UTRGV on Saturday, which was the end of a three-game road trip.  If they were tired or rusty, it showed here at the beginning of Set 1.  The team looked a bit slow and out-of-sorts.  Cat kept them in it with a couple of kills.  Ashley Anselmo had a great cross-court kill.  Taty then started to get into it with her first and second kills, which got the crowd cheering.  Juli and Cat combined on a block to tie it up at 10.

UVU then went on a run to get the lead back at 15-12, which was a media break.  Aggie hats were tossed into the crowd by the cheerleaders.  The Wolverines added a couple more and Coach Jordan took a timeout.  Back on serve, libero Jordan Pleasants served up an ace.  Beautiful Megan Hart then got her first kill.  Though UVU is a tall team, they don’t have anyone her height.  Every time she slaps down a kill, I can see the other team getting demoralized.

Jordan served another ace.  Briana Ainsworth followed with another one of her great serving runs for 7 points.  (The Wolverines did get an entertaining kick save during the run.)  Megan fired a shot through three blockers for a kill.  Savannah Davison completed the comeback with a kill to tie it at 19.  Megan got another kill at 21-19 to force a UVU timeout.  The first set point chance was an epic rally where the Wolverines finally broke the run.  Sav would finish it on a tip on the next point, 25-20 Aggies.

Set 2: Aggies 1, Wolverines 0
Megan got two early kills, but UVU took an early 9-6 lead.  Their reserves let off a loud howl.  Timeout Aggies.  They came back and tied it at 9 on a questionable call.  I hate to admit it, but the Aggies benefited from about three iffy calls in the match.   There was no video replay available.  Adam was pretty sure this one was wrong about a ball being touched before going out.  There was another on a service ace later that might have hit the back line or not.

The Aggies took it to 13-11.  Sav got two hard kills and a tip.  Timeout Wolverines.  UVU stormed back to take the lead.  Bri served up an ace back on serve, but the Wolverines got two aces serving at Jordan.  19-17 UVU.  Timeout Aggies.  The group of Mayfield girls sang along with Sweet Caroline during the break.  Down 20-19, Julianna got her first kill.  Taty tied it at 20.  She took three swings on the point, before getting a cross-court kill.   

Savannah got two big kills to tie it yet again at 23.  After taking a shot off her face on the previous point, Sav fought off a UVU set point.  The Wolverines finally converted on their third set point on an epic final point, 27-25 UVU.

Set 3: Aggies 1, Wolverines 1
I warned Ron ahead of time that halftime had been reduced to five minutes.  He took right off to the bathroom.  (I had to wait until after this set.  We’d both drank a bunch of tea at McAlister’s earlier.)  The Wolverines left the court right below me so I got a decent look at them.  When the Aggies came back out, Halle Razo was now dressed out as the libero.  Adam wondered if Jordan was injured.  No, she was getting targeted on serve and she’d touched the ball as it was clearly going out on that last point.

The camera caught one of the football players grooving to the break music.  The Mayfield girls screamed as he was up on the video screen.  When the camera found him again later, he was like No, no more dancing.  I’m done for the night.  The first point of the third set picked right up where that last point left off and went for another long rally.  UVU took that point and went on a run.  For such a great blocking team, they’d only had one block in Set 1.  Here, they were blocking well.

At 7-1 Wolverines, Coach Jordan took a timeout.  Halle came up on serve and went on tremendous run to tie it at 7.  Did the Coach threaten the girls’ families or dogs in the break?  Savannah came up on serve next and gave the Aggies the lead, 11-9.  Earlier, she was using a jump serve, which worked well.  For this set and the rest of the match, she used a short serve that just popped over the net.  I don’t know what to make of this change of style.

The Aggies went up 13-11.  On a bad set, Juli managed to get a tip kill with her left.  She’s getting so smart.  UVU came back on a run to close the gap.  Timeout Aggies.  In the break, girls in different parts of the stands from different schools started an impromptu dance contest.  19-14 Aggies got on a run.  Julianna started it with a monster kill.  She also got some crowd-pleasing solo blocks.  The Wolverines would make a bit of a comeback, but the Aggies took it 25-20.

Set 4: Aggies 2, Wolverines 1
2-1 Aggies to start.  Juli got another solo block that got the crowd roaring.  3-2 Aggies, Julianna got a kill off a ball that bounced off the net.  She had really had it going here.  7-6 Aggies, Megan and Ashley combined on a block.  Tell me again how good the Wolverines are at blocking.

UVU would come back and take the lead.  They got one kill off of Sav’s face and another off her chest.  It seemed almost personal.  13-11 UVU and timeout Aggies.  The Wolverines increased their lead to 18-15 on a serving run by Kanza.  On the sideout, the Coach put Jordan back in as the server.  She went on a run to tie it at 18.  Timeout UVU.

The Aggies got the lead at 20-19.  The rally on the point was so intense, Adam nearly ran out of breath calling it.  Juli, Taty, and Sav all combined on big kills to get it to 23-21.  Out of a timeout, the Wolverines would tie it and take a 24-23 lead as a serve hit the net and fell over for an ace.

I think the Aggies were out of timeouts well before this point and had to play it out without any more motivational threats from the coach.  Savannah got another kill to tie it.  25-24 Aggies, a sure overpass kill by the Wolverines was saved and Tatyana finished the point with a kill.  26-24 Aggies took the set and the match 3-1.  Wow.

Thanks to the reappearance of player stats up on the video board and the radio, I’m able to give some stats for the match for a change.  Starting with the Wolverines, Kanza Tarawhiti lived up to the hype, easily leading all scorers with 24 kills.  Kristen Allred was also in double digits with 14.  On the other side, four Aggies had double digit kills: Tatyana Battle 18 and 21 digs, Savannah Davison 17, Cat Kelly 10, and Megan Hart with 12, and I think she led in blocks, and, wait for it, had 11 digs.  (She’s so awesome.)  I think Briana Ainsworth had a double double in digs and assists.  I missed Julianna Salanoa’s blocking totals, but I’m sure they were good.

The Aggies couldn’t stop Kanza and she wasn’t their only scorer, but they seemed to need another good one to balance their attack.  As good as their blocking was coming in, it could clearly be beaten.  With so many good freshman on their team, Ron remarked that they’re going to be a lot of trouble in the future.

For the Aggies, Taty is so steady.  Sometimes, she has problems serving on big points, but that’s about it.  Sav needs to learn how to dig and set more consistently, but she totally makes up for it in kills.  Megan just continues to do what she does best: use her height advantage to bludgeon the other team.  (And who’d pick a 6’5” girl to be so good at digging?)  Until another team runs out a bigger girl, she’s going to have her way with opponents.  Bri and Nat are a great nucleolus of serving and setting.  (I can’t believe some Bri’s serving runs this season.)  Other teams cannot ignore Cat and Ashley when they’re on the floor either.   

Libero is still a problem.  Halle does well on serve and I think she dug everything hit at her in this match.  I don’t think the coach really trusts her though, maybe because she kind of undersized.  Jordan has some issues digging at times, but also has a good serve.  Too many good servers isn’t a problem, but somebody has to receive those serves and get those digs that Taty doesn’t get.

Assuming good health, which seems unlikely, this team would clean up in previous years.  This year, there’s some serious competition out there.  The Aggies have enough weapons to beat anyone, but they’ve got to clean up their deficiencies or they’ll beat themselves against a good team.  They also need to stop getting off on the wrong foot and having to make significant comebacks in sets.  Better teams will bury you for doing that.

Ron was late for work, but glad he’d gotten to see a good match.  I was too and for the food.  This was a great way to finish off an otherwise lousy vacation.  From here out for the rest of the year, I’ll just be taking single days off to see some more games.

Sports Journal October 16-18, 2018

10-16-18
I wasn’t able to watch or listen to the last couple of LCS games.  The Red Sox beat the Astros 7-5 Sunday to tie their series at one.  The Brewers won 4-0 on Monday over the Dodgers to take a 2-1 lead in their series.

KROD decided to preempt their local show to broadcast the two LCS games today.  First up was the Red Sox versus the Astros in Houston.  In the first, Dallas Keuchel gave up three straight hits, which resulted in a 2-0 Red Sox lead.  The Astros mounted a rally in the bottom as Marwin Gonzalez drove in a run to make it 2-1.  It was hard to not notice the full house in Houston.  The fans were very loud as the Astros scored.

Astro Tony Kemp had the defensive play of the game in the third, as he scaled the left field scoreboard to rob Steve Pearce of an RBI double.  In the fifth, Alex Bregman drove in Jose Altuve on a bouncer past third to tie it at 2-2.  The Red Sox regained the lead in the sixth, as Steve Pearce hit a homer well out reach of any Astros defenders, 3-2 Red Sox.

Nathan Evovaldi went seven strong innings for the Red Sox.  The Astros’ closer, Roberto Osuna, came in in the eighth.  What have I said about bringing in closers into non-save situations?  Jon Sciambi made a comment about how slow he was working, but no comment about ESPN’s lengthy commercial breaks.  Osuna got two outs, mostly thanks to Bregman making some great plays at third, but the wheels fell off trying to get that third out.  He loaded the bases and forced in a run thanks to two hit batters.  Jackie Bradley Jr. then finished off the game with a bang and a grand slam home run.  8-2 Red Sox was the final and they took a 2-1 series lead.

Jessica Mendoza was working with Sciambi for the radio broadcast.  They sounded like they were having a good time.  Certainly she was more relaxed here than with Matt Vasgersian a couple of weeks ago on TV.  I had plenty of time to listen to the pair over the FOUR-HOUR broadcast.

The NLCS game started right after, but Stadium had on another Mountain West Women’s Volleyball match this evening.  I had the baseball game on in the background, but only turned down the TV sound when the radio announcers got excited.  That didn’t happen much, so I pretty watched and listened to the volleyball.

The Utah State Aggies were facing the Boise State Broncos in Logan, Utah.  I seem to be watching a lot of these other Aggies lately.  They play in a small gym with bleachers for their fans.  It’s interesting to see all these different places where volleyball teams play.  The crowd was also fairly modest, but mostly filled the stands.  Neither team is very good in conference this year, so the announcers at figured it would be an even match.

At least the US Aggies were pretty good looking.  Their libero, #2 Tasia Taylor looked downright glamorous with the big curls in her hair.  #21 Corrinne Larsen was very tall and beautiful.  (Volleyball is ruining me with this completely pointless fixation on tall girls, who will never give me the time of day.)  I was also intrigued by their setter, #6 Kassidy Johnson.  Her hair was dark, but pulled back into two silver-colored braids.  I wonder how you get that effect.

The Broncos outright dominated Set 1, 25-13.  Cassedi Simon had three aces on serve.  Their reserves did a “can-can” dance on sidelines.  Set 2 was much more competitive.  Neither team could mount more than a two-point lead and it went back-and-forth.  At 23-23, Boise State took a time out, which surprised the announcers, since the scoreboard showed they had none left.  Utah State prevailed 25-23.

The US Aggies had a small lead going into Set 3.  #2 Kiley Lewis for the Broncos had a big jump serve and went on a run to tie it.  (She also has great hair.)  Utah State had two set points, but Boise State came up with four straight points to win it 26-24.  Tasia fell into a fan’s lap in the front row trying to save one of those points.  There’s some fan service for you.

Bully the Utah State mascot came out on court before the fourth set and did some break dancing.  (Actually, I have no idea what his name is.  Their mascot logo is a blue bull.)  Boise State started off the set with two aces.  Utah State got two aces right back when they got on serve.  The US Aggies got a four-point lead, but the Broncos came back.  Kiley tied it at 19-19 with an ace.  But, Utah State would go on a run for the rest of the set and won it, 25-20.

Boise State went up 6-2 in the fifth set.  After a pair of aces, Utah State took a timeout.  During a lengthy challenge later, the play-by-play announcer marveled at a troop of little girls dancing at the top of the bleachers.  They’d been at it for the whole match.  The US Aggies managed to get it to within 10-9.  During another long challenge, the Bronco girls started dancing on court.  The announcer suggested a dance-off between them and the bleacher girls.  Boise State would finally take it 15-11 and 3-2 for the match.  Utah State had their chances in this set, but kind of self-destructed.  It was another fun match to watch.  At least I’m getting some entertainment on my vacation.     

Meanwhile in the background, the Dodgers played the Brewers in LA.  Brian Dozier drove in a run for the Dodgers in the first to make it 1-0.  The Dodgers loaded the bases in the second, but didn’t score.  I think the Brewers’ starter, Gio Gonzalez, was already out of the game by this point.  In the fifth, Domingo Santana drove in Orlando Arcia, who dove into home under the tag, to make it 1-1.

If I’d known what was coming, I’d have turned off the radio at this point and watched the volleyball and then Babylon 5 on Comet in peace, and turned it back on later.  I think the pinnacle of boredom hit in the eighth, when there were two lengthy challenges on the same play.  After four hours, we’d played nine innings without a winner.

In the tenth, Manny Machado had a collision with Jesus Aguilar at first.  This nearly started a benches-clearing fight, but I think both teams were too tired to throw any punches.  By the twelfth, even the announcers were tired of being there.  Finally in the thirteenth, Cody Bellinger drove in Machado for a 2-1 Dodger win to tie the series at 2.

I suspect Kato Kaelin was questioning on Twitter Manager Craig Counsel’s decision to pitch to Bellinger in that situation with two poor hitters behind him and a base open.  So were the ESPN announcers.  With two outs, I think he was trying to ensure that those two hitters would be leading off the next inning (all of the bench players had been used by both teams by this point).  Whatever.  At FIVE HOURS, it was a no-win situation for everyone involved anyway. 

10-17-18
Perhaps because the games were going to overlap a bit, KROD decided to only broadcast the later game.  So, I only got a few updates about the Brewers and Dodgers game.  The first thing I heard was that Manager Craig Counsel took out Brewer starter, Wade Miley, after a five-pitch walk.  It was part of an elaborate/deep analytic/fifth dimensional chess strategy.  The final update I got had the Dodgers winning 5-2.  Their starter, Clayton Kershaw, went seven innings.  How old fashion.  The Dodgers are now up 3-2 in their series.

Meanwhile on TV, Stadium was broadcasting a Women’s College Soccer match between the Bucknell Bisons and the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the Patriot League.  I admit, I’ve kind of enjoyed these soccer matches on the weekend.  Since I don’t have much of a rooting interest in the teams they usually show, I find it kind of relaxing, a sports ASMR, if you will.  There’s a bit excitement here and there and some mild titillation from watching the girls play.

Today however, there was way too much competition for my attention.  I had the radio on with the baseball.  Then I switched stations to listen to the Aggie Coaches Show.  Elsewhere on TV, I had to watch the Like novella on Televisa.  I had to see how the Japanese girl, who doesn’t speak Spanish or English in real life, was going to be able to interact with the rest of the cast.  (She used an app on her phone to translate.)  Not to mention, my ultimate sports crush, Alex Morgan, was playing an international match tonight, which I wasn’t going to be able to watch, so any other women’s soccer was just going to leave me pining away for her.

All that said, I watched most of the first half.  It looked cold and windy there in Pennsylvania at night with threatening clouds in the area.  I was hearing what sounded like a good crowd, but there was never a crowd shot.  The people at the field who weren’t playing were bundled up.  The poor girls were out there in shorts, but many were wearing long sleeves.  A couple had gloves on.

There weren’t any kids or students behind the nets, so the goalies had to retrieve their own balls.  One time, the game had to be paused as the ball went over a fence behind the goal.  36’ left in the half, the Lehigh goalie made a smart play.  After an attack, with a couple of Bucknell players still in the box behind her, she ran to the front of the box and threw the ball out for an immediate attack.  Bucknell was short-handed at that point, and Lehigh got their goalie in a one-on-one.

32’ near tragedy, a Bucknell player nearly kicked it straight into her own goal trying to clear it out of the box.  28’ a Lehigh player had the Bucknell goalie beat, but a defender kicked it out with less drama.  2’ the Bucknell goalie officially had a rough night as she fell down hurt retrieving the ball from behind the net after a shot.  The trainer didn’t even run out to check on her, probably not believing she could have gotten injured from that.  She did stay in the game. 

Well, nil-nil at the half.  (Soccer insists on using the word, “nil,” instead of “zero” or “nothing” to try and fool people about the score.)  Unfortunately, I missed most of the second half.  Even worse, I just barely missed the only goal of match.  Thankfully, they replayed it few times in during the half.  A Bucknell player managed to chip one right over the goalie inside the box.  Beautiful shot.  1-0 Bucknell was your final.

By the time I started listening to the Astros/Red Sox game on the radio, the signal had gotten pretty bad.  The Red Sox were already up 2-0 in the first.  A possible two-run homer for the Astros was waved off on fan interference.  In the modern era, why are they still building stadiums where fans can interfere with batted balls?  (Jeffrey Maier anyone?)

From here, the game sounded interesting as the lead went back-and-forth, but it was requiring too concentration to keep track of as the signal faded in-and-out.  In the sixth, I did clearly hear Jackie Bradley Jr. hitting another home run.  This was a two-run shot that put the Red Sox up 6-5.

After watching Babylon 5 on Comet, I tried focusing more on the game.  OMG, they’re only in the eighth inning!  The reception was impossible, but I gathered it was 8-6 Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth.  There were two outs, but the Astros had loaded the bases on Craig Kimbrel.  Alex Bregman was coming up and . . . fade out . . . commercial.

What?  Did I miss the last out or the game-winning play because of my poor reception?  No.  The commercial break ended and the game was rejoined in progress in the middle of an interview with a happy Red Sox player.  They’d just won 8-6 and are up in the series 3-2.

Yeah, KROD had apparently put the station on autopilot and the computer interrupted the game with a scheduled break.  What a great way to f-up a FOUR-AND-A-HALF HOUR broadcast.  Why don’t you guys just broadcast dead air from now on since you don’t have the staff or inclination to broadcast live sports correctly.  It’ll be an upgrade over your regular ESPN Radio sports talk programming.  Just hand the Chihuahuas broadcasts over to an FM station, so people can listen over their phones and here in Las Cruces.  You miserable losers.

10-18-18
The Red Sox eliminated the Astros 4 to 2 in the ALCS by winning tonight 4-1.  The game wasn’t on anywhere that I know of in my area.  That’s how it goes.  David Price had an uncharacteristically good playoff pitching performance for the win.  What do they say about stopped clocks?  Blind squirrels and nuts?  Insert other euphemisms here. 

NM State Aggies vs Chicago St Cougars Soccer 10-14-18

I hate to be unenthusiastic, but after waking up at 11:30 today, I was not into anything.  I was barely ready to watch *volleyball* on TV at noon after a shower.  I was grateful that the weather was pleasant for today’s match.  It was partly cloudy with rain clouds hovering the area and a cool breeze, but a bright, warm sun when it poked through. 

The tailgate outside was full and cooking up a storm.  They might be that Lady Aggie Tailgaters Club, whose website I’ve raided for pictures.  The courtesy table was back out.  Still no program, but there was a really cool new Men’s Basketball poster.  At the entrance to the field was new large rock with a plaque on it.  I’ll get to that later.  The crowd looked about the same as Friday’s rain-soaked match, but filled in nicely after the match started.  Regrettably, we could have done without a few of the loudmouths, who were back in force today. 

Athletic Director Mario Moccia, sans his little girls, walked by and sat in the stands.  Uh oh, I don’t think I’ve never seen him here before.  As it turned out, he was here for another reason involving the plaque, but I’d have to think Coach Baarts just got some more motivation to win this game.

I took a look over at the Aggie bench.  I think I counted four girls that were immobilized with various leg injuries.  The Chicago State team looked a bit undersized, like high school players.  During the introductions, it was hard not to notice one of their girls #6 Lilla Kisvari had a really butch haircut.  Before play started, some people behind noticed too and commented that it was guy.  I took second look and watched.  Well, I was convinced it was guy too, but I asked a co-worker later to check on the Internet and did verify that the player was female.  “I can definitely see why you were confused,” said the co-worker after looking at her picture.   

First Half
Okay, weirdness and apathy aside, here we go.  The sun came out completely right as play started.  I was suddenly aware that I wasn’t wearing any sunblock.  As much as I thought that getting some fresh air and warm sun would help me get over my cold, I didn’t want to get burned and I put my jacket hood up.  I was hiding from the sun off and on during the half. 

As for the play on the field, pretty much nothing happened to prompt me to put pen to paper for the first ten minutes.  I was briefly worried the players were as unmotivated as I was to be there.  Finally, the Aggies started mounting attacks.  37’ left in the half and at 35’, Kelly Burton, a defender, took two shots on the Cougar goal that went wide.  34’ Emma Smith shot a roller that also went wide.  33’ Audrey Chavez took the first official shot on goal that the goalie, #13 Judith Sorribes caught.

31’ and it begins in earnest.  The ref blew a quick whistle on some rough play.  Right after, 30’ Grace Olson pushed down a Cougar and was called for it.  Some members of the crowd, annoyingly right behind me, decided the referee was being too tight in calling fouls and was pretty sure that he was being biased towards Chicago State.  These complaints and others would continue for the rest of the match.  Was he a bad referee?  I don’t know; I’m not a soccer “expert” like the yokels behind me.  This heckling got tedious immediately. 

28’ my dear Aileen Galicia took a long shot that went high and wide.  26’ she dribbled well and got past a defender and passed to Audrey, who took a shot that was caught.  21’ Chicago State got their first good chance of the half.  A free kick outside the box hit the scoreboard over the goal.  The crowd was infuriated by the ref’s foul call.  Someone in the crowd called down to the line official at midfield near the stands to complain.  He turned around, smiled, and acknowledged them.

20’ Samantha Alfonso was yellow carded for a mid-air collision.  You can imagine how that went over with the crowd.  One guy called the ref, “Dagwood,” an oddly 40’s era insult.  19’ Aggie goalie Ashley Martin caught a long shot on goal.  17’ Emma passed to Audrey in a scrum in front of the Cougar net.  Judith made a good save.  The crowd started complaining that Katie Martinez was punched in the face.  I didn’t see it.  Apparently the ref didn’t either.

16’ Goal!  PA Alexia was again doing the duties today.  She did a short, enthusiastic call of Audrey finally getting one in.  There were three shots, two by Audrey, right in front of the goal on the play.  1-0 Aggies.  15’ Let’s do it again!  Goal!  Emma found Audrey on a pass from the corner.  Audrey headed it in.  2-0 Aggies.  The crowd finally approved of something.  14’ this time, Judith fell on the ball to stop Audrey from putting in another one.

Some of the volleyball girls came in late and sat below the stands in front of me.  I wanted to ask them how their Saturday night match went at UTRGV, but I made no effort to do so.  I wasn’t feeling confident and didn’t want to bother anybody.  Some little girls walked over to them and talked to them a bit.  They were clearly in awe of them.  Megan Hart seemed really sweet chatting with them.  It was so cute. 

On field, 8’ Audrey made a falling header at the goal that the keeper tipped out.  6’ Katie was hit again and went down.  I saw the end of that one.  The ref considered, after some shouts from crowd, and then yellow carded #23 Lola Arreola.  5’ Emma took a point blank shot, but Judith stopped it again.  Under a minute left and Emma took a shot to the nose.  I’m not sure who did it.  She was not doing well afterward.  Needless to say, the crowd was unhappy.  They may have been right here, but I’ve come to the conclusion, I’d rather sit in the rain than listen to a bunch of angry parents at a soccer match.

Halftime
Mario Moccia came out to midfield with Coach Baarts and Micaela Milavec’s parents.  The Milavecs had made a sizeable contribution to the program in the form of some stadium upgrades.  Mario and the coach presented them with a signed gameball and the new plaque memorializing their contribution.  I had an opportunity to say something to Micaela’s parents shortly afterward, but just wasn’t feeling up to it.  Their daughter had impressed me when I met her for autographs (9-9-18).  She can play and she’s a five-year senior, so Micaela earned her spot on the team.  Micaela was also playing on the near sideline for most of the second half.  So, I got to see a lot of her lovely self for 45 minutes, which I appreciated.

I noticed the baseball guys were there as I came back from the bathroom, but were seated in one of the satellite stands instead of on the grass.  A couple more volleyball girls showed up.  Ah, Jordan Pleasants is a Houston Astros fan judging by her championship shirt.  Briana Ainsworth played a little hacky with a soccer ball.  Aggie photographer, Gary Mook, chatted with the girls.  I think he wanted to take their picture.  Who can blame him?

Second Half
Suddenly, I’m part of the action.  42’ remaining and a ball flew into the stands.  I’m watching it head right for me, before a gentleman beside me attempted to field it.  I ended up with it.  Micaela, who was doing the throw-ins, waved to me from the sidelines, and I managed to toss it to her without embarrassing myself (probably because I didn’t have any time to think about it).  Don’t they usually keep another ball on the sidelines?  Not that I was going to keep it like a foul ball, but I was going to hand it down to the volleyball girls on the field (and chat for a second).  Oh, well. 

The crowd once again started bantering with the linesman.  They were insisting that the CS coach or a player was cursing in Portuguese or something like that.  See, this is where I’m at a disadvantage without a program.  I didn’t know they had any Brazilian players.  The linesman also seemed to be amused by what was going on between the ref and the crowd.  The crowd insinuated that he didn’t respect the ref either. 

36’ Audrey attempted a half-hearted bicycle kick in front of the Cougar goal off of a corner kick.  That didn’t work out real well.  She must have desperate for that hat trick to try it.  33’ Emma made a good rush at the net, but the kick went high.  32’ Aileen took a sniper shot outside the box, but Judith caught another one.  31’ Aileen was there around net, but the ball from the pass kept bouncing around too much for her to get a clean kick.

26’ Audrey had another shot caught.  The ball came right back to the Aggie end.  Ashley had to come out for a one-on-one and just kicked it away.  Ominous foreshadowing.  24’ yellow card on Audrey after an attack, I think.  It was at the other end of the field and hard to see who got it.  Lilla was lying face down in the box in front of the goal after the play.  I think Audrey may have gotten a bit less aggressive about scoring after this incident.

16’ well, this may have been inevitable.  #7 Sara Quevedo, the smallest girl on the field got Ash in another one-on-one and kicked it in from the side.  I’d noticed her playing earlier.  She was all heart out there on the field.  It was another busted, ugly defensive breakdown for the Aggies.  2-1 Aggies.  15’ the Aggies came right back.  Rebecca Mazzie took a shot that Judith blocked on a flying dive.  13’ Kaitlyn May, who’d just come in, was knocked down hard.  On the same play, Ash caught a high bouncer and was run into and knocked down.  That was disastrous all the way around.  Kaitlyn had to come out. 

12’ Aileen got in another awkward shot on goal.  The ball was just bouncing away from her today.  8’ Cougar #20 Jaydie Hanks got a card for a high kick on Zorena Hazen and got a lecture too.  I’d noticed her earlier too, because she was very pretty with her silvery blonde hair.  (Zo has nearly the same color.  It’s a good look.)  Somewhere late (didn’t note it at the time), there was another scuffle between the ref and the crowd over possession of the ball on the near sideline.  The ref went over and consulted with the linesman, who reversed the call.  Maybe the crowd was right.  Maybe he didn’t think the ref was doing a good job either.     

5’ Becca took a shot that was caught.  4’ Becca took a rolling shot that was stopped.  1’ Coach Baarts was going insane on the far sidelines about something.  Perhaps he was precognitive, as a few seconds later the Aggies had another defensive breakdown.  Ash had to come out to stop a rush and collided with the attacker.  The ball got dangerously close to the net.  Final horn.  Aggies win 2-1.

Here’s your stat of the match: shots on goal-Aggies 16, Cougars 4.  Your obvious player of the game is Judith Sorribes, the Cougar goalie.  The Aggies beat this team on the road 8-0 last year.  Today, even with a four-to-one advantage in shots, they only eked out a win.  I don’t mean to short-shrift Audrey Chavez’s performance, but this should have been a much more decisive win.  It didn’t help that the Aggie net was again left undefended, except for Ashley Martin.  This isn’t happening accidentally; it’s the result of a bad strategy. 

The Aggies won with some pain today.  They weren’t roughhousing it as much as they were last month (9-28-18).  I came up with a volleyball epiphany this season: it’s not how hard you it, it’s where you hit it.  I may have another one for soccer: the team that wins the fighting, loses the match.  A little more finesse on the Cougars’ part and certainly the Aggies could have been had today. 

The girls belatedly came out to midfield to wave at the crowd.  I think they momentarily forgot what to do after a win, since it had been so long.  Whatever.  A win is a win.  And ice cream is for winners!  Unfortunately, I’m not personally involved with the team to take them out for Caliches.  I did the next best thing and took myself out for pizza.  (Boy, that makes me sound really bad, doesn’t it?  I’m a villain.)  Chowing down on that Roadrunner Pizza was the most enthusiastic I got all day.  Okay, one more home game left on the schedule and I hope to be there for Senior day.