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.
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