11:00am Saturday is a little early for a volleyball
game. During the pregame, at least I
found out the reason for some of the inconvenient timing for some Aggie
sports. Coach Jordan related that they will accommodate visiting teams’
desires, in return for the same when the Aggies visit. Mystery solved. I also learned in the pregame that Cat Kelly was not injured; she had a
viral infection. It’s kept her out of
four games, so it must be pretty bad. I
question why she was sitting on the bench today. Maybe that means she’s not contagious.
Ron picked me up for the game, which was a good thing,
because I wasn’t entirely awake. At the Pan-Am Center, we were greeted by AD Mario Moccia. I asked him about his trip to Phoenix to
watch the volleyball girls, but didn’t ask if he played a round of golf
at the GCU resort. He was there on Thursday, back on Friday for
Men’s Basketball, here for volleyball this morning, and would be going to
his daughter’s softball game today.
Mario’s a busy man.
On the courtesy table, I was able to pickup the replica
program from 1968 from last night’s basketball.
It was a reproduction of the program for the first game played at the
Pan-Am Center. I was hoping there would
be leftovers this morning because I wanted one.
From the pregame, I also got the scouting report on the Cal-Baptist Lancers. I saw them lose in five sets to UTRGV on Thursday. While they’d started off well in conference,
they were now on a four-game losing streak.
Their star player, whose name I didn’t get, was injured. She was still playing, but not at 100%. CBU also isn’t eligible for the postseason as
they’ve just transferred to Division I.
This was their final conference match.
The Lancers were a generally good-looking team. (Of course that’s important.) #18 Hana
Okuhara caught my eye as a cute Asian girl.
(Yes, that matters, too.) I liked
the red hair on #12 Elizabeth Gilley. However, probably the best-looking woman in
the arena today was one of their assistant coaches. From the program, I’ll take a guess that her
name is Michelle Wright [which is
correct]. Me and Ron both noticed her
immediately out on court as she was warming up the team. Wow, she’s a tall, glamorous blonde,
certainly a former player. I want a copy
of one of her schedule posters from her playing days.
During player introductions, CBU’s fans piped up. There weren’t a lot, but they were loud. The total crowd looked about usual for a
Saturday match, even with the early start.
Brigette Lowe was starting
again for the Aggies. She looked like
the happiest person to be on court.
Beautiful Megan Hart got the
biggest cheer from the crowd, probably more for her playing than her looks
though.
Set 1
I was expecting a tough match as the Aggies had lost to
the Lancers earlier this season (9-20-18). Point #1 of the match was an epic rally. It was like the whole match depended on
it. Briana
Ainsworth had a great save. Libero Halle Razo made an off-the-court save
to keep the point going. The Aggies
finally took the point on a kill. 3-2
Aggies, Julianna Salanoa, who’d had
such a great game on Thursday, got a soft kill here. 5-3 another epic point. CBU would take this point, which included
getting a save off the net. 7-3 Natalie Mikels made an off-court save
by the courtside tables, and Savannah
Davison got the kill for the point.
8-4 Jules got a crushing kill that deflected off a
player and into the hands of CBU’s coach on the sidelines. 8-6 CBU won the point, but Tatyana Battle got an impossible save
off the floor for a dig. To this point,
I noticed Coach Jordan was cycling in lots of players, mixing and matching
about 9 girls. 11-8 Bri came in to serve
and put in an ace. 12-8 she did it
again. 12-9 CBU sided out, but Bri made
a tremendous dive for a save during the point.
13-9 yet another long rally. CBU
took this one. It was like the girls
were playing for their lives. 15-11
Brigette got a kill, which took us to a media timeout.
Whew. That was
intense and we were just halfway through Set 1.
I wasn’t sure we’d all make it to the end with this much pressure. The Aggie
Cheerleaders came out on court. I
think a different group of cheerleaders were working this match than I’d seen
before this season. Just to flat out say
it, this was a better-looking group.
(More talented, meh, but who cares?)
Back to the action, 16-11 Sav got the kill. One of the Lancers nearly took a header into
the stands trying to save the ball. I
think some of the applause for the point may have been for that effort. 19-11 Nat dropped in an untouched ace on
serve. 20-13 CBU’s setter got in a
sneaky dump shot for a kill.
23-14 freshman treetop Lindsay Blakey came in with the set basically in-hand. Most of the swings she took were tips. Maybe she was getting awkward sets or was
just a bit tentative. 24-16 freshman Krysten Garrison came in for some
experience. This was another epic point
with lots of tip shots. Sav won it on a
tip. She’d have six kills for the
set. The Aggies took Set 1, 25-16.
Set 2: Aggies 1, Lancers 0
This was Veteran’s
Day weekend. PA Ed asked all of the active duty military members in the crowd to
stand and be recognized. Several stood
and received a round of applause. It was
a nice moment.
1-1 Savannah put down an overpass kill. 2-3 Lancers, Briana got called for her third
double touch error. 2-4 then she was
called for getting into the net. 3-5 Sav
crushed a kill to break up the CBU run.
5-6 Bri cycled out and talked to Coach Jordan and Coach Rubio. I didn’t see
any yelling at her though. Who could
yell at such a sweetheart?
7-11 Lancers took yet another epic rally point. Timeout Aggies, so everyone could catch their
breath. 9-16 the Lancers started to pull
away. On this point, the down official
reversed an out call with a touch. The
crowd let the ref have it. 10-18 I’m
almost getting tired of saying “epic point,” but I don’t get tired of watching
them. This one ended on a net violation
that gave the point to CBU. Coach Jordan
sent Bri over to argue the point with the up official. (I thought that was Tatyana’s job. Perhaps the coach changed to Briana, hoping
she’d be more charming.)
10-19 Taty made a heroic save on the point and another
quick dig right after, but the point went to CBU anyway. It was that kind of set. She came out and Lindsay and Jordan Pleasants came in. The Coach kind of emptied the bench again
since the set was seemingly out-of-reach.
The Lancers took it 11-25.
Set 3: Aggies 1, Lancers 1
The Shout
party scene from Animal House played on
the video screens during the break. 2-0
Aggies Savannah served for herself for most of the match. Here she was using her running jump serve. 3-0 Taty got a monster kill. 4-0 another Taty kill. Here Sav used her pooch serve that just
cleared the net. 5-0 Sav used her
standing jump serve. In other words,
she’s got a bag of tricks to unpack at the service line. Timeout Lancers.
The Junior Aggie
Club joined the Cheerleaders for a t-shirt toss into the crowd. It was cute.
Out of the break, 6-0 and another Tatyana kill. On the point, the CBU libero almost got
punched in the mouth by a teammate trying to dig the ball. She was laughing afterward though. 8-1 Taty painted the line on a kill. 9-1 she did it again. That’s 10 kills for Tatyana! Timeout Lancers.
One of the Cheerleaders fell on a group lift. Like I said, they look good, but might be a
bit shaky. Like a real Cheerleader, the
girl got up, smiled, and finished the routine.
That’s the way to do it. 12-2 CBU
finally sides out. 18-4 Kiley Tonge came in to serve. Good to see her getting some action. 20-5 Natalie got an ace hitting the
sideline. 21-5 she did it again.
22-5 Lancer Megan
Sester was the receiver on the last two serves. On this point, she seemingly wasn’t paying
attention and got hit by a pass. And I
thought Bri was having a hard match.
Sester was leading the Lancers in scoring through the first two
sets. (She’s also another very attractive
player on the team.) 23-5 Nat got
another ace. Sweet Analyssa Acosta subbed for Tatyana, who got a roar from the crowd
as she came out. Analyssa would get a
couple of digs on the next few points to finally have something on her stat
line (which was all zeros on the program).
I’m happy for her. The Aggies
took Set 3, 25-8. Well, that was dominating.
Set 4: Aggies 2, Lancers 1
Okay, I had no predictions for this set. “What’s going to happen next?” I said. Okay, what happened was CBU went up 0-4 to
start the set. Coach Jordan was furious,
yelling at the officials, taking a timeout, and then starting in on his
girls. I would not have wanted to have
been in that huddle. At this point, I’m
mentally developing the theory that the team holding the north end of the court
had some sort of advantage, as the teams had been changing sides. I’m not seeing this from the court-level
angle, but I don’t think any real difference between either end. Maybe it’s magic?
3-7 Megan was back in and pounded a kill to start a
comeback. The Lancers did get a save on
the point off the net. 4-7 Halle served
up an ace. 6-9 Meg slapped a kill. 8-9 Taty ace.
9-9 another Taty ace. Timeout
CBU. 10-9 Taty put in a third ace in-a-row;
the timeout didn’t help. 11-10 Aggies,
Megan slapped in another kill.
11-12 Lancers, another DT on Bri. The Coach was upset and insinuated that she
was being singled out by the up official.
Maybe the ref didn’t like how she passed the ball, but past officials
weren’t calling double touches on just Bri.
13-13 Julianna pounded a kill.
The deflection almost hit Adam
Young doing the radio commentary on press row. That could have been tragic to my
listening.
14-14 Taty got an overpass kill. Her swing seemed to come out of anywhere with
blinding speed. 17-14 Aggies, CBU made
three straight errors. Timeout
Lancers. 19-16 Taty put a tip into the
campfire among four defenders. 20-16
Brigette was back in and got a huge solo block.
21-18 Kiley was back in to serve.
The Aggies had all the momentum at this point and rolled to a 25-20 set win and 3-1 match victory.
Savannah
Davison was the top Aggies scorer with 14 kills and got 12
digs. She was a steady force in the
match. Tatyana Battle got 13 kills with 20 digs and absolutely owned that
third set. Megan Hart got 10 kills and broke the Lancers’ back in the final
set. Your stat of the match: the Aggies
had 10 aces with only 3 service errors.
Remarkable. (And the Lancers
might want to work on their return of service digging.)
This was a strange match. Set 1 wasn’t close in score for the Aggies,
but it was fought like it was. Set 2 was
a Lancers’ wipeout with the Aggies putting in their reserves at the end. Set 3 was an Aggies’ wipeout with Aggies again
putting in their reserves at the end.
It’s good that those bench bunnies were getting some work. Who knows when you might need them? Set 4 looked like another Lancers’ blowout,
but ended with the Aggies crushing them at the end.
This season’s injuries have at least had the benefit of
getting several girls lots of play time.
When Cat Kelly gets back in, the Aggies are going to have a team full of
players who are very capable of getting kills and blocks. Coach Jordan will be able to cycle players in
and out to keep them fresh without losing team effectiveness. I wouldn’t expect another 10-ace match, but
the Aggies have several servers who are capable of getting aces and going on
long runs. The Vaqueros are going to
have to stumble for the Aggies to have a chance at a share of the regular
season title. Several teams will be able
to make a good case for winning the conference tournament. For most teams, it’s their star play. For the Aggies, it may be their depth.
Ron and I left the arena in good spirits. We saw a ROTC cadet pulling the football
field cannon behind a truck. We both had
the same thoughts about how cool it would be to “borrow” it. Lunch was down the street at Zefferio’s Pizza. They were out of ice for their drinks, but
thankfully not out of pizza dough for a great meal. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie flavored
custard at Caliches, which you might
want to avoid (probably needed whipped cream on it). Okay, two games left for in-person viewing
this season next week. I can’t wait.
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