Borderland Invitational UNM vs TX A&M CC Volleyball 9-6-19

TA&M-CC Islander Kylie Flipiak
I'm trying to put more pictures in with my posts.

Tragedy struck immediately in this opening invitational game between the New Mexico Lobos and the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.  I spilled my drink right after I sat down.  Hey, I’d just spent $9 on a pretzel and a raspberry tea basically to be nice.  I wasn’t hungry or thirsty, but the concessions were open for this lightly attended event.  I’d found fellow Aggie fan Danny sitting in his usual place and had just sat down next to him.  I put down the drink and it somehow fell over.  I only saved about a quarter of it.  I think only Danny’s presence kept me from crying or becoming violently angry.  (I really like that tea.)  Eating that very chewy, doughy pretzel, I could have definitely used the whole drink.  It tasted okay at least, so I felt a little better.

Why was I writing again?  Oh yeah, volleyball.  I’d taken the day off to see tonight’s game with the Aggies actually.  This morning game was kind of a bonus, since I like watching volleyball in general.  Ron had waved off this game, but was planning on coming tonight.  Like I said, there was a very light crowd.  I might have at least thought that the Lobos would have brought some fans. 

PA Ed was there working the microphone.  The malfunctioning video board from the Scrimmage was working again.  Aggie Softball was represented with Keala Brown, Analise De La Roca, and later on Jeanelle Medina shagging balls on the sidelines.  I guess they’re all working on a Sports Marketing degrees.  Danny had said he’d seen the team climbing the football berm this morning.  I never saw Aggie Volleyball or their coaches come by to scout this game.

As for the opposing teams, the Lobos looked bigger and taller in general than the Islanders, but they were still all pretty tall.  (When am I going to stop being surprised by the height of volleyball players?)  Kaitlynn Biassou for the Lobos looked like an impressive specimen.  I seemed to remember Lauren Twitty from previous meetings being good. 

Yikes!  Kylie Filipiak on the Islanders was an eye-catching blonde with a slight frame.  She reminded me of departed Brittany Welch from last year’s Aggies.  It was like watching her play, like things had worked out for her here.  Their assistant coach, Sasha Karelov, was pretty striking with her long blonde hair and her wardrobe wearing a dress shirt with a sweater.  (It’s cool inside the Pan-Am Center, but 95+ degrees outside.)  The Islanders did have an edge in overall looks, but that doesn’t have anything to do with playing ability.

Set 1

Or does it?  While the Lobos came out really fired up to play, the Islanders started dominating immediately.  Their bench reserves were doing a square dance after A&M (I’m just calling them this as a shorthand for the rest of the review) won the first two points.  The reserves for both teams were quite entertaining or annoying, depending on if you were watching or playing.  At 5-1 A&M, the bench was making fun of Twitty’s last name when she came up to serve.  9-3 A&M, the Lobos picked up their second double touch call.  This would be a running issue for UNM.         

At 12-4, Sasha was actually yawning from the bench while watching.  Madison Green had just made an extremely sneaky tip shot off a short set.  The ball had no heat on it, as it found a spot where nobody was.  The Lobos started make a comeback at 15-9, but the Islanders pulled away again to make it 20-11 off of another Lobo DT.  A belated timeout was called for UNM.

Lobo Morgan Schreckler came up to serve and had a very dramatic pause in her delivery.  It worked.  She aced the first serve and ran off three points, while the A&M bench heckled her.  I’m sure this goes on in every game, it’s just that there was virtually no crowd noise to drown it out.  22-18 A&M, some Islander errors allowed the Lobos to get back into it.  24-18 A&M, the first long rally of match.  The Lobos lost it on an out shot.  The Islanders finished it off 25-18 for the set.  Faith Panhans won it with a little dumper shot.

Set 2: Islanders 1, Lobos 0

Madison had a chat with the up official after the teams changed sides.  I wonder what that was about.  Certainly, they seemed to be doing better than the Lobos with the calls.  A&M went up 1-0 on a free ball that none of Lobos covered.  It just dropped right in.  They went up 2-1 on a kill into two blockers.  The reserves chanted out, “She wasn’t ready!”  Ouch.  Kaitlynn for Lobos came back to hammer an overpass kill to tie it.  The Lobo reserves started an “Aussie!  Oi!  Oi!” chant.  One of their girls was from Australia.  One of the Islanders was from New Zealand. 

Kylie came up to serve for the Islanders and put in an ace at 5-4 A&M.  She served lefty with some deception and the ball came over like a curveball.  9-7 A&M, Madison put in another little dumper.  The reserves came right in with the “She wasn’t ready!” chant.  13-9 A&M, the reserves chanted “O-U-T!  Out!” on a wide Lobo swing.  14-9 A&M, “She (still) wasn’t ready!”  Timeout Lobos.     

No help there.  15-9 A&M, the Islanders got a block kill and the reserves went crazy.  15-10 A&M, here was the second long rally of the match.  Lobo libero Alena Moldan made a good save as part of winning the point.  16-11 A&M, Alena came up with an ace that hit the tape.  Unfortunately, the next one went into the net.  The Islanders took Set 2, 25-18.  A Lobo DT ended it.

Set 3: Islanders 2, Lobos 0

We had a little salsa dancing with the unofficial Pan-Am Center theme song this season Jump in the Line by Harry Belafonte, an oldie from the 50’s, over the PA.  Even I was briefly dancing in the stands, while one of the Islander girls danced in the huddle.  All of the reserves were then bouncing to House of Pain’s Jump Around.  The Lobos meanwhile came out with a 1-0 lead on a hard kill.  The Lobo reserves howled.  (I don’t know why all Lobo teams don’t do that.  It would fit their name.)  3-1 Lobos, the reserves danced around in a circle.

Unfortunately soon enough it was 4-4 after another DT by the Lobos.  Kylie for the Islanders had kind of a rough third set.  She had a blocked tip, a missed dig, and an attack error already.  Still, she kept her game-face on and kept swinging through the slump.  I like that attitude.  The Lobos surged back to an 8-5 lead.  But soon enough, there was Madison with another dump kill to tie it at 8.  9-8 Lobos, I credit their reserves’ chanting with causing an A&M out serve. 

Chloe Simon for the Islanders came up with a cross-court kill to tie it again at 9.  She got a couple of those.  11-9 A&M, Chloe buried one right into a Lobo defender, who was called for a double touch.  (I suspect I know what their coach is going to be working on in practice.)  13-10 A&M, super pretty set for an Islander kill here.  14-10 A&M, Sam Dumity for the Islanders with another dump set kill.  Timeout Lobos.  19-16 A&M, both teams traded out-serves.  They’re contagious.  21-16 A&M, Lobo DT.  22-19 A&M, the Lobos won this point after two good blocks.  Appropriately, the Islanders took the set and match on a dump shot by Faith, 25-19 and 3-0. 

The Lobos showed some fight, but the Islanders were pretty much in control for all of this one.  The amount of deception A&M-CC used was shocking and very effective.  Their other fundamentals were good.  They did all this damage with their 6’5” hitter, Julia Carter, not playing.  They’d really be scary if she was playing and good.  I don’t know what to say about the Lobos other than their reserves didn’t get out-cheered at least.  (The reserves’ battle was at least as entertaining as the actual match.)

Without actual stats (they weren’t up on the scoreboard for this match), it’s hard to hand out gameballs.  I was impressed by Chloe Simon’s hitting.  [Edit: Chloe and Lauren Twitty on the Lobos both had 13 kills.]  Madison Green showed off some really tricky shots.  I don’t know if all the team’s dumps and tips would have worked against anybody, but they definitely worked here today.  I’m sort of glad the Aggies aren’t playing them.  (It’s a strange invitational with NMSU and UTEP both running it.  Not everybody’s playing each other.  Another team is only playing in El Paso and not playing the Aggies at all.)  Lastly, I liked Kylie Filipiak.  As I said, she was reminding me of somebody else’s play in a good way.  I hope she does well this season.

Danny and I congratulated a couple of nearby Islander parents.  They were in a happy mood.  That blonde marketing lady that I see around all time everywhere walked past and said, “Hi,” to Danny.  He told me were name was Nicole, so I finally found that out.  Gasp!  Right behind her was . . . Emerson.  Yes, the hot baseball marketing intern was working at the Pan-Am Center now.  I kind of assumed with her baseball player boyfriend, Logan Ehnes, graduating, she’d be gone too.  Well, there’s something else to look forward to at this fall’s games.  Okay, in the meantime, I’m going back home to wait for the Aggies’ game in the evening.