Springhill Suites Invitational Grambling vs Lamar Volleyball 9-13-19

I’d prepared for the contingency of hanging around the university after the first game this morning.  I even had an ipad with me and was going to look for Wi-Fi, probably starting with McDonalds.  However, because the first game was so short, I ended up going home instead for lunch and I started typing up the recap.  I got a little actually written.  Time came, I took back off.  As if I wasn’t disoriented enough, now I had déjà vu.  I noticed it was raining over by Picacho Peak driving over.  By the time I’d gotten to the Pan-Am Center, it looked like a wall of water heading our way.  If a storm was coming, I’d rather be at the Pan-Am anyway. 

I met back up with Danny.  There were a few more people there than this morning.  (Aggie Marketing’s Nicole told Danny later that there were 33 for this game.)  Aggie Softball was acting as ballgirls, specifically Keala Brown, Jeanelle Medina, and an unidentified girl.  She may have been a new freshman.  She looked like she might be able to hit with some power.  Danny said that some Pan-Am staff was acting as assistant coaches for some Grambling State Tigers players practicing.  (Again, Grambling’s staff just consists of the head coach.) 

The Lamar Cardinals had four assistants, though only one was listed on the program.  In particular, one of them was very pretty with long, silky dark hair, a slim figure, and a great smile, Amy Hollowell.  During the introductions, PA Ed announced that their coach was a former Aggie player, Michelle Kuester.  Their team looked pretty good. 

During player introductions, the dad of Lamar’s Abigale Nash held up a giant poster of her on the sidelines.  It got a laugh out of her.  Grambling again fist-bumped with the refs.  There was some confusion going over to the Lamar bench, as they weren’t sure who the coach was to shake hands with.  (I wasn’t either at first.)  I should mention the Grambling players have a pretty impressive pregame cheer.

Set 1

Aggie Coach Jordan was again up in the shadows in the south grandstand watching.  Grambling started off with a lead, 3-2.  On this point, Mercedes Danrich on Lamar got a kill.  She looked impressive in practice.  She’s tall and lean could catch some big air jumping.  (I only question her hairstyle.)  Lamar took the lead at 5-4.  Grambling did a sideout chant.  9-7 Lamar, Malaysia (nice name) Murdock got a tip kill on a short set.  9-8 Lamar, Grambling got a good tip on this point.  (I missed the player number, sorry.)  12-9 Lamar, here we had our first long rally of the day.  Lamar took it on a Grambling attack error. 

14-10 Lamar, Mercedes made a strong kill.  16-13, Dannisha House got a kill.  The Lamar reserves sang out, “D’s house!”  (With that last name, she’s in the right sport, either this or basketball.)  18-14 Lamar, Grambling got a good kill here and I missed getting the player number again.  (I want to give the Tiger players some love.)  19-16 Lamar, Grambling got back in it on a couple of questionable out calls on the Cardinals.  21-17 Lamar, Linzy Woods made a kill here for Grambling at 21-17 Lamar. 

Grambling took a timeout.  Another slim pretty girl with long dark hair and a great smile came in.  (It’s a good day for brunettes.)  She went over to chat with the Softball girls, who had been relieved of ballgirl duties by the Marketing staff.  I hope this girl just joined the team.  I’d like to see more of her.  House finished the set off with a kill, 25-18 Lamar.

Set 2: Lamar 1, Grambling 0

The Lamar reserve girls were posing and dancing to Sorry, Not Sorry in the break.  Grambling went up to start again, 4-1.  5-3 Grambling, Chasity Nicks made a good dig on a hard hit Cardinal ball.  Unfortunately, she then made a poor choice on a backcourt attack to give Lamar the point.  6-6, Lamar tied it on a Grambling attack error.  Grambling retook the lead 7-6 on a block.  7-7, Abigale came in and tied it for Lamar with a flying kill.  Lamar retook the lead on a hard kill by Malaysia.  Timeout Grambling.

Sage Rivers entered the game for Grambling State with best name of the Invitational (just beating out Malaysia).  17-13 Lamar, Annika Slovak, the pretty Lamar setter, had a kill.  One of the Lamar reserves conducted the other girls in a cheer.  18-13, another long point ended with Grambling firing into the net.  19-14, House call, as Dannisha put one into the middle of the court unblocked.  20-14, Abigale with an overpass kill.  21-14, I think Kaitlyn Gil got a kill here.  The reserves did a “Happy Birthday” cheer. 

One of the Aggie Men’s Basketball team walked by, though neither Danny nor I could identify him by his number.  He was probably on his way to the attached practice facility.  He was a very large fellow.  22-13 Lamar, Abigale got another kill.  The reserves shouted, “That’s nasty!”  23-18, Grambling got their last point on a block.  Lamar finished it out 25-18.

Set 3: Lamar 2, Grambling 0

During the half, a couple more guys from the Men’s Basketball team came in and hi-fived Coach Jordan at the top of the grandstand.  The Grambling team went to the locker room, but their coach stayed on court.  The Lamar girls did the Macarena and salsa’d to Jump In the Line.  Abigale tried to lap dance the good-looking dark-haired assistant coach.  She wasn’t having any of it and kicked Abbey off.

2-2, Grambling had a good kill here.  4-2 Grambling increased their lead with a dunk block.  Oh, I noticed in the “crowd” that former pretty blonde Aggie Volleyball assistant came in with her baby.  Mercedes, standing at the net, smiled and waved at her right before a point.  Well, that’s an interesting acquaintance.  She called over to her during a break.  5-4 Lamar, a Cardinal swing went out, but hit a Grambling player on the foot as she pulled up to let it go.  7-4 Lamar, timeout Grambling.

A group of Aggie Softball players and what seemed like another Women’s team entered the arena.  The “crowd” was doubled.  In the break, the Lamar assistant coaches doubled over laughing about something.  They were even hiding their faces behind their clipboards.  14-7 Lamar, (apparently skipping several uninteresting points) Kaitlyn got another kill and more “Happy Birthday” wishes.  18-8, Lamar had a kill hard enough that the receiver tried to catch it, instead of digging it.  25-11 and 3-0 Lamar won the set and match.

Abigale Nash led the Cardinals with 13 kills, Kaitlyn Gil had 11, and Dannisha House had 9.  They looked pretty good, but it was hard to tell, given the opponent.  Grambling has some good players.  The problem is that they have too many bad ones.  The Softball girls made a circle and tried their hand at volleyball digging after the match.  I went home and waited for the Aggie match in the evening, little suspecting the shock to come.