My downfall for the next couple of days, I think happened
while me and Ron were at Chick-fil-a. We were having dinner before tonight’s
volleyball match with the Vaqueros. The wait staff there was as pleasant as usual
and everyone seemed healthy, but I think this was where I caught my cold. I won’t hold it against them. I feel like I had this coming, since I had
done nothing during my day off waiting for the game. I was maybe a bit of a glutton going back and
ordering a side of mac and cheese after finishing my sandwich. It was good though. Am I going to be ordering an extra side every
time I go to Chick-fil-a now?
Up until when my throat started hurting about halfway
through the match, I was otherwise having a good time. There was a new poster card of the team up
front. I wasn’t going to mention her anymore,
because there’s no reason to, but staffer Emerson looked really on point
tonight. She wouldn’t be working with PA Ed, though. The Softball PA would be working
instead. (I need to find out his
name.) I hope Ed isn’t out with a cold. During player introductions, the replacement
actually did a fairly credible impersonation (or homage) of Ed.
We were there way early and watched the girls on both
teams stretch out. Ron observed that the
Vaqueros looked tall, which they are.
The tallest person on court may have been their attractive assistant
coach Leah Best. She may have been taller than our own Megan Hart, who’s 6’5”. (And Megan is, as always, beautiful.) I remembered athletic Brazilian Barbara Silva from previous
meetings. Talita Olivera was very tall and thin and still had a
hunchback. I still admire her out there
playing. They had a redhead, Sarah Cruz, and a tall pretty blonde, Veronika Jandova (pictured right). Nearly the whole team is made up of foreign
students.
Both teams were loose and seemingly carefree warming
up. Tainted
Love came on over the PA and one of the Vaquero girls shouted, “I love this
song!” and started singing along. She
danced around to the next song. Things
were a bit too loose. One ball rebounded
high into the stands and knocked over a guy’s drink.
There was radio tonight.
This was a bit of a revenge match for the Aggies. They’d lost to the Vaqueros last year (10-27-18) in five-heartbreaking sets in front of a big crowd for a Pack-the-Pan-Am event. They’d had their home conference winning
streak broken and lost out on first place in the standings. When Adam
Young interviewed both Coach Jordan
and Megan, they remembered. (Adam talked
to Megan on the Coaches Show
yesterday. Lucky guy.) However, this UTRGV team wasn’t the same;
they have a losing record. They were also
missing Ragni Knudsen, who’d torched
the Aggies in last year’s match.
It was a pretty good crowd. There was one too many, namely a guy in front
of me eating a big, smelly pickle. (I
hate pickles.) Analyssa Acosta was still in at libero. The coach said he was grudgingly proud of her
working her way into the lineup. She was
okay, but still had some issues. Wow,
that is actually high praise in-season from Coach Jordan. Hey, we had a special guest here. Aggie great from last year, Tatyana Battle came in to watch. Doesn’t she work for UTEP now? I guess she had
a day off. Maybe she told Coach Wallis she was scouting. Coach Jordan went up to her to chat.
Set 1
Let’s get right to the action. Our first bang was at 3-1 Aggies. Julianna
Salanoa got a solo block and the kill.
5-1, the Aggies got a good early lead on a block by Ashley Anselmo and Jules.
6-2, Silva got her second kill for the Vaqueros. 6-3, Savannah
Davison had hit out on the previous point, but came right back with a kill
here. 7-5, Meg put down a kill after a
couple of Aggie errors got the Vaqueros close.
8-5, Sav took a little something off a swing and it dropped in for an
easy kill. 9-6, a Vaquero player slipped
on a wetspot on the court. I didn’t see
any stoppages for cleaning in the match, so it was an isolated incident.
10-6 Aggies, Sav served up an ace. Before the match, Coach had said that he’d
tried to tell the girls to put in good serves.
What was hurting their serving was the girls trying too hard, hitting
too hard and picking low percentage targets.
Just taking a bit off to keep a run going was more important. 11-6, a double touch call on the
Vaqueros. They took a timeout. The Vaqueros other assistant coach was doing
the head coaching today with their head coach out for a family funeral.
12-9 Aggies, but there were still issues. Sav had a service error and a couple of
attack errors, but the Vaqueros sided out on an attack error. 13-10, Lia
Mosher put a fastball down the middle of the court for a kill. 16-11, Sav went cross-court for a kill. 17-11, Jules and Sav combined to stuff Silva
at the net finally. Timeout UTRGV. 17-13, Cruz and Jandova blocked Jules. It was a good play. 19-15, the weirdest point of the match. The Aggies free balled twice, but still won
it on a block by Meg and Sav.
20-16 Aggies, Sav was unblocked and put in another
fastball. All those tall girls, but
UTRGV was missing blocks. 22-17, Meg
buried one. 22-20, the Vaqueros aced. They weren’t going away. After an Aggie attack error, Coach Jordan
took a timeout. It didn’t help, 23-23,
and the Aggies took their second timeout.
A Vaquero service error got the score to 24-23 and set point, but Silva
got her sixth kill to tie it at 24.
25-24 Vaqueros, Sav took an angry swing and was
blocked. UTRGV took their first lead
with a set point. 25-25, this was
probably the crucial point of the match.
A Vaquero player dugout a ball that was going out that would have won
the set for them. The Aggies won that
point. I felt bad for her. It still wasn’t over. Sav tied it again at 26. 27-26 Aggies, Ashley made her first serve of
the season. I think somebody had to show
her where the service line was. It was a
good one that went to the backline. Sav
had a solo block for the point. 28-26 Aggies, Ashley was clearly
nervous, but her second serve of the season was another good one. Sav won the set with a kill.
Set 2: Aggies 1, Vaqueros 0
That was exciting.
Right back to Set 2. 2-1, the
Vaqueros took a quick lead as Silva hit a ball hard enough to bounce over the
scorer’s table and up the tunnel. AAD Herb Taylor had to go retrieve
it. 3-3, Jules tied it on an ace. 7-6, the Aggies took the lead on a Vaquero
net violation. 8-6 Aggies, the Vaqueros took
a timeout as Savannah was on a run serving.
Women’s Basketball star, Gia Pack, came in and said, “Hi,” to
Taty. Star players on different teams do
know each other.
9-9, the Vaqueros tied it, but Sav made a tremendous save
on the point. 11-9 Aggies, they got two
blocks on this point to get back in the lead.
17-14, Krysten Garrison hit
the sideline on an ace. That was good to
see. 19-16, Lia got another kill, which
led to a Vaquero timeout on the next point.
Brigette Lowe subbed in. 23-16, Sav was on another serving run. She hit the tape here, but it fell in for an
ace. 24-17, Sav made an out-serve on set
point, but Cat Kelly finished it off
on the next point. 25-17, Aggies took Set 2.
Set 3: Aggies 2, Vaqueros 0
Aggie reserve Kassi
Stolz was dancing as the teams changed sides. Then she salsa’ed to Jump in the Line. 3-2
Aggies, there was a long rally that ended on a Vaquero DT. Jules made a great save on the play. The down official finally told a guy sitting
behind the scorer’s table to turn off his smartphone light. It was annoying the players. It was annoying me across the court.
6-5 Aggies, Sav served into the net. That one was on Adam. He was talking about how much better she was
serving. 8-6, Analyssa hit an
out-serve. The team had kept the errors
down to this point, but started having problems again. 9-6, Jules slapped back an overpass that
bounced off three players. 10-6, Sav had
another great dig and Jules got a tip kill to end it. 11-8, Jules and Cat combined on a block. Silva complained to the down official that it
was out. She might have had a point.
13-9 Aggies, Analyssa fell and dropped on Kiley Tonge’s ankle. They were okay. 13-10, Annie went to the floor again. Jules got stuffed on this point. 14-10, Julianna came right back with a great
tip into the corner. 15-11, Meg pounded
one into the middle of the court. I
could just see the Vaqueros collectively slump after that one. Megan has that effect on other teams. That took us into a media timeout.
16-12 Aggies, both teams exchanged service errors. Annie looked seriously unhappy after
hers. 18-13, Sav was unblocked again for
a kill. 20-15, another long rally ended
on a Jules’ kill down the line. Annie
sat on the bench for a point next to Assistant
Coach Rubio. She was gassed out and
stroking her hair back. She may have
been giving herself a mental pep talk.
The Vaqueros went on a late serving run. 23-19, Meg broke it up with a kill and got
another kill at 24-20 to get it to match point.
And then we had this oddity. 5’4”
Halle Razo cycled into the Aggie
front court. Umm . . . 24-21, Halle took an inadvertent pass at the
net. She didn’t know what to do with it,
she wasn’t going to spike it, and had to free ball it over. 24-22, the Aggies took a timeout, but Halle
went back in at the net. Right out of
the timeout, Cat, with no hesitation, ended the set and match with a kill. 25-22
and 3-0 Aggies.
In the post-match interview, Coach Jordan said he’d
miscounted on the number of the subs, which left Halle stranded. I think Ashley serving was also a goof on
subs, but he was very pleased with her coming up with a couple of big
serves. The coach also mentioned that he
likes Barbara Silva on UTRGV, who
led the Vaqueros with 12 kills. Savannah Davison matched that to lead
the Aggies. Megan Hart followed with 10 and Julianna Salanoa had 8. Lia Mosher took 4 swings and had 3
kills. I think she’s underused. The team had 13 blocks, but also 13 service
errors. It’s still an issue.
Tatyana went down to talk to her former teammates. She probably gave them a few coaching tips
too. Brigette talked to her mom,
maybe. She seemed unhappy, even with the
win. You so seldom see her without a
smile. I was unhappy. I knew I was getting sick. At one point, I couldn’t talk to Ron with a
sore throat. I hope I didn’t breathe on
him. I meant to write this up that
night, but I just sat and watched TV with a pounding headache. I took some stuff and went to bed, hoping I’d
be okay for tomorrow’s soccer match.
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