Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Sports Journal November 2 to 10-19



Let me go ahead and recap some other Aggie Sports news and other sports here.  I’m not sure where else to put all of this other than in a separate post.  Aggie Soccer beat UTRGV 3-1 last week for a great win in their final game.  Corey Kizer had two goals and was the WAC Offensive Player of the Week.  Senior Jess McDow scored her first career goal in her final game.  Unfortunately, they needed help to get into the WAC Tournament and didn’t make it.  With four wins, they did double their number of wins over last year.

Aggie Volleyball also beat UTRGV last week, in straight sets no less.  They were 41 to 20 in kills and held Barbara Silva to 3 kills.  Wow!  (I wonder if there was something physically wrong with her.)  I forgot to mention an Aggie player while getting team autographs at their last home game.  I noticed setter Natalie Mikels had a broken finger that was taped up with a splint.  It was on her right hand, so she was serving with that.  My goodness.  Several girls have taped up fingers, but Nat must be playing through some real pain.  I’m sorry I skipped her in that recap.

Volleyball played CSU-Bakersfield on the road the same night as the Women’s Basketball’s opener, but it started an hour later.  It was a four-set win.  The first set was a 30-28 extra points thriller.  That one went to the Aggies, along with Set 3, which also went to extra points.  The team was a massive 14 to 6 in blocking.  Megan Hart, Lia Mosher, and Julianna Salanoa were a wall.  The team had 13 service errors, but 10 aces.  Savannah Davison, Julianna, and Meg led in kills.  Jules was swinging at over a .500 clip.  (The announcer from the Twitter highlights kept butchering her last name.)

Saturday, Aggie Football played their third “money” game of the season on the road versus Ole Miss.  I had the game on the radio while I was watching TV.  Flipping around, I stumbled on the El Paso Locomotive playing in the USL Soccer Western Conference final.  They were up 1-0 at Salt Lake City at halftime.  The match wasn’t on the TV schedule I’d seen.  Also, there was no sound until late in the match.  Even then, it was only crowd and field noise.  Early in the second half, SLC tied it and El Paso went a player down from a red card.  (It seemed undeserved.  Maybe the player had gotten a yellow earlier.)  The tied match went into a second OT with SLC winning 2-1.  This was still a great franchise debut for the El Paso team.

After that, I went over to the mall to try Subway’s new Garlic Cheesy bread on a meatball sandwich.  I found out they were hideously expensive.  At some other fast food places, I might have done it anyway, but the chances of Subway introducing an excellent new item worth the price seemed very slim.  After watching a video last night of the Amazing Lucas having a near orgasmic experience with the new Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich, I wasn’t in the mood to experiment with something that was surely just going to give me indigestion.  So much for food reviews.           

After I got back home and started fixing a sad meal for myself, I listened to the end of the football game.  The Aggies lost 41-3.  Amongst all these depressing events, right before the end of the game, Jack Nixon announced that Aggie Volleyball had won in straight sets at GCU this afternoon.  This win secured another WAC Championship for the school.  Alright!  As near as I can tell from the stats, the Aggies simply out-hit them, because they didn’t do it on defense. 

I saw some pictures from the free Halloween event with the Aggie Men and Women’s Basketball teams at the Pan-Am Center.  There was a good crowd there for autographs and to see the Men practice.  I wish I could have gone.  On Tuesday this week, the Men beat DII Western New Mexico to start their season.  It was a pretty easy win, even with a short bench because of a couple of injuries.  Local player Tennessee Owens made his debut featuring the coolest name on the team. 

The actual main news of the night was that a Division II school had beaten GCU in Phoenix by 9.  Yikes!  Commentator Justin Hawkins said, “I’m glad I’m here instead of doing that game.  I’d hate to be doing that postgame with Coach Majerle.”

On a personal note, while I’ll probably be listening or watching most of the Men’s games, I likely won’t be recapping every one.  Covering games while I’m at work is too frustrating.  I might do ones when I’m at home.  I worry that my lack of devotion might somehow jinx the team.  I just hope I can get to see them in-person this season.   

  
I was going to finish here, but I have more soccer to report on.  Yes, really.  And, no, I still don’t really like soccer.  I’ll make an exception here.  Sunday morning, the Patriot League was having their Women’s Soccer championship.  The opposing teams were Army and Navy.  You think this might be a good rivalry match? 

The match was being hosted by Navy at their Annapolis campus.  A bunch of “Middies” in their dress uniforms were in the crowd to cheer on their team.  They were fully into it on any Navy attack.  Dramatically on the other side of the field was Chesapeake Bay.  Several small craft darted about out on the water.  A large fence bordered that side of the field, but a couple of balls from play did end up wet.  

There was some family drama in the stands.  The parents of two of the players were shown, but their girls were on different teams.  When one of the girls told her Marine father that she wanted to go to West Point, he said, “Over my dead body!”  Diplomatically, he was wearing a Patriots jersey today.

Navy pretty much dominated the first half in possession.  Good defense by Army’s goalie, Sydney Cassalia, and their back line stiffed the Midshipmen.  I latched on to cutie Army defender Sydney Shafer as my favorite for the match.  Army scored first as Morgan Walsh blew past two defenders, stayed on side, and beat the Navy goalie one-on-one. 

Navy’s first best chance came in the second half.  Jeana Freeman was hit directly in the face by a ball that Army was trying to kick out of the box.  The ball ricocheted, took an odd curve, and just went wide of the goal.  Another player, Caitlyn Doran, had had to come out earlier after making a header on a goalie kick.  She was knocked to the ground as the ball hit her in the wrong spot and she had to come out.  The player did come back in later.

Navy kept up the pressure.  In the Army box, Carolyn Mang kicked a left-footed knuckle ball between Sydney and the post to tie the score.  Victoria Tran got the Navy go-ahead goal with sheer determination.  She’d fallen in the Army box, but still took a left-footed kick while on the ground.  The ball rolled just out of Sydney’s reach into the goal.       

Late in the match, I saw two things I hadn’t seen before in soccer.  The ref waved off a corner and instead had two girls contesting a drop kick, like a hockey faceoff.  On the final play with about 15 seconds left, Army had a free kick about 10 yards from the Navy box.  Sydney, the goalie, ran downfield to be inside the box as another attacker.  Wow, pulling the goalie, just like hockey.  (If only this sport was more like hockey.)  The ball pinballed around the net before being kicked out right before time expired.

Navy won the championship, 2-1, and would be going to the NCAA tournament.  Well, that was not “Sports ASMR,” as I have before referred to soccer as.  Nothing like a championship game between two longtime rivals.  That was physical, passionate, and emotional.  Sydney was crying on the sidelines.  She’d done a great job.  I hope she wasn’t blaming herself.  The Navy team, out on field with the trophy, and the Midshipmen in the stands all stood and sang the Navy alma mater song, Blue and Gold.  It was a great scene. 

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