Labor Day Sports Report: Aggie Volleyball Pre-Season

(This report is to set up to their first match that I attended on Friday 9-3-21.)

8-21-21

I had some trepidation about going to Aggie Volleyball’s first game of the season.  It was an exhibition against Texas Tech.  There was a re-masking order that just began that day.  Dad and his friend, Joe, almost went with me until that happened.  Dad even got angry with me about it, as if I had anything to do with it.  I said I’d go anyway, and he told me to “not suffocate.” 

 

At the Pan-Am Center that morning, I noticed someone with the university talking to a group of fans.  This person had the job of telling arrivals that the game wasn’t cancelled, but the fans couldn’t watch.  I didn’t hear the whole speech, but here’s the gist: NMSU’s brand new hardwood floor had warped from water damage, humidity, and high temperature inside.  I’d checked the team’s Twitter the night before and they were still inviting fans to come, so this had just happened overnight.     

 

Crap!  The game went ahead in the Aggies’ practice facility.  (Texas Tech took three of the five sets, but there were pre-conditions to the match, like playing five sets.  Still, the Aggies were competitive.)  Annoyingly, pictures from the event did show some fans there, presumably parents.  I’d have paid to stand and watch (as long as I could have hung out with the girls in the reserves on the sidelines).  I went into the ticket office anyway, but there weren’t even any new Volleyball schedule posters available. 

 

I’d actually had something else to do that morning, namely watching Quinn McKay wrestle on the latest episode of Ring of Honor wrestling, but I couldn’t be angry.  This problem wasn’t on purpose.  I made the best of it and went directly to lunch, which was a hamburger at the Santa Fe Grill in the Pic Quick.  It was about as good a burger as a burrito place could make.  It was huge and only $5.  (The curly fries were $3 though.) 

 

Now here’s the strange part.  For some reason, what happened to the floor appeared to something of a secret all week.  There weren’t any newspaper reports, nothing on the website and the weekly Aggie radio show didn’t mention it.  The official story was that fans weren’t allowed in “Out of an abundance of caution for player safety.”  Huh?  Coach Jordan, on the radio show, was sorry that the fans were turned away.  “It was one of those things.  We just had to adapt.”  That was the only explanation. 

 

It wasn’t until the next Saturday that there was finally a confirmation in the paper.  It was tacked on to the end of an interview with AD Mario Moccia.  The article seemed like they’d reported on the story before, which my dad said they hadn’t.  (He did miss this article though.  I’d found it.)  Mario was trying to figure out what the university’s options were as they were scheduled to be hosting a Volleyball tournament this coming Friday.  They were looking at a temporary floor, a replacement, or even another facility.  Putting in that new floor was not a small operation, not to mention, the new scoreboard was supposed to go in next week.  At least the team will be playing on the road for nearly month after this, so they’ll have plenty of time to do something permanent later.

 

I guess I may as well give the rest of my volleyball news.  Savannah Davison has graduated and moved on to Oklahoma.  I was stunned, but I shouldn’t have been; she’s been at the university for four years.  She does still have two years of eligibility left and is likely going for a graduate degree.  We’ll miss her.  Long time setter, Natalie Mikels, also graduated.  She’ll be missed too, especially by the coach.  He was skeptical about his remaining inexperienced setters.      

 

In his interview, Coach Jordan was actually seething over his schedule.  Auburn, whom they’d beat in 2019 on their court, declined the return engagement here.  The coach called them, “Chicken . . .”  UCLA and Notre Dame had pulled out of coming here for a tournament and NMSU had to cancel the whole thing.  They were fortunate to find an opening at somebody else’s tournament on the east coast.  Even the UNM Lobos canceled on them for a rivalry game and that was scheduled to be in Albuquerque.  The season is not off to a good start.