Where to begin? I’m
out of practice on this and have too much to report. I don’t even know if I want to do this given
some bad news, but there’s also some very good things to report. I started off yesterday by posting what
I was going to put at the end of my upcoming Labor Day Sports report. Thankfully, I rethought that
and put it in chronological order. (The
Labor Day report is going to be well out-of-date anyway, as I started that in
July.)
Aggie
Volleyball started off on the wrong foot for the fans last Saturday. The team next went to Arizona for a
tournament. They came back from two sets
down to beat UC San Diego, but were
beat in straight sets that night by host Arizona. The girls then swept out a small eastern
college, Marist. On the Aggie
Coaches Show, Coach Jordan was
rather low key about the upcoming Springhill
Suites Invitational. He did hand out
some interesting technical knowledge like, “If you want to watch the ball, sit
in the stands. If you want to play on
the court, you have to watch the players.”
The tournament was on and fans were invited. The Aggies had two games scheduled on Friday,
one in the morning and one in the evening.
Since I didn’t find out for sure that they were going to play until
Wednesday evening (and my boss was out sick), I decided not to take the day off
and just went to the morning game. Ron
was unavailable for that one, but would go to the night game. I didn’t bother asking dad after he bit my
head off last time.
There was more bad footing for this game. My little radio had a meltdown when I got in
my truck to go and I had to run back inside and get my larger, heavier radio
that I can’t clip on. At the ticket
office, the price of the game was $7.
Hopefully that’s just a $2 increase for this tournament. I asked if the next game scheduled game
between UTEP and Arizona was included. I was told that would be $14 and if I wanted
the full day pass for the night game, it’d be more. I think they’re just trying to soak visiting
UTEP and AZ fans. (The Ticketmaster website
had earlier said it was $5 for each Aggie game.) I mentally checked out on staying for the
next game.
Inside the Pan-Am
Center, I grabbed the two new volleyball posters and went to the
bathroom. (I mention this for a reason.) The solution that the university decided on
for the water-damaged new floor was to put in a “sport court.” Unfortunately, I came in late on the pregame
show on the radio, which probably explained everything. I guess it’s an overlay on the court. I didn’t notice any difference in play from
the regular floor, but I’m not a player.
Adam Young, on the radio
call, made a big deal that the team only got to practice on it once. (And congrats on your wedding. Adam got a heck of a catch.)
On the court, I missed most of the warm up. I tried to identify the players I knew. Cat
Kelly was back, which I was pleased about.
There were some girls I’d only seen on video during the spring
season. A new freshman stood out that
the coach had mentioned, Alana Embry. I’d noticed her very cute dimpled picture on
the roster. She was one of the
setters. Alana was really
slight-looking, especially compared to most of the other girls, and adorable,
but mostly only had a very serious expression on her face. The coach has put a lot on her
shoulders. She was the only girl on the
team Ron specifically mentioned as being cute after seeing them that
night.
My glasses immediately fogged up from having to wear a
mask indoors. Thankfully that passed. The new board over the court was up. It looked bright and clear, but unfortunately
had a lot less information on it than the old one. It didn’t list the players on the court and
their stats. Maybe they’re still trying
to figure out how to use it. Coach Ben Wallace of UTEP was there
watching. He’d come down later during
the game to say “Hi,” to Adam and watch a little from behind the bench. Finally, I got the name of the gorgeous
platinum blonde who works on the staff from the team Twitter. She’s Chelsea
Rose, Director of Player Development.
She was pregnant a couple of years ago and has now lost all the weight
from that and looks better than ever. Oh,
on that note, beautiful Megan Hart
has left the staff and gotten on with her life.
I never got to see her coaching as a graduate assistant.
Right before the Anthem, I suddenly realized I had left my
posters in the bathroom. I ran back to
get them. I stood in the aisle during
the Anthem and annoyingly noticed that a couple of the Northwestern girls were taking a knee. This will somewhat explain why none of their
players will be named in this report. The
new Aggie team video played.
Unfortunately, all they could show for game footage was the game in the
practice facility against Texas Tech. The girls looked a bit awkward for some
reason in the player-focused scenes.
(Fire the director.) I think some
of these scenes were supposed to be shown whenever a player made a great
play. A couple of them came up randomly
during the match.
Player introductions were the highlight of the match for me. The girls were probably quite giddy to restart the tradition of tossing little autographed volleyballs to the crowd. Libero Darian Markham got a bit too excited and spiked hers into the floor. She was all smiles afterward and throughout the match. Hitter Shaney Lipscomb was introduced. She looked in my direction (I was wearing my super cool Aggie Empire t-shirt) and threw her ball near me. I can maybe thank the somewhat light morning crowd (289) that I had no trouble retrieving it. With that, I had achieved the ultimate fan experience at Aggie Sports. I thought catching foul ball at a baseball game was great (I can’t find that post to link to it, sorry), but this beats that by a mile.
Let’s talk a little bit about my new all-time favorite
Aggie Volleyball player. In my very
brief spring season summary (3-23-21), I’d mentioned Shaney’s 14 kills on
14 swings game that left the coach speechless.
I won’t be speechless in the describing her looks. Yikes!
She a gorgeous tall, statuesque blonde with sexy blue eyes. Until I saw her in person, I didn’t really
realize what truly heroic proportions she’s built to. Shaney is also the team’s cheerleader. She worked over her teammates with her
winning smile and constant encouragement during the match. I really hope there’s an autograph day, so I
can thank her for the ball and also because she didn’t sign it. I need to correct that.
Maybe I’ll give her this sketch, too. I’ll probably do another one (and also one
for Alana) later.
Set 1
I’d say it’s pretty anticlimactic to describe the match
after that life-changing event, but the match was pretty darn good too, so
let’s finally get on with it. The first
thing that happened was that I just about forgot how to do this, even though
I’d reviewed a couple of old posts beforehand.
I sat and watched several points before finally taking some notes. At that point, it started coming out like
literary diarrhea.
Katie
Birtcil was the first standout for the Aggies in the match. At 4-5 with NW up (the Aggie score will be
listed first here with the Wildcats second), Birty got her first kill. She immediately followed that up with
another. Alana was feeding her
throughout the match with a series of backsets.
Birty tied the score at 6-6 with an overpass kill. Darian, who I’m going to I’m going to
nickname DM, kept the point going with a great dig. Timeout Northwestern.
DM came back on serve.
She has an uncanny ability to skim the top of the net. 9-8 Lia
Mosher got her first kill on a touch set by Alana. Lia served once in the set and had an
error. For most of her serves for the
rest of the match, Keke Holloway
came in for her. It was an odd sight,
seeing the tallest player on the team replaced by one of the shortest. Keke was a pretty sure shot at the line, so
it was good sub. 10-10 Mari Sharp put in a tip kill. 11-11 Lia dunked one to tie the score. 12-11 Victoria
Barrett, the outstanding freshman from the spring season, drove in her
first kill. The Aggies went up 14-11 as
Northwestern’s big hitter, #12, fired
a big miss. Timeout NW again.
By this point, UTEP players had come in and were watching. 15-12 Shaney fired a crosscourt kill. However, a series of errors gave the Wildcats
back the lead, 15-16. Timeout Aggies. NW #12 was on serve (nope, still not naming
anyone on the other side). She had a
high toss Brazil-style serve that was thunderous with her big swing . . . when
it landed in. It was also likely to
miss. 16-16 she hit the net and nearly
took it down. 17-17 DM made a great dig
on a swing by #12. Shaney won the point
on a tip kill. 21-17 Lia and Birty
combined on block. That fired up the
crowd. 23-18 Lia hammered one home. Shaney finished off the set with a pair of
kills. 25-19 Aggies take Set 1.
Set 2: Aggies 1, Wildcats 0
Oh, one of the NW girls is the daughter of NFL
quarterback, Elvis Grbac. Who cares?
They also have a 6’3” setter.
Adam was going on about her.
She’d be useful for blocking, but I don’t know that height is a big
advantage for setting. Between sets,
Aggie Kalli Schoening was singing
and dancing to the Buttercup
song. I appreciate the spirit, but might
have to take points off for the lack of taste.
Her and Victoria took a second to scream at each other before play to
get fired up.
1-0 Shaney and Lia teamed up for a block. Basically every time #12 took a pass, there
were two Aggies jumping at the net.
Setter Carly Aigner-Swesey
(which is fun to say, but annoying to write) served up an ace. A video clip of her holding up an ace poker
card played on the new video board. 4-1
#12 tried a tip kill and failed. 5-1 she
then hit a line judge on an out swing.
9-5 Victoria served up an ace off a pair of stone hands on the other
side. However, the Wildcats came back
and tied it at 10. Timeout Aggies.
Coach Jordan was strangely calm in talking to the team
during the break. Okay, now I’m worried
there’s something wrong with him. 11-14
the Aggies finally sided out, but NW went on another run. 11-17 timeout Aggies. They were flat on a couple of serves that
went for aces. 12-17 the Aggies break
the run after a long rally. Victoria
went down the middle for a winner. 13-18
Lia and Shaney combined on another block.
14-21 the coach may have written this set off and sent in
Cat. It was weird seeing her out there
without her wing mate, Savannah Davison. The two worked so well together as a pair, I
wonder if the coach is reluctant to use her by herself. 18-24 NW was forced to take a timeout, as the
Aggies had staved off several set points.
They finished it at 19-25
Wildcats.
Continued in Part 2.
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