NM State Aggies vs Northwestern Wildcats Volleyball 9-3-21 Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

Set 3: Aggies 1, Wildcats 1

The break was a potential disaster for me.  I ran to the bathroom, since they’re still only using the five-minute half time.  I wasn’t about to let my prize souvenir ball out of my sight, so I took that and the posters (thankfully I brought a rubber band for them) and the oversized radio that wouldn’t fit in my pocket.  I was juggling all of these things over a urinal trying not to pee on them or drop them in.  I attribute it to sheer will and God’s grace that everything came out unharmed.           

 

Back to the action.  2-2 Shaney Lipscomb powered one crosscourt.  I never get tired of seeing that.  2-4 a ball ricocheted into the section below me with some heat.  People were diving for cover.  2-6 timeout Aggies.  Coach Jordan was still amazing calm.  I felt like I was waiting for Vesuvius to erupt.  Lindsay Blakey was sent in for her first appearance. 

 

The UTEP players left, but the Arizona players were now in attendance.  4-8 Mari Sharp ducked under one of #12’s canon shots for an out call.  4-11 the coach is starting to get mad.  That he wasn’t calling a timeout meant that he was really mad.  5-13 NW won the point, but Darian Markham got a great one-handed dig.  6-14 Katie Birtcil with a kill.  7-14 #12 bows the net again with a hard shot.  8-15 Lia Mosher put in a tip kill after having been blocked a couple of times.  9-17 Lia took a quick set and killed it with an Ole’ motion.  Megan Hart had that move.  I wonder if she taught it to her?

 

9-19 Victoria Barrett came out after an attack error.  Cat Kelly and Lindsay were back in.  10-19 Shaney with a kill.  11-19 Cat got her first kill.  15-22 Mari got the kill after a long rally.  (Sharp would be a cooler name to use here, but I also like Mari.)  NW took a late timeout and finished off the set 17-25. 

Set 4: Wildcats 2, Aggies 1

I’d long wondered if there was a volleyball scoresheet and they had a pile at the courtesy table with the program and the posters.  Great.  I have no idea how to use this.  Maybe if I saw one filled out.    

 

The Aggies took the first point of Set 4 on a lift call by an official.  The refs were fairly quiet for the match.  2-0 the Aggies took the next point, but a NW player made a nice dig on a near ace.  2-1 the Aggies made a couple of good digs, but were out-hit on the point.  4-2 Lia and Shaney on the block.  5-2 Shaney fired on down the line for a kill.  5-3 another ball into the crowd.  6-4 Cat killed another one.  7-4 Mari came flying in from the backcourt for a kill.

 

It’s all Aggies.  8-5 #12 served into the net again.  At some point, she started taking something off her serve to make sure to get it in.  9-6 Birty got a block.  10-7 Kalli Schoening came in and Alana Embry connected with her for a sweet kill.  11-7 DM aced and NW took a timeout.  12-8 Mari got a kill on a touch block.  13-8 Carly Aigner-Swesey aced one off the tape.  14-9 Lia and Shaney blocked #12.  15-10 Lia killed one that deflected into the crowd. 

 

17-12 Victoria got out of the coach’s doghouse and came in to serve.  NW started to make a comeback.  At 17-15 after an ace, the Aggies took a timeout.  18-15 Birty came back with a block.  19-17 Lia and Birty block #12.  21-18 Mari served up an ace and NW took their final timeout.  22-18 another long rally.  #12 fired one out to end it.  I think Mari made a great dig on the point.  (It’s hard to properly note great plays during a long rally.)  23-20 Lia hammered one, but NW wasn’t going away.  23-24 Shaney was blocked and NW got a match point.  Kalli momentarily stopped play beforehand holding her nose.  She thought she was bleeding after taking a shot, but there’s no blood on the court. 

 

24-24 a Wildcat serve into the net evened the score.  24-25 Victoria took a shot off her head.  The ball then went into the bottom of the new video board.  It was called an NW point, though I thought a ball was still in play in that circumstance.  Victoria was not looking good after the play.  She’d had her bell rung.  She had to come out for injury and looked very unhappy for the rest of the match.  The coach tried to send in Cat, but apparently an injury sub has to be a player that hasn’t played before in the set.  Lindsay came in.

This was a bit of a problem.  Lindsay doesn’t play in the back row on serve/receive, so they had to hide her and hope for the best.  There’s some confusion during the next point, but the Aggies win it, 25-25.  Unfortunately, now Lindsay had to serve, which she hadn’t done this season.  It was the play of the match.  Lindsay fired in a serve that hit the NW backline.  Frankly, I don’t think anyone in the Pan-Am Center saw that coming.  There was a still a fight over the next three points, but the Aggies won it 28-26.  The girls were all hugging Lindsay afterward.  She looked like she was in shock.           

 

Set 5: Aggies 2, Wildcats 2

The Wildcats were also in a state of shock.  Lia got a kill on the first point of the fifth set after a long rally.  At 3-0, NW took a timeout.  4-1 Shaney crossed one for kill.  5-1 Shaney and Kalli get the block.  7-2 Alana made a falling one-handed dig.  DM made a one-handed dig.  Birty killed it and got a rise out of Adam on the call.  Timeout NW.

 

8-3 Cat fired one between blockers.  9-3 Birty with another kill.  10-3 Cat aced one off of #12.  11-4 Birty again.  An NW player made a good save on the point.  12-4 Lia on the block.  13-5 Lia ducked and #12 served out again.  The UTEP and AZ teams were now both watching, as this game had run over their start time.  The Wildcats started to make a comeback.  At 13-8, the Aggies took a timeout.  During the break, it looked like Kalli was trying to help Darian out of a pair of her earrings.  I’m not sure what that was about, but DM looked happier afterward. 

Let’s finish this.  14-8 Shaney went crosscourt with a kill.  15-8 Cat slammed one for the win.  3-2 Aggies.  Your player of the game is Katie Birtcil.  Birty had 15 kills.  My new favorite player, Shaney Lipscomb, had 13.  Lia Mosher had 11 and Mari Sharp had 7.  Team stats of note: the Aggies had 7 aces, 6 serving errors, and 10 blocks.  It was a heavyweight bout that went back-and-forth, but was decided by an unlikely service ace by Lindsay Blakey.  I think I’d rather see her at net blocking, though.  All I have to say to the Northwestern Wildcats is “Take a knee, b*tches!”

 

UTEP and Arizona took the floor and were probably going to start shortly.  I don’t think anybody was going to shoo me out, even though I hadn’t paid for it.  However, I was freezing.  It was cold in the Pan-Am Center.  I was also exhausted just from watching that five-set match.  I decided to take my ball and go . . . to work?  I just parked there, went inside and showed off my ball to anyone who crossed my path, and then walked over to the Downtown Mall to get a burger and sweet potato fries at Day’s (who would have been closed by the time the next match would have been over).  I got some comic books at Zia Comics on the way back.  I showed off my ball some more when I got back, took a nap, and then started work on time.

 

What I didn’t know was that the Miners and the AZ Wildcats were playing another five-set thriller.  I have mixed feelings.  Given that I was cold and tired (and would have gotten really hungry), I shouldn’t have stayed, but that would have been cool to have watched.  The Miners came from two sets down to win. 

 

That turned out to be bad foreshadowing for the Aggies’ evening match against Arizona.  I listened to the match on the radio.  If possible, it was even more nerve-wracking than being there in person following the game.  Victoria Barrett was still out.  Cat Kelly started for her.  Lindsay Blakey also started.  There was a decent crowd of 815 there.

 

Set 1 went 25-14 Aggies with Katie Birtcil doing most of the damage.  In Set 2, Adam Young on radio call was nearly taken out by an errant swing.  Who subs for Adam in case of injury?  I finally heard Coach Jordan getting angry, but it was at the officials.  The Aggies took it, 25-14.  Cat shined in this set.

 

Adam reported that UTEP beat Northwestern at Memorial Gym in El Paso this evening in straight sets.  Sunday’s matchup with them is going to be tough for the Aggies.  AZ took Set 3 in extra points, 25-27.  The Wildcats led for most of the set, but the Aggies closed in late.  Personnel subbing issues caused a problem again at the end.  Arizona then took Set 4, 21-25 as they pulled away late.  Finally, AZ completed the comeback in Set 5, 12-15 and winning 2-3.

 

Argh!  The bitter f*cking taste of defeat!  Coach Jordan probably summed it up best in the postgame, “We peed away points.”  Ron, who was there, said the Aggie girls got tired at the end of Set 3 and started making mental mistakes.  I’m going to have to add that the Arizona coach probably made some good adjustments.  The stats hurt.  The Aggies had four players with double digit kills and led in all of team stats, except total kills.  One player on Arizona had half of their kills.  A good adjustment on her would have made the difference.      

 

The news didn’t improve on Sunday for the Aggies.  They lost in El Paso to the Miners in five sets.  I only saw the statcast for the match.  I was with Ron at the time and able to use his iPad to keep up.  The Aggies won the first set 25-20.  The Miners took the second set in an epic 30-32 extra points session.  The Aggies won the third set in extras as well, 26-24.  UTEP took the next two sets, 22-25 and 12-15, to win the match 2-3.  Coach Wallace must have been very happy, and even Coach Jordan must have felt a little bit of pride in having mentored him.  Looking over UTEP’s roster, I’m wondering how Coach Wallace managed to recruit from all over the world, from Hawaii to Cairo. 

 

This time the Aggies had the most kills.  The teams were equal in aces and service errors.  UTEP had four more blocks and a bit better hitting percentage.  None of the stats were heavily skewed either way.  Once again, the Aggies had four players with double digit kills.  My favorite, Shaney, led with 14.  Victoria was back in the lineup and played well.  Mari and Lia both hit over .400.  Not having been there, or been able to watch video (a pay service was available), or been able to hear a radio call, I can’t give any further analysis.

 

Coach Jordan and the Aggies have to be disappointed and exhausted.  They played three five-set matches in a row.  They lost two that they probably should have won, and the one they won hinged on a late highly unexpected ace.  We just hope that these losses are good learning experiences for the coaching staff and players and motivation for the rest of the season.  We hope doesn’t give them an inferiority complex about playing tough games.  In any case, this is the best season ever for me with my new souvenir volleyball.