Stepping out into a slow drizzle, I lost my pen going to
Ron’s car to go to the match today. I
took this as a bad sign. (This is why I
always carry a backup pen to events. I
did find my pen after we got back.) When
we got to the Pan Am Center, we went
straight to the ticket office. This was
mostly because today’s exhibition against the Western New Mexico University Mustangs was not free. Also, I made the decision to put out the $140
for the Aggie Country Pass. I’m crossing my fingers about the viability
of the season. I’ll only need to go to
25 more games to make this pay off.
I also picked up the new Volleyball schedule poster
featuring Mia Peterson. I’ll put this up at work next to my
co-worker’s cubicle, who met her at the gym and hit on her. Heh, heh, heh. Once inside, Ron wanted to take a walk around
the concourse for some reason since we were early. We looked at the wall of fame inductees. It was kind nice.
After getting back from this match (somewhat jumping ahead
in the narrative), I listened to a podcast interviewing Coach Jordan. He was very
happy with the Scrimmage and
the crowd. He was unhappy with the
schedule as two teams left the conference and two teams joined right before the
season, scrambling the schedule. UNM will still not play the Aggies in
volleyball. Some big schools pulled out
of reciprocal trips to Las Cruces, thus scuttling having a pre-conference
tournament here. UTEP could only be scheduled once and only in El Paso.
As predicted, Coach Jordan is losing sleep over figuring
out the roster, because he has so much to choose from. The Coach definitely likes new Setter, Bianca Perez, and a couple of new front
liners, Taylor Snow and Ashley Herman. On a team with one Senior and two Graduates, it’s
a young team. He’s looking at having 12
regular players in games. I think I can
guess who they are based on who played in this game.
On court, I did see Alana
Embry was wearing a finger brace.
The Coach did say that she’d broken her pinky. I really hope I get to see her play
again. Right now she was taking pictures
of the team warming up, I’m guessing for the team Twitter. It was hazardous duty; she got hit by a ball
(possibly on purpose as a joke). Also
from last time, I’m wondering if I did see Lindsay
Blakey on the bench in uniform (wearing a jacket), though not on the
roster. It might have been freshman, Ryleigh Whitekettle, who was suited up
(and I could see her number), but not playing.
She was on the bench with a clipboard.
Pistol
Pete
was here for this game with the Cheerleaders. (He wasn’t here last time.) The Coach thanked the Cheerleaders for coming
out to Scrimmage. PA Ed Carnathan was back in his seat. (The guy doing the Scrimmage did a really
good job.) Broadcaster Adam Young was here again, but still
not broadcasting. There was a good crowd
again for this game (against a Division II school). There were a bunch of high school and/or
junior high Volleyball players in attendance.
There was a loud group in uniform in the section next to us. They’d figure into this match later. There appeared to a bunch of Football players in the stands and
maybe some of the Women’s Basketball
team.
There was an announcement for a Sideout boosters club meeting after the match. Membership started at $100. I actually brought my checkbook, but after
buying that Country Pass, I couldn’t do it.
(Also, I’m kind shy around the girls.)
I wish they had put out a brochure of the levels of membership. Like for $100, you get a “Thanks,” from an
assistant coach. “For $100, I want to at
least get yelled at by Coach Jordan,” I told Ron.
I’m now pretty sure Cat
Kelly is working for the team as an assistant. It might have been worth going to the meeting
just to say, “Hi,” to her. She was in
the stands and recruited one of the high school girls to be a ball girl. Cat is all smiles now in her new role. It’s nice to see.
Set 1
Our initial starters for this game were Taylor, Bianca, Molly Johnson, Lia Mosher, Katie Birtcil,
Mari Sharp (with a heavily bandaged
hip), and Darian Markham. Both teams were in white, but it wasn’t
confusing. The Mustangs didn’t have a
school shoe contract apparently, so the girls had all sort of shoes on. Some were very impressive. Their Libero, Janey Cortez, was in a particularly eye-catching lavender pair of
sneaks. Being from El Paso, she seemed
to have her own cheering section during the introductions.
It was a little startling at the beginning of the game as
the high school girls erupted in an Aggie cheer to lead the crowd. The Cheerleaders were definitely caught off
guard. Katie got in first kill at 1-1. The HS girls gave her a big cheer. It think she was their favorite. The next point had some contention. The line judges went over and argued with the
up official after a block. Western NM
got that point. The next point was
actually blown dead and replayed. There
might have been a loose ball on the court.
WNM took another point at 3-3 with an overpass kill. 5-5 was the score after three net serves in a
row. Those things are contagious.
Katie rattled off three more kills. Molly and Taylor combined for a block. It was 11-7 Aggies after Katie and Taylor
combined on a block. WNM got the next
point after a great serve receive by Janey on an offspeed serve. 12-8 Molly got her first kill and Taylor got
hers on the next point. Mustang Madelynn Culp made a great all-out dive
attempt on a dig into the sidelines on the next play. Molly got another kill, 15-8, to take us to a
timeout.
Lia was not in for much of the set, but cycled back in
after the break. Rylee Fay came in as a serving sub.
She got an ace and then net served.
On the side, Vianey Lopez Marrufo
executed a Brazilian-style jump serve, which was very effective. (Coach Jordan predicted that the Mustangs
would serve well in his pre-match interview.)
21-12 Lia took her first good swing and the return went out. Jayde
Shelton came in (pictured at the top of the post). She was wearing pants to play in like
Katie. She got her first kill on a touch
at 24-12. The Aggies closed it out, 25-12.
Set
2: Aggies 1, Mustangs 0
The teams switched ends.
A couple of Aggie players said, “Hi,” to the up official in
passing. The Cheerleaders changed ends
with them. The new starters were Anji Vishwanathan (Ed was really chewing
his tongue announcing that name), Ashley, and Mia.
Katie started off the set with a facial kill. For the Mustangs, Janey had a great
one-handed dig. A double touch by the
Aggies gave WNM a 2-3 lead. Anji evened
the score with an ace. She made a good
dig on the next point. Bianca also had a
good dig on another point. She is a
really steady player, especially for a freshman. 5-4 Lia finally got her first kill. Mia cycled in and served.
11-5 Morgan Stewart
came in as a serve sub. I kind of saw
that role coming. A Mustang player took
a dive into the press table going after a ball the point. 11-7 Lia misfired on a swing. She was still looking rusty to this
point. Vianey came up to serve again and
took two more points before net-serving, 12-8.
15-10 Mia took her first swing and got a kill, which took us to a
timeout.
Out of the break, Katie served into the net. (After the match, the Coach was disappointed
with the serving.) At 16-12, Ed again
stumbled on announcing Anji’s name to serve, then Coach Jordan subbed her out
for Keke Holloway. I’m sure that was just a late sub, but it
also worked as a practical joke on the PA.
We’ll know for sure if this happens again in another game.
18-13 Lia got an overpass kill. 21-14 Lia with her signature slap kill. Now she’s feeling it. Katie came in with two more kills. Morgan served an ace, but then served out on
the next point. Katie finished off the
set with two more kills. 25-16 Aggies.
Set
2: Aggies 2, Mustangs 0
Morgan changed into the Libero shirt for the third set and
started. Ron and I have agreed that
she’s our current favorite. She’s one of
those girls that just looks perfect in a volleyball uniform out on court.
However, things started off a bit shaky for the Aggies to
start the set. Morgan let a ball go that
turned out to be in and missed a dig.
The Mustangs had a 1-5 lead.
Vianey was serving again. The run
got broken up by a net serve. Bianca
made a couple of great pancake saves.
Molly was the main hitter playing and got a couple kills. 3-6 WNM had another net serve. That one was on the HS girls. They suddenly started cheering, startling the
Cheerleaders.
6-6 a long rally ended with the Mustangs not handling Molly’s
swing at the net. 7-8 another kill by
Molly ended a WNM run. 7-9 the Mustangs
blocked well for the point. 10-10 Morgan
set Jayde for a kill. It was so pretty
in execution. I’m sure the Coach loved
that. Morgan went on serve for the lead,
but served out again at 12-10.
The score tied again at 12 after another long rally, which
went to the Mustangs. They were showing
a lot of fight in this set. The HS girls
were now getting competition in the cheering from a group on the other side of
the court. It was a bit of a cheering contest. The Cheerleaders were stupefied. 13-12 Taylor buried one to give the Aggies
the lead. Molly chipped in another
kill. 15-12 Janey received a serve from
Bianca and accidently stumbled and blocked another player from taking the
pass. It was a little volleyball comedy.
After the timeout, Kacia
Brown came in. 16-13 the HS girls’
cheering did it again as the Mustangs net served. 18-13 Kacia got her first kill. 19-13 was another long rally. The Aggies took this one on another kill by
Kacia. Morgan had a diving pancake dig
to keep the point going that got a rise out of the crowd. 20-13 Kaylee
Peterson aced. She had come in
earlier in the set to serve. She has an
impressive drop serve that just clears the net.
Freshman Alex
Connatser subbed in. She’s Ron’s
alternate favorite. (My alternate is Cameron Rodriguez.) Alex immediately got in on two blocks. Lia came in for her right afterward. I’m sure the Coach was kicking himself for
not putting Alex in earlier, but he needed to put Lia in before the end. 23-14 net serve by the Mustangs. The cheering HS girls get another
assist.
The next point was a little confused. Morgan went back to serve after another kill
by Kacia, but this was all waved off and WNM got the point. The down official was looking at something on
the press table, while Lia spoke to the up official. Officially in the play-by-play log, it was
listed as an attack error, but I didn’t think there was video replay for the
match. Did they replay the point for
some other reason, like out-of-rotation, but weren’t sure? Regardless, Lia took two big swings the next
point for a kill. She finished the match
with another slap kill. 25-15 and 3-0 Aggies win.
The Aggies accidently left the Mustangs hanging for a
minute. After a season of not shaking
hands at the net, they needed to be reminded to do so. Given the disparity of the competition level,
the Mustangs acquitted themselves well here and gave the Aggies a workout.
The lovely new scoreboard scoring was worthless like last
season. From the official scoring, Molly
and Katie each had 10 kills. Katie also
had 2 aces, and Molly had 2 blocks. Lia finished
with 6 kills. Rylee and Bianca both had 14
assists. Bianca also led with 14
digs. Whew! I’d hate to figure out
the lineups with all this talent. (One
suggestion, team up Taylor and Molly at the net as much as possible.) However, I will definitely say, fire the
Cheerleaders and hire those HS Volleyball girls.
The skies had been threatening before we went in for the
game. Outside afterward, the heavy
shower of rain was coming just down the road.
Ron and I decided on Whataburger. We got wet getting there, but were inside
before the deluge started. I was
slightly worried as I saw the water started lapping at the curb, while I ate my
tasty Honey Barbeque Chicken Strip sandwich.
The rain passed before an ark was necessary. Ron was again joking that this game was
really close. I’m sure the schedule will
be testing the Aggies shortly, but they’ve got plenty of talent to play well
against whoever.
This is Ron's ticket. He's still not sure about getting a Country Pass.
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