Friday, September 23, 2022

NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Volleyball 9-22-22

 

After two Aggie Soccer games that ended in draws (9-16-22 and 9-18-22), I came real close to writing up one-page recaps for each.  I never thought I’d consider doing that for Aggie Volleyball, but here I am.  Tonight did not go well.

 

I will set the stage.  Going back to the Aggies’ road trip, Lia Mosher came up huge and was on the All-Tournament team.  I got that from listening to the Aggie Coaches Show.  Coach Jordan also mentioned that Setter Alana Embry was over her finger injury and played a bit.  His scouting report on tonight’s opponent, UTRGV, was that they were as good as their 11-4 suggested, even though they were a preseason pick for seventh in the WAC.  Looking at their schedule, they didn’t seem to have beaten anyone significant.

 

Ron and I went directly to the Pan-Am Center without the usual pregame meal or plans for a postgame meal.  We’d both eaten beforehand.  AD Mario Moccia had mentioned during the Coaches Show that there was a free popcorn deal, if you bought a large drink.  I took them up on that.  A nice fellow, who had just got a beer, gave Ron his free popcorn.  So, we both made out well.

 

Tonight’s game was on the radio.  Unfortunately, Ron forgot his.  I brought two.  Unfortunately for me, the old one I was using had nearly no charge in it.  I had to hope for the best.  On court, Director of Player Operations, Tatyana Battle, looked elegant in a loose-fitting blouse and slacks.  The Cheerleaders were practicing lifts.  Cat Kelly (I still don’t know what her position is with the team) recruited a few girls to act as ball girls.  I keep waiting for her to recruit me.  In return, I’ll only ask for . . . we’ll negotiate it.  (Ron will have to keep my notes.)

 

A good crowd came out for this first WAC contest.  In the player introductions, the Vaqueros looked fairly pleasant and athletic.  They are also a very international squad with 12 players from other countries.  This included their 5’2” Libero, Regina Tijerina, from Mexico.  Sarah Cruz, the leading scorer in the conference, was from the Czech Republic. 

 

The lights went out and the spotlights came on for the Aggies’ intro for the first time.  The intro video featured a honey shot of a smiling Darian Markham, which got a big cheer.  I held my breath waiting for the lights to come back up.  (There have been technical issues in the past.)  The girls tossed souvenir balls into the crowd for the first time, too. 

 

Set 1

After the match started, a lady next to me pointed out that the scoreboard was still showing the stats from the last match (9-10-22) and they weren’t right then either!  The teams weren’t doing much better.  I think the first six points had them both trading errors. 

 

Alana did come in early to serve and set.  She had a couple of double touches, but did look athletic going for digs.  Molly Johnson stood out for the Aggies in kills, but she was the only one through much of the set.  She kept them in it, but it was 12-15 UTRGV at the Media timeout.  On that point, Darian actually tried kicking the ball over, not being in position to make a dig.  That is legal.

 

15-17 UTRGV, Lia got her first kill on a slam dunk on an overpass.  However, her and team kill leader, Katie Birtcil, were getting blocked or hitting out.  Both teams weren’t serving well in the set.  Lia would come back with a couple of encouraging kills with her signature “bearpaw” slap, but the Aggies fell behind about half through and never recovered.  19-25 UTRGV.  During a timeout, the camera showed a girl with a handmade sign for reserve player, Kayleigh Thomas.  I keep wanting to see the redhead play.

 

Set 2: Vaqueros 1, Aggies 0

Not getting enough offense, Coach Jordan put in Jayde Shelton and Mia Peterson (pictured nicely at the top), to mix it up.  Alana also started.  After the Aggies had made three out shots, the Coach put in Bianca Perez to set.  He spoke to Alana on the sidelines for a while, not angry-looking though.  Down 0-5, the Aggies took a timeout.  Losing the next point, the Coach sent Katie over to talk to the up official to argue.  The official gave him a Yellow Card. 

 

3-6, Katie got her first kill off a block.  Molly continued to get the kills and a couple of blocks.  Mia kept firing out, until the Coach took out her and talked to her on the sidelines.  Darian made a couple of heroic saves.  At 11-16, freshman Anji Vishwanathan from the reserves came in.  I should mention that Ryleigh Whitekettle was unavailable tonight.  Given the number of arms on the team, that didn’t seem like a big deal when it was announced at the beginning of the match.  Katie added a couple more kills, as well as kills chipped in by others, but they never recovered from that bad opening.  UTRGV took it 19-25.

 

Set 3: Vaqueros 2, Aggies 0

I ran to the bathroom.  Today I’d had two large cups of water, three cups of McAlisters sweet tea (I went with dad for lunch there and had a great sandwich), and I was drinking a large raspberry tea here.  I felt like I’d been in the bathroom all day.  I ran into AD Mario on the way back and said, “Hi.”  He didn’t look happy.  I finally heard the PA play Jump in the Line for the first time.  I also passed by a guy admiring one a souvenir ball that he’d caught.  I already have a ball (9-8-21).  They’re magical. 

 

Kacia Brown was now starting.  Lia started off with a kill.  The Vaqueros were called for being out-of-rotation next.  3-1 Aggies, Kacia got her first kill.  However, the Aggies committed their seventh service error and tied the score at 3.  Anji and Jayde combined on a block to tie it at 6.  Anji got her first kill on a tip, as UTRGV started to pull ahead, 7-10.  Under the net, Katie and some Vaquero players shared a laugh.  I have no idea why.

 

9-10 Alana connected with Lia for a pretty kill.  Unfortunately, Rylee Fay missed the connection with Lia for a whiff, 10-14.  Morgan Stewart briefly came in for defense.  Ron and I were pleased to see her, but in this circumstance, as it looked like the Coach was throwing in the towel.  By 13-19, UTRGV was sending in their reserves. 

 

14-19 Molly got a kill that painted the line.  UTRGV challenged the call.  Their reserves started dancing a doe-see-doe to the PA music.  They then started “swimming” on top of each other.  I don’t know what that was all about.  Call upheld, and Sydney McIntosh came in for the Aggies.  I noticed the girl waving the sign and could see the back of it.  It said, “I love you,” to a named official.  I don’t know if said official was there, or if this was a reused piece of poster board.  (I also saw this girl afterward with a souvenir ball.)   

 

15-22 Alana missed Lia on a set.  This was really bad.  19-23 Lia and Kacia combined on a block.  22-24 Kacia and Molly combined on a block.  That was as close as it got.  Rylee and Katie aced in the set, but the match ended on the Aggies’ tenth service error.  22-25 and 0-3 UTRGV sweeps it.

 

Well, Molly Johnson had 9 kills and Sarah Cruz was held to 7 kills.  (In fact, nobody had double digit kills.)  That’s all the positives for the Aggies.  The stats were actually oddly equal, except for having more than double the number of service errors.  It was nice to see Alana back in action, kinda.    

 

My radio gave out late in the third set, which was way longer than I thought it would last.  At the end of the match, I grabbed Ron’s to hear the postgame interview with the Coach.  Immediately upon plugging it in, I heard Coach Jordan calling this the “Worst performance he’d ever seen from one of his teams.”  He also called it, “Tragic.”  He didn’t even credit UTRGV with playing particularly well in the win.  Broadcaster Adam Young called the Coach’s comments, “Candid.”  Meanwhile, the team was in a huddle and cheering about something.  The girl with the sign was there with them.  At least they weren’t overly upset about the loss.  

 

I’m not qualified to critique, but I’ll hand out these observations.  There’s lots of good players here, but they’re not playing as a team.  At some positions, the Coach doesn’t seem to be able to choose.  Working out three Setters this week clearly diminished all of them.  This sort of reminds me of the Football team’s problem, as they keep switching between two quarterbacks.  The players are the ones playing, but personnel decisions and training are on the coach.  You have to put the right ones in the right combination.  If the players aren’t sorting it out, the coach has to.

 

Personally, I was in shock.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them go three-and-out on their home court in conference.  It usually takes a PAC-12 team to do that.  Ron was numb.  The rest of the crowd may have been as well.  It only took an hour-and-a-half.  At least the beat down was quick.  I’m writing and posting this quickly to get it out of my system.  I hope the girls are doing the same before their next match on Saturday.    

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