NM State Aggies vs Utah Tech Trailblazers Volleyball 10-1-22

 

Utah Tech was formerly known as the Indians . . . err . . . the Redskins . . . err . . . Dixie State.  Ron and I were back after Thursday’s tough and controversial match.  To recap, one Aggie setter was injured and another (likely) quit.  Coach Jordan had been forced to use a really raw freshman in the match.  They’d gotten by, but today’s opponent was better on paper. 

 

When we got to our seats, former player and current team assistant, Cat Kelly was on the sidelines chatting with a TV production assistant.  She waved to us.  My life is complete.  Cat’s so cute, nice, and showed such perseverance in her playing career.  I did want to talk to her for a minute, but the opportunity wasn’t quite there.  Maybe fate will smile on another day.

Ooh, UT had a pretty redhead on their team, Emma Ricks.  I’m fascinated with seeing a redhead on court for some reason.  I’m still waiting to see ours, Kaleigh Thomas, play.  During warm ups, Taylor Snow was playing ball with a little girl from the stands.  The PA music was good today, though there was a weird instrumental version of Crazy Train. 

There were no Cheerleaders, since they’d be working the Football game.  Ron and I were planning on doing The Double again and seeing Aggie Volleyball and Football on the same day.  Aggie Softball was even on the agenda.  We were also planning on seeing Aggie Soccer on Sunday.  They were already came to watch volleyball on Thursday.  Pistol Pete was here with a Pete trainee?  (He had the mustache.) 

 

The crowd was listed as bigger the previous game (762), but it didn’t feel like it.  There weren’t any kid teams present.  Interestingly, the UT girls and their coach watched the Aggie player intro video.  Different teams have different attitudes about that.  Unfortunately, it contained video of girls no longer playing on the team.         

 

Set 1

The Aggies put out the same starters as the last game.  Freshman setter Rilen Garcia started off on sidelines.  She was showing off her dance steps to the reserves again.  In a change, her and Kacia Brown came in as the first subs.  Anji Vishwanathan also came in.  The Aggies went behind early.  Rilen missed a dig and the Coach started rubbing his head.  Kacia got blocked out at 4-9 UT and it was timeout Aggies.  The Coach talked to the setters, including injured Bianca Perez, separately. 

 

It didn’t help.  4-11 there was a collision on a dig.  Usually sure-handed Libero Darian Markham was having trouble digging for much of the match.  On the next point, Kacia got in a tip to finally break up the run and got a kill on the next point.  Katie Birtcil came up with a solo block and a kill, but the Aggies kept falling behind.  UT was first to 20 on a Setter dump shot.  Jayde Shelton came in for Kacia and got a kill.  Lia Mosher held off a set point with a hard kill, but UT closed it out, 15-25.

 

Set 2: Trailblazers 1, Aggie 0

I think some friends of Rilen were behind us cheering for her.  It was nice of them to be there for her.  Flex Cam zoomed in a hot chick in a tank top walking down the stairs.  She wasn’t interested.  Anji and Ryleigh Whitekettle started as Coach Jordan tried to find the right combination.

 

Ryleigh came out firing with a couple of early kills.  Molly Johnson came in with a kill, but it was challenged and overturned to tie it at 3 all.  Things started going downhill after that.  Katie was blocked on the next point, but came back with a tip kill on the next point.  Rilen and Jayde came in.  Rilen became a real setter and got her first Double Touch call.  (I’m not being sarcastic.  Even very good setters get DT’d.) 

 

Like the last match, the Aggies kept firing high and out with Rilen setting.  5-7 Jayde got a kill on a touch on another high shot.  Katie was blocked out again, but her and Jayde came back with kills off of blocks.  8-10 Lia slammed a kill that put a jolt into the crowd.  Ryleigh closed it to 9-10 by tooling the block.  UT pulled back out in front as Darian let a shot go that fell in.  On two previous points, she’d dug out balls that were going out.  Her head was just not in it.

 

Molly put in a couple of kills, including one that ricocheted into the stands.  However, Rilen had another service error in between the kills.  12-15 UT had a pancake dig on winning another point that went over Darian’s head.  The team was very good at those pancake saves.  That took us to the Media timeout.  The UT coach argued with the down official, though I have no idea why.  There was a t-shirt toss into the crowd, but Pete was not doing it, a staffer was.  

UT came back from the break with a block on Anji.  Their reserves went crazy.  Whittnee Nihipali, who had been getting most of the kills for UT, hit one off Rilen.  Mia Peterson came in as a sub.  Rilen made a nice dump attempt on another point, but Emma Ricks’ serving run continued until Molly ended it on a tip.  Morgan Stewart came in to serve (pictured above with Rilen). 

 

14-20 UT had a whiff off a bad set.  However, it was mostly Aggie errors that ended the set.  Rylee had another net serve.  Ryleigh had a mis-hit.  Sydney McIntosh came in for her and got a kill.  Darian had a net serve.  The set finished 17-25 UT with another kill off Rilen.

 

Set 3: Trailblazers 2, Aggies 0

Sydney started the set for the Aggies.  The Coach also switched to a 5-1 rotation.  I’m not a volleyball expert (obviously).  Basically, it meant the Aggies were just going to go with Rylee Fay setting (pictured at the top).  She served into the net on the first point.  I’m sure she’s been focusing on setting since Bianca got injured.  Being an ace serving specialist, Rylee may have lost some of her touch without enough practice. 

Katie reeled off three kills early.  A UT player nearly slid face-first into the stands trying to dig one of her balls.  UT called a timeout at 5-2 Aggies.  Selena’s Bidi Bidi Bom Bom played on the PA.  It was a nice, happy tune.  Katie came back with another kill.  She also had a kill overruled on a challenge.  8-5 was the first long rally of the set.  Sydney won it on a kill.  Sydney racked up a couple more kills and the Aggie reserves went wild.  13-8 Rylee put in an ace and the crowd exploded.  Timeout UT.

 

Out of the break, Molly was whistled on a hit.  The Coach argued, but the ref ignored him.  Sydney cycled out on the next point to a hero’s welcome with the reserves.  The Aggies kept drilling kills, but also added a couple more service errors.  Ron was counting.  19-13 this was an exhausting rally.  Molly and Mari Sharp took each other out on a dig.  Katie won the point by tooling a block.  Syd added a couple more kills.  The set ended with two UT out swings.  25-16 Aggies.  Rilen met Sydney on the sidelines to congratulate her.

 

Set 4: Trailblazers 2, Aggies 1

Freshman reserve Ashley Herman high-fives everyone before each set begins.  This time, she even slapped a group of fans sitting courtside.  I really hope she gets to play sometime and focus her hyperactive energy on court.  Rylee nearly out-served early, but the Coach got the call overturned to an ace.  The Aggies went up 3-1 on a long rally where UT whiffed on another swing.  Rylee net served on the next point.  The scored tied at 3 on a long rally where Syd fired out.  UT had a DT to tie it at 4. 

 

From here, UT went ahead.  Lia was blocked.  They had her game planned.  5-7 Morgan, standing with the reserves, caught a ball that flew out into them.  The girls had a laugh.  Save the platoon!  5-10 UT got another block.  The Aggies were starting to play sloppy.  In a break, the Coach spoke more to Rylee.  The PA played the rather mellow Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. 

 

5-12 the point didn’t matter, but Katie came out for Mia here.  Katie was having her usual great day, but Coach Jordan was likely conceding here and wanted to rest her and give Mia some playing time.  I looked over later and noticed Katie wasn’t standing with the reserves, but was sitting on the bench.  Player Ops Director Tatyana Battle had her arm around her.  Katie looked like she was wiping away tears.  (If I’m wrong here, I apologize.)  It’s not a good look when your star player is crying on the bench. 

 

Rilen also came back in to set.  The Coach may have gone back to a 6-2 rotation.  The up official called over Mia.  There seemed to be some confusion after all the subs.  She did okay in play with a couple of kills on touches.  Sydney added a couple of more kills, including one that rolled across the top of the net.  Lia buried a kill into a defender.  She was blocked on the next point and slapped the floor afterward. 

 

UT kept adding to their lead.  Rilen and Keke Holloway worked on some dance steps during a challenge break.  The Coach meant to get Ryleigh back into the game, but had to wait to sub her.  He had her sit next to him while waiting.  She looked amusingly uncomfortable.  Mia added a couple more kills before the end.  (My co-worker Taylor, who likes her, should have come to this game.)  The Aggies also had their 13-th and final service error.  UT wins 18-25 and 3-1. 

 

A happy Sydney waved to her friends in the stands and went over to talk to them.  The rest of the team exited immediately.  UT did as well.  They let off a cheer when they got into the tunnel.  The crowd stayed until the end of the match, perhaps in shock.  The Aggie Volleyball team doesn’t lose home games in conference generally. 

 

Perhaps more than UTRGV, Utah Tech definitely played a good game.  They went 9 to 2 in blocks.  Whittnee Nihipali led everyone with 18 kills.  Teammate Chayse Daugherty had 10.  Katie Birtcil led the Aggies with 16 kills.  Sydney McIntosh had 10.  She hasn’t been used much this season, but will probably be seeing some more action now.  The service errors were a killer.  Darian and Rylee had four a piece.  The Aggies might have won even with the iffy setting, but had no chance with bad serving and bad digging on top of it.

 

Ron and I knew that Softball was playing an exhibition double header at the same time, but we went for lunch at Long John Silvers and dessert at Tastee Freeze.  We got back to the university and went to the Softball Complex.  They were playing, but Ron was reluctant to go in and watch, since he’d have to put on sunblock for maybe a half hour of game.  Instead, he parked by the fence where we could see a bit through the gap.  Basically, I could just see the pitcher.  This kind of sucked. 

 

I did retrieve a foul ball in the parking lot and handed it to player, who came out looking for it.  She confirmed they’d only be playing until 5:00, when the gates opened for football.  We ended up parking there and walking up to the stadium.  Tomorrow’s opposing soccer team, Abilene Christian came in to warm up on the soccer field as we went by.