Aggie Volleyball Spring Tournament 2023

Okay, I did ask Ryleigh Whitekettle (pictured above) if there were going to be any spring games this year when I met her at Softball.  (Yes, I’m obsessing over this.  It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me at Aggie Sports.  Don’t take this away from me.)  She wasn’t sure, but this year I remembered to keep checking their Twitter for announcements.  Eventually, the above image came up, so I had plenty of warning.

Unfortunately, the start time for the tournament was 9:00 on Saturday.  For normal people, not a big deal, but I work at night.  I thought I was going to have an issue getting up early.  Ron was strangely ambivalent about going, since we were already planning on going to Softball in the afternoon.  Surely, he wanted to see his favorite on the team, Morgan Stewart.  I think he was concerned about starving to death if he had to wait for lunch. 

 

I did get up on time (applause) and was ready to go before 9:00, but had to cool my heels for 15 minutes waiting for Ron.  Disaster almost struck immediately struck when we arrived at the Pan-Am Center.  A couple in front of us found the doors locked.  Oh, no!  I could even hear them playing inside.  Thankfully, an usher let us all in.  Somehow, they’d misplaced the doorstop.  

Inside, they’d laid out the new crimson mat on the floor.  This’ll make matches look more like they do at bigger schools.  For today however, there were two matches going on simultaneously.  The two courts were perpendicular to the mat and side-by-side.  The Aggies were playing the University of Juarez (UACJ), and UTEP was playing the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI).  

 

There was a small crowd of regulars and boosters present.  Some Football players were there watching.  Our lovely graduated redheaded player, Kayleigh Thomas, was up in the crowd.  I was rooting for her and have written about her, but I don’t think I ever really met her.  I was too shy to do so here.  A booster did go over and chat with her.  She later went down to hang out with the team staff. 

 

Our officials for the games were none other than our own Graduate Assistants Cat Kelly and Molly Johnson.  Both were up on the ladders at the net and had electronic whistles.  Cat looked serious calling the game and seriously uncomfortable standing up on the platform.  (I like Cat a lot.  I’m glad I got to see her again.  I don’t know if she’ll be back for the fall.)  Molly looked so cute, all 6’4” of her.  She has bangs now and was wearing an oversized shirt.  She looked slightly embarrassed as she tentatively motioned to indicate point winners. 

 

There was a printed roster available.  The stack of paper was a bit hidden in a hallway.  A couple of new recruits were with the team, Starr Williams and Aleka Darko.  I assume there will be some more in the fall. 

 

Unfortunately, there were a bunch of important subtractions.  Lia Mosher (playing professionally in Europe) and Katie Birtcil (I don't know where she is) have graduated, along with Molly.  Ryleigh mentioned that setter, Rylee Fay, had left, but they've recruited a new one.  (I guess she'll arrive later.)  Jayde Shelton and Mia Peterson have left, probably trying to find more playing time.  (My co-worker, Taylor, who met Mia and wanted date her, is going to be crushed.)  I'm way more upset that Taylor Snow isn't with the team.  She was a blocking machine.  With Lia, Molly, and Taylor gone, Coach Jordan must be scrambling to replace his front line.

 

We settled in to watch the Aggies play UACJ.  After looking it up, they are the Indias. OMG!  #so-canceled.  This team must change their name this instant to the Lady Guardians or Twitter will explode on them.  The Indias were the only team wearing their playing uniforms.  The other teams were in team t-shirts.  The Juarez girls were a bit undersized, but were energetic.  They were also the happiest team to be there and were all smiles playing. 

 

The Aggies won 2-0 (best of three sets).  Afterward, the Indias had the Aggies gather together with them for a team picture.  (I got the impression at least some of their girls spoke English.)  I was impressed with setter, Bianca Perez.  She was vocally taking charge and looked recovered from her injury.  Starr looked impressive.  Ashley Herman, the team's cheerleader last year, got a lot of playing time.  Hopefully, she'll be playing in the fall.

 

Between games, Coach Hertel came up to us to reset the iPad that was recording the Aggie matches.  Ron and I and a couple of other fans got to have a nice chat with him.  He didn't know much about the team from Juarez.  I mentioned I had once seen a Men's Volleyball match on Mexican TV between a couple of university teams.  He seemed really interested, but I didn't have much in the way of details.  The guys seemed to completely fill up the entire court and they hit too hard.  It wasn't fun to watch.     

 

UTEP and NMMI finished their match.  I'm guessing UTEP won, because the NMNI coach chewed her team out afterward.  The Miners were obviously shorthanded.  They had what I'm guessing was one of their male assistant coaches playing for them.  Some music was turned on during the break.  Ashley was dancing.  Even after playing, she still has extra energy.  Morgan and Rilen Garcia engaged in a little playful roughhousing.       

 

The Aggies played NMMI next.  They are the Lady Colts.  (I had to look that up, too.)  They were again another shorter team, but they were mostly stocky.  (The Indias were pretty slim.)  There was a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors at the net to decide who would serve first.  That got a little chuckle from both teams. 

 

NMMI brought their full team and they were spirited.  The girls were singing and making noise for the match like a Softball team.  I liked their t-shirts.  It was a black shirt with an American flag and a Zia on it.  One of their girls were hit on the nose while playing at the net.  She came out with a bloody nose and was treated by the Aggie trainer, Marcella.  The girl was worked on for a couple of minutes, before returning to the sidelines.  She was laughing about it with the coach afterward and cycled back in to play.

 

Rilen was doing most of the setting for the Aggies in this match.  Coach Jordan wants her ready to play.  Morgan had a good serve working.  I got a different view of her serve from behind.  It was just skimming over the net.  She also made a good pancake dig.  Mari Sharp was hitting well and had a great solo block.  It wasn't all sunshine.  Darian Markham made a couple of net serves.

 

I wasn't seeing the score at the time, though Ron was.  More on that later.  The Aggies took the first set.  Before the second set, the starters huddled up tight.  They started giggling about something.  I admit I'm curious what they talking about, but I probably don't want to know.

 

Alex Connatser started, another one of Ron's favorites.  Good to see her on court.  She got a kill late and showed some emotion.  Kaylee Peterson came in to serve and put in an ace.  Rilen was going all out.  She was racing from one side of the court to the other for digs.  Anji Vishwanathan was playing.  Her mom was here watching.  The fans below us chatted with her. 

 

The Aggies took it in two sets.  The sets were really quick without a lot of breaks in the action.  The girls were probably enjoying the continuous play.  We sure were.  I don't know what the scores were, but they were hard-fought.  The NMMI girls were scrappy.  Coach Hertel came back up and mentioned they were in the national top 10 Division II team.  (Or something like that.)  I asked if Molly had any more eligibility left.  Another fan agreed that she was the best thing about last season.  The coach said she was done playing.  Molly has some nagging injuries.  She just plays a little during practice for instruction. 

 

I hadn't seen Coach Wallis for UTEP on the court and I asked where he was.  Wallis was coaching the new UTEP Beach Volleyball team at the conference tournament.  I looked them up after I got home.  UTEP’s inaugural season of beach volleyball has been brutal, but I have to admit, at least the team is rather attractive.  There were a couple of players listed on both teams, which might be why they were shorthanded.

 

The last match for the Aggies was against the Miners.  On the other court, UACJ and NMMI would square off.  I admit I really would have liked to have seen both matches individually.  The Aggies and Miners are, of course, rivals.  The other two were more evenly matched against each other than they were against the two DI schools and they're feisty. 

 

There were scoreboards at both ends of the court for at least the final matches.  One scoreboard was temporarily set up inside the north end suites.  I don't know if these working for the whole event, but this is when I noticed them.  (Genius observational skills on my part.) 

 

Before the match, the UTEP coach that was playing said across the net, “Be nice to us.”  He said something else and had the Aggie girls laughing.  I suspect there was a comment about men playing Women's sports.  (If not, he missed an obvious joke.)  The coach was in good shape and obviously a former player, but he was probably a few years from playing competitively.  I think he was also not hitting as hard as he could have.  In any case, he was having a good time.  He got the first kill of the match, but mostly just worked in a supporting role.

 

Here things get confusing, as I found myself drifting between both matches going.  Aleka jammed one to help the Aggies go up 5-1.  Starr then served an ace off the tape.  The new girls were impressing.  UTEP took a timeout.  Ryleigh made a great kill down the line at 8-2.  At 17-7, UTEP took another timeout.  The other match was running close.  Grrr.  I wanted to watch both. 

 

The Miners mounted a run and drove it to 17-12.  The Aggies took a timeout.  Coach Whitis was the one who talked to the team during the breaks.  Ryleigh came back with a kill to break the run.  She's gonna be big next season.  Bianca aced off the tape and the Aggies were first to 20 at 20-12.  They'd take Set 1, 25-16.  On the other court, there was a super long rally at 24-25 with UACJ up.  NMMI came back and won in extra points, 27-25.

 

Ron and I went to the bathroom together between sets.  It was weird.  We're going separately from now on, like usual.  When we came back, a couple of Football guys were eating Raising Canes.  We could smell the fries.  Now, we were both hungry. 

 

NMMI got off to a 5-0 start in their match.  The Aggies started 4-1.  Near catastrophe on one point, Bianca and Sidney McIntosh almost dove headfirst into each other going after a ball.  The Miners tied it at 10, as the Aggies started getting a bit sloppy.  12-12 Anji made a solo block.  13-12 Rilen made an “excuse me” bump set kill.  Anji made it 13-13 on a quick set kill. 

 

The Aggies started a run.  Ashley dunked one to make it 17-15.  18-15 Ashley and Alex combined on a block.  At 20-15, UTEP took a timeout.  UACJ had made a comeback and it was tied at 21 in the other game.  UTEP came back with a run, and the Aggies took a timeout at 20-19.  This may have been an exhibition, but the two teams were taking it seriously.

 

NMMI won Set 2, 25-23, and took their match.  Both teams huddled together for a picture.  UACJ may have gone winless today, but judging by the smiles on the girls' faces, they had a good time.  Back to the other game, UTEP took a brief lead at 21-22.  Kacia Brown made a big kill to tie it.  The Aggies came back and won it 25-23 and the match 2-0.  The Aggies went undefeated for the day.

 

That was fun.  Let's play all volleyball matches with these pace-of-play rules and side-by-side action.  We didn't hang around.  Ron wanted to get lunch before this afternoon's Softball game.  It was also cold inside the Pan Am.  While it would be pretty hot at Softball, I wanted to get warm.  Driving down the street, we suddenly remembered Chik-fil-a and had a great meal there.  It'd been too long.  Speaking of remembering, I'm going to have to make sure I keep up with Aggie Volleyball every spring to see when they’re playing more exhibitions.