NM State Annual Report 2023-2024

I received this magazine a couple of weeks ago in the mail because I had bought an Aggie Country Pass this season.  I know I’ve gotten a couple of these, but looking back, I could only find a link to the first one I got (11-9-16).  I liked it a lot, because it broke down Aggie Sports economics.  It was actually fascinating and explained why NMSU has been so desperate to keep their Football program at the FBS level.  40% of all of Aggie Sports’ income came from really good teams paying Aggie Football to play them for an easy win (except for Auburn, see below). 

 

Tickets sales were 22% of total income with Football and Men’s Basketball accounting for over 90% of that.  That was 2016, though.  The only numbers available in this years’ edition just focused on ticket sales.  76,044 tickets were sold, a 25% increase from last year, for $1.5M in ticket sales, a 20% increase.  For perspective, 2016’s sales were $1.1M and the tickets were cheaper then.

 

This report is from NMSU’s first year in C-USA (though the Swim and Dive team is still in the WAC).  It was pretty successful with soccer, volleyball, and football going to conference championship games.  Soccer was a standout by winning the regular season and Loma McNeese being the Player of Year.  Desirae Spearman was also Player of the Year in Softball.  Football had their first 10-win season in over 60 years and went to another bowl game.  Men’s Basketball had a losing season, but still led the conference in average attendance by a 1,000.  (They had a pair of Pack the Pan-Am events.)

 

Here’s a few dates listed that I thought were interesting.

7-10-23 Thalia Chaverria passed away.

7-31-23 Jack Nixon and Anita Skipper were honored for their broadcasting of the previous Men’s Basketball season.

9-1-23 The Pan-Am Center installed a Teraflex floor for Aggie Volleyball.

12-11-23 Wave the Wonder Dog, who retrieves tees for Football, won an American Kennel Club award.

12-16-23 Jack Nixon called his 500-th football game at the New Mexico Bowl.

1-18-24 The Pan-Am Center installed new seats and Men’s Basketball had a 23-point comeback win over WKU.  

 

Soccer was tremendous last season in light of their preseason tragedy.  They entered C-USA with a WAC championship behind them.  They faced a ranked Liberty team and beat them in an away game.  They won the regular season championship, but did lose in the tournament final to Liberty.    

 

Volleyball likely would have crushed the WAC, but in C-USA, they ran into WKU, who haven’t been beaten in conference in like three years.  UTEP, a monster of Coach Jordan’s making with his former assistant running the program, ended up being the closest competitor to WKU.  

 

Football had a great season with their 10 wins and appearances in the conference championship game and a near-home bowl game.  Still, it was that completely unexpected win over Auburn (11-18-23) that had to be season highlight.  Somehow, the Aggies have Hugh Freeze’s number (coach of Auburn and Liberty last year). 

 

If quarterback Diego Pavia had been able to play for the entire championship game (and was playing hurt to begin with), I think they might have won.  Blaze Berlowitz did a great job in relief.  The team was badly beaten in Albuquerque at the New Mexico Bowl by Fresno State even with essentially a big home crowd.  The Bulldogs were probably a better team, but after beating Auburn, that shouldn’t have intimated the Aggies.  I don’t know if Diego was still hurting or if the pregame controversy with UNM officials sabotaged the team.  I suspect Coach Kill’s angry exit from coaching after the game was also a factor.    

 

Coach Kill had been at odds with the university since he’d started.  His frustrations with the facilities and behind-the-scenes stuff we didn’t hear about boiled over before the bowl game.  His retirement triggered most of his staff’s departure, along with Diego, Blaze, and a bunch of other players.  The team has had to nearly start over the quick hire of Tony Sanchez, a former Aggie player, former Nevada head coach, and then current Aggie wide receiver coach.  Losing the two big games was tough, but losing the winning team right after was a real gut shot.

 

Men’s Basketball had a losing record, but were 12-3 in the Pan-Am Center.  Part of that home record was because they couldn’t get anybody to play them at home.  This season, they couldn’t even get the Lobos to play here.  When UTEP changes conferences, I wonder if they’ll follow suit.  It was hard to take this team seriously last season, since they could not win on the road. 

 

Coach Hooten came in and had to completely rebuild the program after everyone was dismissed from last season.  There were also some eligibility issues and a storm of injuries to deal with it.  I look to this season to see what he can really do.

     

Women’s Basketball also had a losing record, but did make it into the semifinals in at the conference tournament.  Coach Adams is really getting the most out of her players.  She seems to just need to recruit a couple of really good prospects to make the program competitive for a conference championship.  One of my co-workers was at a seminar where Coach Adams.  She was really impressed with her.  (I wonder she could book Coach Adams in place of one the usual insipid motivational speakers they hire for our meetings.)   

 

Softball did well this season with the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year (Dezianna Patmon) on the team.  They won their first two games in the conference tournament and beat Nebraska (2-16-24 though I wasn’t able to stay for the whole game) and Arizona State.  That said, I’m kind of surprised this team didn’t do better, especially with two star players.  Coach Rodolph must have felt the same way too and decided to delay retirement to come back this season.  New LED stadium lights were set up at the end of the season, though I’m not sure if they got used during the tournament.     

 

Baseball had an interesting season.  They finished with a 25-27 record, but also beat Arizona and TCU.  Those 25 wins were also the best total in five years.  I thought that the team definitely showed progress over the last two seasons.  (Though one of those poor seasons somehow resulted in a WAC Championship, 5-28-22.  I still haven’t figured out how that happened.)   I saw some fun games last season (especially 5-4-24, which was epic).  Keith Jones II, who provided a lot of that excitement, has moved on to the Texas Rangers’ farm system.  Hopefully, Coach Angier has some more great players in the pipeline.       

 

How about the future?  The Power Five conferences are now the Power Four.  The PAC-12 is trying to reconstitute themselves, but they’re not going to be able to regain their status poaching Mountain West schools.  The predictable domino effect was that the Mountain West conference is looking for new members and picked up UTEP.  (Why aren’t the PAC-12 and the Mountain West conferences just merging?  Or would that make too much sense?) 

 

This made Miner fans ecstatic.  They’re out of Conference-USA where they have had little success.  Their Track and Field team has done well, Women’s Basketball had a moment, and recently Volleyball has been good, but Football and Men’s Basketball are usually in the bottom half of the conference. 

 

With the Mountain West, they’ll be in a regional conference with teams fans are a bit more excited to see.  Most importantly, they’re no longer in the same conference with NMSU.  That was a big deal for them for some reason.  Unfortunately, the first fan question AD Jim Senter got was if they were going to start a baseball program.  His answer was a no hope, “No.”  So, we’re still better than UTEP no matter what they think of themselves.  (Thinking about it, a theoretical UTEP Baseball team might not even need a new stadium.  Maybe they could play their games at Southwest University Park.) 

 

NMSU AD Mario Moccia said he was happy being in C-USA, where their budget matches the other teams, except for Liberty.  He did seem a bit hurt that neither the Mountain West nor the PAC-12 has made an offer, though NMSU would have the smallest athletic budget in either conference.  UTEP will have that honor in the Mountain West.  They were hardly a peach acquisition.  NMSU has had more accomplishments recently, but El Paso is a much bigger market.  

 

I’m sure Aggie fans would like to be Mountain West with UNM, but even in a depleted conference, it’d be rough going.  The PAC-12 would likely be competitively even worse, but they still don’t have enough members.  (Upcoming new member, Fresno State, may have trouble meeting their minimum budget requirements and now having to field a Men’s Soccer team.)  A move could still happen. 

 

I wonder about C-USA in any case.  The conference has already been cleaned out once, so they’ve been aggressively pursuing new members, but nobody anybody’s heard of.  Liberty is sort of the tent pole of the conference, but I’m sure they have bigger ambitions.  What happens if they leave?  (Again, why haven’t C-USA and the Sunbelt conferences merged?)  Mario did once tease that the WAC had some clause about playing football.  You’d think Grand Canyon would have a football program, but they don’t.  The facilities for their other teams top notch.  If they ever go into football, they’ll go big like Liberty.

 

I think I’ve gone far afield of the actual Annual Report contents.  Between more possible conference realignments and the outcome of a couple of pending lawsuits against New Mexico State Athletics, it’s hard to predict the future past this school year.  There’s a real question about what happens to Softball after Coach Rodolph leaves.  I’m also wondering how much patience AD Moccia going to show with Coach Sanchez and Football.  Now that the Aggies are in a conference, they can’t afford to be bad for long.  Mario sounded defiant when Coach Kill left that the program and said they would not regress.  The other teams feel reasonably set for a while, barring coaching departures.  We’ll see what the future brings.

 

NM State Aggies vs Liberty Lady Flames Volleyball 10-26-24

Once again (9-21-24), my dad and his friend, Lamae, joined me for Aggie Volleyball.  I had mentioned to dad that beforehand there were a couple of college football games on at the same time.  The early game turned out to be a blowout and dad figured the next would be as well (which was correct).  He wanted to go to volleyball with his friend more anyway.  Lamae was pretty excited to go again.    

 

It was a bit of a light crowd for this early Saturday afternoon (463).  There was at least one girls team sitting on the sidelines.  Also sitting on the sidelines was unfortunately yesterday’s Aggie high scorer, Yasso Amin.  I didn’t see her legs wrapped up, but she was moving gingerly when she was walking.  At first, Yasso was laid out at the end of the bench and seemed kind of lonely.  Nicole Briggs, who also didn’t play today, but was suited up to play, went over and had a serious-looking talk with her.  Maybe, she was giving her some encouragement.  During the match, Yasso was called over to sit by the coaches.  In the final set, she was standing with the reserves. 

 

There were a couple of other interesting people on the sidelines.  The pretty photographer girl from Baseball last season was at the press table.  I hadn’t seen her here before.  On the bench with the Aggies was a little teen girl.  I have no idea who she was.  Coach Jordan chatted with her amicably before the game.  He’s pretty good with kids (as long as they’re not playing for him).  On court, Makayla Martinez started in place of Yasso.  Today, like yesterday, we did have a lovely live version of the Anthem.  Two guys sitting by the court were back as well from yesterday.  They were wielding large inflatable mallets for some reason.  (And I'm a bit jealous they're hanging out with the team.)     

 

Set 1

The Aggies got off to a quick start against the Liberty Lady Flames.  Starr Williams got the first Aggie kill at 3-0 Aggies.  Starr got the next kill a couple of points later.  5-2 Aggies, Kacia Brown had a big overpass slap.  Mari Sharp got the next kill at 7-3.  Maggie Lightheart (our sweetheart) rotated in.  8-3 Aggies, Ashley Herman got her first kill.

 

Liberty then went on a run.  They got to within 8-7 after a carry call (I think).  10-7 Aggies, Kacia rotated in to serve and hit the tape and the ball fell over for an ace.  Then Maggie got her first kill by painting the sideline.  Kacia served up another ace.  The reserves yelled, “Ole!”  Maggie got another kill.  Mari took off from the backcourt and dropped in a kill from orbit.  15-7 Aggies, Maggie had a tip kill going into the Media timeout.  The reserves were going crazy. 

 

Aleka Darko came in after the break.  Ashley added another kill, before Liberty got a kill on their side.  That was an eight-point run for the Aggies.  16-9 Aggies, Kamryn Bacus made a nice solo block on Ash for Liberty.  Lady Flamer Kate Gammer put in an ace on the next point.  Maggie broke their run quick with a kill on a touch.  Starr tooled a block for a kill, then Nellie Reese aced on serve.

 

19-10 Aggies, Liberty took a timeout.  Dad and Lamae were both standing and waving for the t-shirt toss in the break.  Mari had a kill after the break.  Darian Markham had a net serve right after.  I could see the Liberty reserves pounding the floor before that serve.  They’re a spirited bunch.  Mari had a kill and then won a joust at the net on the next point.  The Aggies took the set, 25-13, as Mari and Kacia combined on a block.  

 

Set 2: Aggies 1, Lady Flames 0

Aleka started the Aggie scoring with a kill, 1-1.  2 all was a point with a long rally.  Starr made a save over the press table and finished the point with a kill.  Kacia and Mari each had solo blocks at 3-2 Aggies.  Kills by Mari, Kacia, and Ashley gave the team a 6-2 lead forced an early timeout by Liberty.

 

The Aggies continued to pile on.  9-4 Aggies, Maggie had what I’d call an “intimidation block,” as the attacker fired into the net as Maggie jumped up in front of her.  Nellie dished out another ace.  13-5 Aggies, Maggie painted the backline.  This was followed up with her and Aleka making a block.  15-6 Aggies, possibly the best moment of the match, Makayla aced and PA Ed called her “Mighty Mouse!”  I don’t know if that’s her team nickname or if Ed just coined it.  The normally stoic Makayla did have a small reaction to it.

 

15-8 Aggies, Mari was blocked on this point.  Darian had an off-court save before the block.  Kacia put in a kill and Rilen aced to draw another Liberty timeout at 18-10.  Out of the break, Ashley had two more kills.  Unfortunately after, Kacia and Mari accidentally deferred to one another on a dig and let it drop between them.  The Coach chugged an entire bottle of Maalox on the sidelines.     

 

No problem.  Maggie came back with a kill.  22-14 Aggies, both teams traded service errors.  23-16 Aggies, Aleka and Starr made a huge, crowd-pleasing block.  The fans went wild.  Kills by Starr and Kacia finished off the set, 25-19 Aggies.

 

Set 3: Aggies 2, Lady Flames 0

Shiyazh Pete, our Aggie Football offensive line star, had said yesterday that he planned on coming to today’s game.  He showed up at the end of the second set.  (At nearly 7ft tall, he’s not hard to spot.)  Shiyazh had been disappointed yesterday that he didn’t get the souvenir NM State flag giveaway.  Mine had been sitting a drawer since I’d gotten one.  I brought it along today and gave it to him.  (I hope that’s not an NCAA violation given that it was a giveaway item.)

 

It was halftime when I went over to him.  I asked if he’d entered the “Grand in the Stands” sweepstakes for students.  He had and was eagerly looking forward to it.  So were the Aggie girls.  They were anxiously looking on from courtside as the name was drawn.  Alas, another student in the stands won.  The girls and Shiyazh were all visibly disappointed.  I told Shiyazh I’d bring my dad and Lamae over to meet him after the game, before I returned to my seat.

 

Back to play, 2-0 Aggies, might have been the longest rally of the match.  The Aggies took it after some ferocious battling at the net.  Mari followed that with a kill.  Rilen and Ashley rotated in.  I noticed in this game, Rilen always holds Ash’s hand and leads her out to the court.  It’s so cute.  It’s like little kids running to the playground.  For that matter, there were two little ball girls at midcourt wearing what looked like match plaid pajama bottoms.  Every so often, they’d do these synchronized dance moves to the music.  You had to smile.

 

Kacia teamed up with Ash and then Mari on blocks.  Kacia then had a kill off a great set by Rilen.  7-2 Aggies, Kacia had an overpass kill.  The girl was on fire!  9-2, a Liberty player had a nice free ball save over the table across the court to put the ball back in play.  However, the play was blown dead without continuing.  It had looked good.  Based on the call (and a similar call right after), the ball either hit the antenna going over or went to the outside of the antenna. 

 

10-3 Aggies, Maggie had a touch kill.  She was doing awesome in relief.  11-4, Ash with a kill.  It was like the Aggies were taking target practice.  Maggie and Aleka had a block, but after, Liberty rattled off four-straight points off of bad plays by the Aggies.  Coach Jordan took his first timeout of the game.  You could see that coming.  He’d been standing the sideline with his arms crossed and his back to the court.

 

Out of the break, the Aggies had two awkward digs on the point, but Starr won it with an offspeed kill.  Mari and Kacia added kills, Kacia and Starr had a block, Ash tooled a block, and Maggie had a kill to make it 18-11 Aggies.  Timeout Liberty.  That was no help for them.  Kacia went “Boom!” with a kill.  Liberty players made two off-court saves on the point.  The Aggies were the first to 20 with a huge kill by Kacia.  Again, Liberty players made a diving off-court save and some good digs on the point.  They weren’t losing because they weren’t hustling. 

 

Liberty took the point at 21-16, as Nellie and Maggie missed a connection on a set.  Aleka had an overpass kill.  On the next point, a player dropped something on court.  Aleka picked it up and tucked it away, so I’m assuming it wasn’t gum.  (I’ve seen that happen.)  Aleka scored on the next point.  Mia Fox came in and she would finish it off with an overpass kill.  The Aggies would take the set, 25-17, and the match, 3-0.

 

And Lamae and my dad took off like a shot.  I think told them I was going to introduce them to Shiyazh.  I guess their story will now someday be: I almost met Shiyazh Pete, NFL Hall of Famer.  (No jinx.  No jinx.)  I went over and wished him luck on his game on Tuesday.  Another fan came over and did the same.  Once again, both teams met in a prayer circle on court.  Afterward, I told Shiyazh he should go down to the court and see how Yasso was doing.  He agreed and went down to her.  I took off immediately, since I had potentially lost my ride.  Luckily, they didn’t leave without me.  Lamae had stopped to buy a Volleyball shirt.      

This was a pretty quick match as there were no challenges and only one Aggie timeout.  The hitting percentage was down for both teams from yesterday, but the Aggies still had a decided advantage at .299 to .032.  They led 42 to 23 in kills, 5 to 2 in aces, and 10 to 5 in blocks.  The magic number was 8 today.  Lady Flamers Kamryn Bacus and Kate Gammer, and Aggies Mari Sharp, Kacia Brown, Ashley Herman, and Maggie Lightheart all had 8 kills each.  Kacia also had 5 blocks.  The Aggies had 5 aces to 9 service errors.  Is that an acceptable ratio?  Ask the Coach.  The Aggies really took care of business on this home stand without dropping a set in four matches.

 

 

I must do some additional gushing over my sweetheart, Maggie.  In the last two matches (10-18-24 and 10-19-24), in very limited play time, she looked really good.  Today, Maggie hit .462 and looked like she could have started.  In fact, that was why I was encouraging her during autographs (10-6-24).  There’s probably a lot of other teams she could be starting for next season and I’m afraid she’ll leave me . . . err . . . us.  It’s not good that Yasso was injured and I hope she’s back quick, but some good came out of it.

 

I was so happy this match only lasted three sets; I was starving.  At Lamae’s suggestion, we went to Bubba’s for pizza.  I had forgotten that I’d gotten her and dad pizza there recently.  We ordered a Meaty Meat, which embarrassed me to no end to say, but it was very good.  After we came in, Assistant Coach Battle and Grad Assistant Lia Mosher came and sat at a nearby table.  I went over and congratulated them on the win, but didn’t bother them with any questions.  After I told Lamae who they were, she went over after the meal and told them how much she enjoyed the match.

 

Bonus Coverage: Via the local news, UTEP and WKU played this weekend as well, battling for first place in conference.  WKU remains unbeaten in conference, but it was a near thing on Saturday.  That match went the full five.  These two may be on a collision course for a conference tournament final rematch.  Can the Aggies pull it together to crash the party?

NM State Aggies vs Liberty Lady Flames Volleyball 10-25-24

This is not going to be the most comprehensive Volleyball match review between the Aggies and the Liberty Lady Flames.  When I walked into the concourse of the Pan-Am Center, I ran into Shiyazh Pete of the Football team.  He recognized me and we ended up sitting together and chatting.  Thus, I only have two pages of notes for the match.  That might be okay, because this wasn’t the most dramatic sporting event ever.

 

For conversation, I passed along whatever I knew about the team and volleyball in general.  I credited Shiyazh’s return to play for the dramatic win last week.  He graciously called it a “team effort,” which it was.  Shiyazh was buzzing that Kennesaw State had just beaten Liberty, who had been playing very well.  I think that has given the Aggies some hope.  The Aggies’ next opponent is FIU, whom UTEP just beat.  I’d listened to that game.  I made sure to tell him that Miner fans were now looking forward to playing the Aggies to save their season.  They’re also keen on going to the Mountain West conference to get away from playing the Aggies in conference.

 

We chatted on variety of other subjects and some of them were touchy.  Much like asking Mya Hammack about Thalia Chaverria, since I was talking to an actual Navajo Indian, I had to ask what he thought about the name change for the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins.  Shiyazh had a fairly nuanced take, as befitting a Communications major leaning towards politics. 

 

He agreed with the change in general, thinking it was offending some people, however Shiyazh also said, “They certainly played better when they were the Redskins.”  I did tell him that both teams were actually named after Indian players on the teams and that I thought the name change was erasing Native Americans from the culture.  He didn’t know that history part and kind of agreed that the name change had a cultural cost to it to Indian pride.          

 

Shiyazh was there to see Yasso Amin, whom he’d “hung out” with.  He wasn’t sure of their status.  “Was there anybody else with you two?”  “No.”  “Then it was date.”  She saw him in crowd behind the bench (an easy-to-spot guy at nearly 7ft).  She tried to throw him a souvenir ball in the player introductions.  In spite of his height, Shiyazh just missed catching it outright.  He caught it on a bounce in front of a kid going for it.  He gave it to him.  I said, “Yasso would approve of that.”

 

Quickly talking about the team (why I’m actually here and writing), Kacia Brown now has bright red hair.  I didn’t recognize her for a minute.  Ryleigh Whitekettle wasn’t back playing.  (Now I’m really wondering what she was smiling about after the last game.)  Nicole Briggs was back playing and starting, so I assume she’s okay.  Yasso was also back as a starter.  It was a sort of light crowd tonight at 543. 

 

Set 1

This is probably going to be a bit sparse.  I was taking notes, but with little extra detail.  (It’s hard to do this and have a conversation at the same time.)  Liberty got out in front early.  The Aggies didn’t panic.  They distributed kills around Yasso, Starr Williams, and Kacia (twice).  8-7 Liberty, Ashley Herman and Nicole came up with a big block.  Mari Sharp tied it at 10 with a kill flying in from the backcourt. 

 

Nicole had a block on the next point to give the Aggies the lead and they kept it from there.  Mari went “Boom!” on a kill and gave the Aggies a 20-17 lead.  Liberty took a timeout.  They did mount a comeback and get it to 21-20.  Coach Jordan took a timeout.  Yasso came back with a kill, along with Nicole.  Mari had a block to get it to set point.  Makayla Martinez finished it off, 25-20, with an ace.

        

Set 2: Aggies 1, Lady Flames 0

A lady came up from the Booster section to talk to Shiyazh.  She was impressed with the Kennesaw State win, as well.  The Hot Pan Am Girl came up the stairs with a handheld camera a few times during the match.  Shiyazh was strangely shy about being on Flex Cam.  I asked if he knew her and he said he thought her name was Megan.  Not that I plan on meeting her, but “Hot Pan Am Girl” is tiring to type, so we’ll go with “Megan” from here on.

 

2-0 Aggies, Starr painted a shot into a corner.  The call was challenged, but confirmed.  From there, the Flames went into the lead.  5-3 Liberty, the Coach challenged the call that a shot was in.  During the break, the Liberty reserves sang out to Sweet Caroline.  In the first set, I’d seen them put their arms out and fly around in a circle after a play.  That was cute.  The call stood.

 

Liberty added to their lead with an ace, but after Rilen Garcia fisted a loose ball and it fell in for a kill, 6-4 Liberty.  That was kind of lucky.  Next, Yasso had one of her signature “no-look” kills, followed by a kill by Starr.  The score again tied at 10 off a Liberty net violation. 

 

The score stayed tight.  It tied at 12 after a bad Aggie set missed a hitter.  Liberty tied it at 13, as a ball hit the overhead unit.  It was tied at 14, when Yasso was called for a roof.  Yasso came right back with a couple of kills and Liberty took a timeout at 18-14 Aggies.  Liberty took a couple of points, but kills by Yasso, Nicole, Starr, and another ace by Makayla took it to 23-18 Aggie.  Liberty took another timeout and they closed in to 24-21.  The Aggies took a timeout and finished it off with a slam by Starr, 25-21.          

 

Set 3: Aggies 2, Lady Flames 0

I noticed Shiyazh’s nachos under the seat and said they were probably cold by now.  He didn’t think much of them anyway.  He was headed for the concessions in the concourse when I met him.  He’d offered to buy me something there, but I’d told him I’d treat.  Then I thought to ask if that would be an NCAA violation.  Shiyazh admitted it probably would be.  I’d kind of wondered about that.

 

Tess Fuqua on the bench stood up and I noticed her knee was wrapped up.  Shiyazh knew her and said she’d torn her ACL recently.  Was she practicing and got hurt or something else happened?  I mentioned that when I got her autograph, I hadn’t told her that she had the best hair on the team, because her mom was in front me.  Shiyazh did not approve of me wanting to flirt with her.  He also took a look at my notes and couldn’t read them.  I can’t either sometimes.

 

The Aggies went down a couple of points to start.  Yasso tied it up on a block at 5 all and tied it up again at 6 with a kill.  Kacia also put in 3 kills early.  The Aggies started pulling away.  At 9-6 Aggies, the call was challenged by Liberty but upheld.  At 15-9 Aggies, after a tip kill by Mari, Liberty took a timeout. 

 

Admittedly, I missed a couple of points in conversation here.  The Aggies added to their lead.  Makayla had her third ace at 16-9 Aggies.  Starr and Mari had kills and Liberty took a timeout at 21-13.  Yasso added another kill.  Aleka Darko came in for the first time.  Ashley tooled a block at 22-14.  Finally, Yasso finished it off with a pair of kills, 25-15 and 3-0 Aggies.  On the final point, she had another no-look kill.  Darian also made a great save on the point.  Probably the biggest drama of the final set was PA Ed losing his voice a bit. 

 

Shiyazh and I said, “Goodbye.”  He said he was planning on coming to tomorrow’s match.  My dad and his neighbor, Lamae, are planning on coming with me then.  After the match, both teams came together in a circle on court in prayer.  As Liberty is a Christian university, I guessing they suggested it.  It was a nice touch.   

 

Our name of the match is Autumn Flowers, a middle blocker on the Flames.  Our stat of the match is the hitting percentage.  The Aggies were up .370 to .130.  They were also up 5 to 2 in blocks.  The team had 5 aces with Makayla Martinez scoring 3 of them.  Lady Flamer Kate Gammer led everyone with 17 kills.  Unfortunately for them, she was basically the only one on the team scoring.  Yasso Amin paced the Aggies with 12 kills.  Starr Williams had 10 and Mari Sharp had 9.  Nicole Briggs had 3 blocks.

 

I got home in time to see the end of the Dodgers/Yankees World Series Game 1.  I wasn’t enthusiastic about this matchup of two teams and their giant salaries buying their way to a championship.  I have to admit, it was a very tight, close game.  The Dodgers were down a run and tied it late.  The Yankees took a one run lead into the tenth.  With two on and two out in the bottom, Freddie Freeman took the first pitch he saw into the right field stands.  Dodgers win 6-3. 

 

Okay, not a bad day.  I had Raising Canes for lunch and also got a paleta ice cream bar.  (No terrible self-inflicted bellyache this time, 9-26-24.)  I got to chat with a future NFL player, watch a winning Aggie Volleyball game, and saw the first game of the World Series.  It was on Univision, though.  I still can’t get Fox.  The Spanish game call was fine. 

NM State Aggies vs FIU Panthers Volleyball 10-19-24

I woke up this morning to bright sunshine coming through my window but the sounds of a rain shower.  We haven’t gotten rain here in a couple of months.  While I got ready for today’s volleyball rematch of the New Mexico State Aggies and the FIU Panthers, it became overcast with heavy clouds.  Oddly right before I left, everything cleared off in like five minutes.  I drove to the Pan-Am Center in bright sunshine.

 

It was obvious in the parking lot that it was going to be a lighter crowd than yesterday (attendance 684).  I could still smell the morning’s rain inside the building.  There was a girls team sitting on the opposite sideline.  They were wearing smart-looking camo pullovers.  (I was in camo shirt, too.)  However, nobody was styling like a guy behind the Aggie bench, who was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and chugging a beer.  This guy was enjoying himself.  Today’s Cheerleaders were pretty enthusiastic, even for cheerleaders.  I think it was a different group than last night.  They were all girls, one guy, and Pistol Pete.

 

The Aggies were wearing black today, though their liberos were in pink.  Ashley Herman and Ryleigh Whitekettle were dancing on sidelines to the PA music.  For the starters, Makayla Martinez was again in for Yasso Amin.  Aleka Darko was in for middle blocker, Nicole Briggs.  I’d noticed Nicole sitting down a lot yesterday, whenever she came out of the game.  She was still suited up to play, but might have a minor injury. 

 

Set 1

Starr Williams got the first Aggie kill at 2-0 Aggies.  “Boom!” shouted the reserves.  Kacia Brown got the next right after.  FIU made a nice save at the net and a kill on the backline at 3-1 Aggies, but had a net violation on the next play.  Rilen Garcia followed that with an ace.  “Ole!” shouted the reserves. 

 

FIU got the next couple of points off of kills.  The Aggies were solo blocking at the net and it wasn’t working.  Ashley got the Aggies back on track with a kill, but a service error gave the serve back.  7-4 Aggies, Yasso tooled a block.  Ash had an attack error at 9-5, though Aleka had a nice save at the net on the point.  9-6 Aggies, FIU blocked Ash, but she fired it into them for a kill on the next point. 

 

11-7 Aggies, FIU had a net violation, but Mari went over the line for a foul right after.  Makayla had a great pancake save during that point.  14-9 Aggies, Darian Markham saved an overpass kill, as the Aggies took the point.  FIU got a nice kill to get the serve back, but on the next serve, Darian ducked underneath it and it went long.  15-10 Aggies and that took us to the Media timeout.

 

17-12 Aggies, FIU took this point.  Rilen hustled across the court for a dig on it.  Yasso had a block and her and Aleka had a block at 20-14.  Mari made a great off-court save on the point.  FIU took a timeout.  Makayla served into a defender for an ace at 21-14.  The Aggies closed out the set with a block by Mari and Kacia and then kills by each of them.  25-16 Aggies.     

 

Set 2: Aggies 1, Panthers 0

Aleka started the set with a kill, but FIU got the next two points to take their first lead of the weekend.  Aleka and Mari got back-to-back kills and FIU had a foul to make it 4-2 Aggies.  Panther Jillian Huckabey came from the backcourt with a flying kill at 5-4 Aggies.  Ash split the defenders on a kill at 6-5 Aggies, but Panther Travel Morris (I like that name) had an overpass dunk to put FIU up, 8-7.

 

The scored tied at 9 after an FIU net violation.  The score tied up at 10 when an FIU set fell untouched between four players.  Oops.  (Coach Jordan would have taken everyone off the court and replaced them if that had happened to the Aggies.)  FIU took the lead again, 11-10, on an overpass dunk.  They took the next point on a long rally after Starr fired out.  At one point on the play, the ball rolled up and over the net. 

 

Aggie setter, Nellie Reese, broke the run with a well-timed dump shot.  Starr tied it at 12 with a kill.  FIU went back up by two again, 14-12, though that point was challenged, but upheld.  FIU served out on the next point and that was challenged and upheld.  Ashley had the equalizer kill at 14 all, but Rilen served out to put FIU back up, 15-14 FIU.  That took us to the Media timeout.  On the other side of the court, I noticed Xitlaly Hernandez from the Soccer team.  She was going crazy trying to get a giveaway hat tossed to her.  She got one.  Her and another fan, who also got a hat, had some sort of exchange and I have no idea what that was about. 

 

Ashley tied it at 15 coming out of the break and put the Aggies up with another kill.  FIU retied it on a kill.  Panther Courtney O’Brien made a diving off-court save on the play.  An FIU service error gave the Aggies back the lead, but Travel Morris made an overpass kill to tie it at 17.  Ash put the Aggies back up with another kill.  At 19-17 Aggies, FIU took a timeout.

 

FIU got the next point with a double touch call on Aleka.  Coach Jordan ran over to the ref to disagree to no avail.  The Panthers tied it up at 19 and the Aggies took a timeout.  The Aggies took the next point on a four touches call.  This was challenged and reversed, which resulted in a replay of the point.  Aleka took advantage of that to get a tip kill. 

 

22-19 Aggies, Makayla aced and FIU took a timeout.  The Aggies took the next point, though Panther libero, Mandi Morioka, made a nice dive save on the play.  Makayla aced again on the backline to take the Aggies to set point.  Her serves seemed to be going out, but were aimed right at a defender, who had to dig it.  Mari converted by tapping in a kill.  Aggies take the set, 25-20.          

 

Set 3: Aggies 1, Panthers 0

Darian received the opening serve of the set and overpassed it over the net, where it landed in for a kill.  The reserves cheered.  Darian grinned.  The second point went to the Aggies after a long rally and FIU hitting out.  Starr made it 3-0 by tooling a block.  It was 4-0 after another long rally and FIU hit out.  Starr and Kacia made two blocks on the point.  5-0 Aggies, Kacia made a solo block.  The run finally ended on a service error by Darian. 

 

FIU made a run.  FIU aced at 6-4 Aggies.  Ash came back with a kill and Mari aced.  9-4 Aggies, Yasso had a kill.  In spite of this, the Coach was fuming.  He seemed to be waiting for a screw up to start yelling.  Mari had a kill, but then the Aggies had a net violation.  Surprisingly, the Coach did not erupt immediately.  11-6 Aggies, Ashley got another kill.  Her and Rilen came out and the Coach grabbed them for a quick angry chat.  Ash was having such a good game, she clearly didn’t really hear him.    

 

12-7 Aggies, Yasso tooled a block.  The girls in camo started doing some impressive cheering in the third set.  At 13-7 Aggies, FIU took a timeout.  In the break, PA Ed announced that Darian had just become the Aggies’ all-time leader in digs with 1,943.  She got a big round of applause, but seemed to look a bit embarrassed in the huddle from the attention. 

 

Starr and Mari added kills, before the teams traded service errors at 16-9.  Rilen then came in on serve and went on a seven-point run.  Ash had a kill, her and Kacia had a block, and Kacia had an overpass kill, 20-9.  Mia Fox came in, so the Aggies finally had a middle blocker for the game.  She immediately got a kill. 

 

Maggie Lightheart (our sweetheart) came in.  22-9 Aggies, Rilen aced and Bella Garcia came in.  22-10, Rilen had a net serve to end the run.  23-10 Aggies, Maggie had a big kill.  She really made the most of her very limited time on the floor in these two matches.  Kaylee Peterson came in as libero at match point.  The match ended on an FIU net serve.  Aggies win 25-11 and 3-0.

 

FIU was competitive in the second set, but errors kept doing them in.  Their hitting percentage was even worse than yesterday, though so was the Aggies’ (.019% to .248%).  I hesitate to postulate on why this team is so bad, when they look like they should be good.  (I could take an uninformed guess, but I’ll pass.) 

 

Ashley Herman broke out in this game with 11 kills and basically carried the team today.  Mari Sharp had 9 and Starr Williams had 7.  The team had 7 aces!  Makayla Martinez had 3 of them.  This was a good effort by the Aggies against a bad team.  Next up is Liberty, which will be a tougher test.

   

The Aggies huddled up after the match and I genuinely would like to know what was said.  Ryleigh Whitekettle had a giant smile on her face and was saying, “Yes!  Yes!”  Is she cleared to play?  We’ll see.  (Somehow, I’m doubting it, but that’s my best guess.)  After the huddle, the Coach gave a fist bump to little girl with a New Mexico State flag who came down for autographs.  Afterward, Colby Lane on the Panthers came over to Coach Jordan.  She’s a grad student, who previously played for Hawaii.  They had a quick chat that seemed to please the both of them. 

  

It’s been a couple of months since I got the recommendation, but I finally went to Voodoo Burger for lunch.  It’s taken me this long to remember and to be in position to come.  The bun was unique, but the burger itself and the fries were disappointing.  I’ll stick with Legend Burger.                

 

Unfortunate bonus coverage follows regarding Aggie Soccer.  Tonight they had a 4-1 win over Jax State, which was not unfortunate.  Neither was Loma McNeese getting a brace of goals and tying the school record.  What was unfortunate was that I wasn’t there . . . and that I didn’t entirely feel bad about it.  The game probably finished around midnight.

 

Just like this morning, there was some heavy rain in the evening, but also bright sunshine at the same time.  The rain finished and it was near time to go to the game.  Though the skies were still threatening, I talked myself into going saying that the rain was over.  Once at the Soccer Complex, I could see that they were planning on a game, but the teams weren’t out on the field.  A policeman told myself and some other fans that they were in a lightning delay.

 

Yeah, there was a storm coming up from the south spitting lightning.  I did not want to possibly ride that out sitting in my truck waiting for who knows how long.  I went back home, however the storm didn’t materialize then.  (Admittedly, there was also plenty on TV to watch.)  The game started a bit more than an hour after the announced starting time and I felt bad for leaving . . . until about 20 minutes later when the storm hit.  This produced another long delay, but they finally got the rest of the game in.  Loma got the first goal early.  The others came in after the delay. 

 

I missed Mya Hammack’s (my favorite) Senior Day.  I’d tried drawing a sketch of her this week to give to her for today, but none of the attempts were presentable.  I still wasn’t sure if I should go see her or not after the game to congratulate her.  Unfortunately, this was my last opportunity, as I won’t be able to go to the team’s final home game against UTEP.  (I already apologized when I got to chat with her.)  Mya and the other senior girls took out a framed Thalia Chaverria jersey for their ceremony.  That was a nice touch.          

 

So, this was a couple of boring days off, a pair of easy volleyball wins, and a disappointing end to the soccer season for me.  Good luck to Mya and the soccer team with the rest of the season and life after soccer.  (In future posts, I’ll keep track of their games.)  I’ll hopefully be seeing more of the volleyball team on this coming weekend.