Wednesday, October 23, 2024

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. 

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