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?
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