NM State Volleyball Recap 2018 Postseason

Continued from the Regular Season recap.

WAC Tournament

11-23-18 vs UMKC Roos

I’m embarrassed to recap this tournament, since I didn’t see or hear any of it.  Frankly, I’m not paying ESPN two-cents for anything, much less their streaming service.  I admit that this does hit me where I live though. 

For their first match in the semi-finals, the Aggies beat UMKC 3-1.  UMKC had six aces in first set, but the Aggies got it together after that.  Megan Hart, Savannah Davison, and Ashley Anselmo had double-digit kills.  Tatyana Battle made two incredible saves on one point and made the NCAA Volleyball Twitter feed highlights.  They’d face Utah Valley in the championship, who blew away top seed UTRGV 3-0.  I thought that Utah Valley was a good team, but I wonder what happened to the Vaqueros.  Adam Young was doing the call for the WAC and ESPN 3.  It looked like a good crowd there in Bakersfield even with the home team eliminated. 

11-24-18 vs Utah Valley Wolverines

A day after the Saturday night match on Sunday evening, it finally occurred to me that the local TV news would likely be covering the Aggies in a championship game.  If I’d thought of that Saturday night (and could tear myself away from a good episode of Babylon 5), I think the match would have been over by the time the sports news came on, and I could have gotten the story on three different stations.  On Sunday, I was lucky that one of stations repeated the results.  I was not so lucky that it was a low reception station.

I flipped over right as the Sports was starting on KVIA.  A wave of nervous anticipation suddenly swept over me.  After the first story, they were doing the volleyball story.  I was holding my breath.  I didn’t have any sound, but could make out the digitally scrambled images.  There in the titles I could see, “Aggies win,” and an image of the girls in sunglasses posing with the trophy.  I exhaled.  That moment was way too nerve-wracking, especially with the bad reception.  I watched again during the late night news and they showed the girls at their NCAA bracket watch party.  At that point, I was definitely sure they’d won.  I wish I could have heard the interviews with Coach Jordan and Tatyana Battle.

I got the paper from my parents the next day with a recap.  It was really detailed about the championship match with the Utah Valley Wolverines.  They probably figured nobody saw it because it was on ESPN pay-Internet.  The Aggies dropped the first set, won the second in extra points, and then won next two to take the match 3-1. 

Halle Razzo and Briana Ainsworth were mentioned for going on long serving runs.  Tatyana Battle, Savannah Davision, and Megan Hart all came up with big kills.  Brigette Lowe hit the championship-winning shot.  Taty and Sav made the all-tournament team.  Megan Hart was the tournament MVP (and she’s beautiful, of course).  She had 13 kills and 10 blocks in the championship game. 

I don’t know I would have gone to the watch party if I’d known about it ahead of time.  I would have been nervous about going.  I’m not a booster; I just go to the games.  But this time, I don’t know if I could have resisted giving everyone congratulations in person.  If a situation like this comes up again, I’ll think seriously about going. 

NCAA Tournament

11-29-18 vs Oregon Ducks

I was on pins and needles for about a half-hour as KRUX radio was still broadcasting music past the announced start time of the coverage.  Thankfully, a DJ came on and said that the match was delayed, as Baylor and Hawaii’s match were running long and going into a fifth set.  (Baylor won.)

 

In the pregame, Adam Young interviewed AD Mario Moccia.  Mario sat next to Randy Johnson at the airport there.  Johnson’s daughter, Willow, plays for Oregon.  She’s also a lefty like her old man.  An ex-NFL player’s daughter plays on the Ducks too.  Adam and Mario were both seriously jealous of Oregon’s new arena there ($250M-worth of jealous).  With the tournament seeding, Oregon was ranked #15 in nation. 

Mario offhandedly mentioned that Tatyana Battle was playing with a broken foot.  I keep hearing this every so often, but I’ve seen no evidence of it.  She’s been awesome basically all season.  Taty’s often smiling, so she doesn’t seem to be in terrible pain.  I don’t know how she’s playing so well and being so graceful with a broken foot. 

I was hearing the Aggie fight song in the background.  Was the Aggie band there?  In spite of the excellent facilities, Adam was broadcasting the game seated behind backline, three levels up.  He estimated a great crowd there between three and four thousand.

 

Though at work, I was able to listen to whole match.  I had stuff to do away from my desk, but still had plenty to do there, as I’m still trying to catch up from taking some days off this month.  I e-mailed Ron at the start of the match.  He followed along using statcast.  I never got it to come up for me.  One last note, Adam mentioned that a couple other WAC Volleyball teams were playing in lower level tournaments, including Cal Baptist.  UTRGV rejected an automatic bid to a tournament for winning the regular season.  I’m sure their players were pleased by that.  (I guess the Aggies did that last year as they won the regular season and didn’t go anywhere either.)

Set 1

The link to the PAC-12 video feed started working right as the match started.  Unfortunately, it was a pay-service, so all I got was a four-minute preview.  Nice camera work.  The court was indeed beautiful with a golden silhouette of a forest superimposed on it.  Brigette Lowe was starting and she looked uncharacteristically very serious.  Julianna Salanoa hammered a kill on the first swing of the match.  She’s from the Northwest area.  She had family and friends there in the crowd.  That’s about all of the video I got to see.

The Aggies took an early lead.  At 9-4 Aggies, Oregon took a timeout.  The Ducks went on a run to get it within one.  The Aggies looked good on several points.  Savannah Davison got a solo block, Jules made an overpass kill, and Natalie Mikels got a dump kill, but Ducks came back to take the lead 13-15.  Timeout Aggies.  Kiley Tonge and Krysten Garrison came in late.  Garrison was actually working as the setter.  By 22-24, the Aggies had fought off four set points.  Oregon took a timeout.  Sav had an out serve coming out of the timeout and the Ducks took it 22-25.  Julianna had five kills in the set.

Set 2: Ducks 1, Aggies 0

This set stayed close.  Jules kept racking up the kills.  Oregon went up by three, but the Aggies would tie it at 13.  The Aggies took the lead, 15-14, before the media timeout. Tatyana Battle served up an ace to put the Aggies up 3.  She served another to increase it to four.  Timeout Oregon.  Out of that, Taty put in another ace, 18-14.  Megan Hart got a kill to make it 20-15.  Ashley Anselmo got a kill after several rejections earlier.  Jules brought it to set point with kill #11, 24-16.  The Aggies closed it out, 25-18.

Set 3: Aggies 1, Ducks 1

Oregon went up four early.  Nat got another dump kill at 9-11 Ducks.  During the match, the Oregon setter actually made a few attacks.  It was something about the system they use that allowed it.  I hadn’t seen anyone use that before.  It was 11-15 Ducks at the media timeout.  13-18 an Oregon ace prompted an Aggie timeout.  The Aggies did start mounting a comeback.  Sav got an ace at 15-20.  Tatyana began asserting herself and started getting kills late, but the Ducks took it 21-25.

Set 4: Ducks 2, Aggies 1

Garrison started the set.  Nat began it with an ace, 1-0 Aggies.  The Aggies went up three, but the Ducks went on a four-point run with Willow Johnson on serve to make it 6-8. Timeout Aggies.  Cat Kelly was brought in for the first time.  I’m glad she was able play today.  Willow and Oregon continued on.  6-13 Oregon, timeout Aggies again.  Willow finished her run with an ace before the Aggies finally sided out.  That was an 11-point run.  The Oregon crowd gave her a standing ovation.

Briana Ainsworth dove into the media table trying for a save at 7-18.  The senior was going all out.  The coach probably could have used another timeout.  I’ve seen coaches use their challenges as timeouts (11-18-18).  Either the opportunity never presented itself, or the coach didn’t think of it, or (more likely) things were too far gone to bother.  9-23 Jordan Pleasants came in to serve.  10-23 Analyssa Acosta came in.  The circumstances weren’t good, but I was very happy for her to finally get into another game.  11-24 Jules got her final kill.  11-25 and 3-1 Oregon was the final.

There wasn’t an interview with Coach Jordan afterward.  Adam said he didn’t want the coach to bother to visiting him “in the nosebleeds.”  Julianna Salanoa was the Aggie standout with 15 kills.  Next year, we’re bringing her family and friends in for every game.  Tatyana Battle came on late with 14 kills.  Savannah Davison had 11 and Megan Hart had 7.  I think one of the Ducks had 18 kills to lead everyone, but without statcast, it was too much trouble to track down her name.

Summary

Sum up the whole season?  This is kind of intimidating. 

We’ll start with the coach, Mike Jordan.  First, he’s done a great job of recruiting and training players.  Second, after losing five seniors last season and a couple of early injuries this season, the coach always seemed to be scrambling to put out a lineup.  Last season was certainly good training for that, as multiple injuries had hobbled the team.  Having the conference player of the year (KC Tohm) and the libero of year (Ari Sierra) helped to lead those Aggies to a regular season championship. 

This time though, he didn’t have those stars, but what Coach Jordan did have this time was quality depth in the front line.  With ten five-set matches, they needed that.  This advantage became a hydra for other teams:  stop one girl, two more sprang up to replace her.  This really showed itself early in the win against Arizona (9-8-18).  Coach Jordan became Coach Maddon from his beloved Cubs and went mad scientist with his lineup, confusing the heck out of the Wildcats.  That sort of became the pattern for the season, though it became much more orderly later on.  The coach would change out players to ride whoever was working best in that day’s match.  All the girls have different styles, but there was little drop off in the quality of play.  By the end of the season, they’d had enough experience to all be excellent options. 

 

For the players individually, we’ll start with the seniors.  Captain Tatyana Battle had star talent and showed it at times, but she was injured for most of the season (though she never showed it).  So, Taty only led the team in kills and digs, but at full strength she might have been like Ragni Knudsen from UTRGV, conference MVP.  Taty was always the main option for big points, but this Aggie team actually didn’t need their whole offense going through one player.  They had plenty of great options, but Taty was capable of taking over.  (Go back and look at the regular season recap.  She’s mentioned several times.)    

Setter Briana Ainsworth split time with Natalie Mickels to great effect.  The both of them did well in assists and serving.  Bri had some memorable serving runs.  Then there’s Bri’s wonderful smile.  You can’t put a game stat on it, but it’s real for the fans and her teammates.  Both her and Taty, obviously very serious about volleyball, seemed to have a light-hearted attitude.  I have no idea how their practices went, but I’d think these two set the tone for this team. 

Next year, this team should again have an embarrassing number of great players.  They all had their shining moments.  The Aggies have seven girls (in my opinion) capable of getting double-digit kills and making blocks in any match.  They’ll lose Tatyana, but will hopefully get Lia Mosher and Brielle Sterns back.  They also had several servers capable of getting aces on a regular basis.  

The one shaky area of the team was libero.  Ari Sierra spoiled us for two seasons.  In spite of having several defensive players on the team, nobody was being groomed for the position during that time.  The coach tried several options before Halle Razo won the job, but it did take some growing.  Next season, Halle should start off as a good libero and improve from there.  (She was also good on serve.)  I get the impression that Kiley Tonge will be seeing more time next season from what I saw by the end of this season. 

As I mentioned before, Natalie Mikels was great this season as setter.  Her serve was just lethal at times.  Freshman Krysten Garrison was used as a hitter and a setter in spots this year.  Given how many hitters and blockers this team has, she might be the other setter next year.

Let’s talk hitters and blockers.  Savannah Davison was a revelation this season.  I’d seen her in the Scrimmage last year (8-19-17) and she looked good, but was injured for the rest of the season.  She was ready this year.  From the get-go, Sav was out playing nearly every point.  The coach had a lot of confidence in her.  She looked really good, but would have those “freshman moments” from this being her first season playing.  It’s worth noting that two seasons ago, Tatyana was considered a “defensive liability.”  Look how she turned out.

Sav’s low point was that UTRGV match here (10-27-18).  She might have been about to lose her starting spot to Cat Kelly, who looked ready to play more, but Cat fell very ill before the next match.  To Savannah’s credit, she came back a better, more focused player.  I wonder if she’ll be the captain next year.  I also wonder about her serving.  She generally got better as the season went along, but was replaced pretty regularly.  She also used three different styles to serve.  It’s an area to work on if she’s going to be captain.

As far as other blockers and hitters go, oh my goodness, this team is loaded.  I hope Cat Kelly will be okay next season, because Sav and Cat (sounds like a TV show) together on court on a regular basis would be a tremendous combination.  Cat could really kill it.  I only saw her serve once and she looked okay.  She’ll need to work on that if she’s playing more.  Julianna Salanoa is turning into the star she looks like with that powerful build.  Not to mention, Jules has a great winning smile.  Opposing teams couldn’t ignore Ashley Anselmo, as she was a steady supporting force.  Brigette Lowe really shined at the WAC Tournament.  It was the culmination of her getting more regular playing time.

The team lost two middle blockers, Lia Mosher and Brielle Sterns, at the beginning of the season.  Both of them looked good last year, so hopefully they’ll pick up where they left off next year.  Freshman Lindsay Blakey seemed really tentative attacking, but when she was in and took a full swing, she looked good.  You can’t teach height and Lindsay’s got that. 

What this left in the middle was Megan Hart.  Basically, combining her with any of the hitters was a good combination.  Her kills so often seemed big and demoralizing for the other team.  It was just majestic watching her slap them down, like she was bitch-slapping the other team along with the ball.  She was really good on serve too, though she was getting taken out for it quite a bit later in the season.  The coach perhaps wanted to keep her out of the back row?  (I don’t know how volleyball rotation, positioning, and substitutions work.)  I’d keep her away from positions where she might be diving for balls on the floor too (to protect that bad knee).   And (everyone together now for one last time this season), she’s beautiful.   

The strength of the team in depth is also a bit of problem.  Finding playing time for all these talented players was a juggling act this season.  The good news is that they were kept fresh and got game experience, but they probably weren’t being brought to their peak potential.  Some of these girls could be stars on other WAC teams.  If someone asserts themselves as a star next year on this team, the lineup may not have as many substitutions during games.

Overall, I had a great time this season.  It was thrilling and the girls are easy to root for.  I’ll hopefully be over that UTRGV loss by next season.  That’s the drawback about being passionate about a sports team.  As the coach said to the crowd at Senior Day, “You guys are spoiled.”  That’s totally correct.  See you next year.  

NM State Volleyball Recap 2018 Regular Season

It was a heck of an Aggie Volleyball season!  I’ve been doing these recaps for Softball and Baseball for a couple of years.  Since I went to all the home games this season, it seemed like a good idea to do one for Volleyball.  (Tellingly, I didn’t consider doing this for Soccer.  It was a season to forget.)  I wasn’t able to see every game.  I would have had to have been there for some games, since there wasn’t any video or radio for them.  I also missed a couple of games that I didn’t have any or much information on.  

8-18-18 Crimson and White Scrimmage

This is such a great event for the fans.  This year there was the novelty of seeing a guy playing with the team.  Standout freshman, Brielle Sterns, was unfortunately injured before the season even started.  The girls looked good, though the libero position was wide open.  This was the only time I saw freshman Brittany Welch play.  I thought she looked good out there, but she disappeared from the team in late September.  Not knowing what happened to her has been bugging me all season.

8-24-18 at Arizona State

The Aggies won two games at the ASU invitational, but lost here to the Sun Devils.  I thought the team looked flat.  Actually, they were probably tired from having played that morning.

8-31-18 vs Florida Gulf Coast (road)

Next, the girls were in Albuquerque for another invitational.  I hadn’t heard of FGC, but they’re apparently well regarded.  Could the Aggies take them?  We’ll never know.  Lia Mosher was injured in a freak accident in warm ups.  The Aggies were in disorder for the match.  Megan Hart wasn’t herself.  I seem to recall she’d gotten a pain shot this week and hadn’t been able to practice. 

8-31-18 vs Eastern Kentucky (road)

No rest for the Aggies.  Later that afternoon, they had their next match, but at least it was against a winless team.  It ended up being five sets of “not easy.”  The Aggies not only prevailed, but I think several players showed what they were capable of.  Savannah Davison and Julianna Salanoa in particular turned it on.

9-1-18 at New Mexico

Playing in the Pit against their in-state rival, the Aggies had a great straight sets win.  This was unexpected in front of a big crowd (though not all Lobo fans) and especially after the Lobos had beaten FGC last night.  (FGC losing their star player in the first set, might have had something to do with that.  Said girl was from Albuquerque and had been heavily recruited by UNM and NMSU.)  The Aggies showed some potential here.

9-4-18 vs Grambling St

If this had been a Battle of the Bands, it would have been a closer contest.  This was the Aggies’ first home match and resulted in Raising Canes’ coupons for everyone for the sweep.

9-7-18 Springhill Suites Invitational Day 1

Game 1 Montana vs Arizona

I developed a crush on the Montana coach, while Arizona crushed Montana on court.

Game 2 Arizona vs UTEP

Former Aggie, Briana Bustillos, was now playing for the Miners.  I was glad to see her playing.  AZ got a better workout in this match, but then again, they’d played that morning.

Game 3 Aggies vs Montana

I’d noticed how big and tall those Montana girls were in the morning.  They gave the Aggies all they could handle.  The Aggies prevailed in five sets, but the libero position and digging in general seemed like a major problem.

9-8-18 vs Arizona

I admit that I wasn’t expecting a win here.  The Wildcats looked pretty good and the Aggies were a bit disorganized.  The Aggies did have problems.  They went through three liberos and the team had issues with service receiving.  But Coach Jordan went mad scientist with his lineup and seemed to confuse the Wildcats’ Coach Rubio and his players.  I have to single out Megan Hart’s play.  Her height was the Aggies’ main advantage in the match and they rode that to a five-set victory.  This was definitely the biggest Aggie Volleyball win I’ve seen. 

9-9-18 at UTEP

No let down for the Aggies in this straight sets rivalry win.  Briana Ainsworth and Halle Razzo both had long serving runs in the match.

9-14-18 at Arizona

After beating UC-Davis a couple hours earlier, the Aggies were swept in their rematch with AZ on their home court.  The Aggies may have run out of gas about halfway through the match.  Lia Mosher was back playing. 

9-20-18 at Cal Baptist

The Aggies had a tough five-set road loss to the newcomer Lancers.  I give the Aggies credit for forcing it to five sets after losing the first two.  They would also lose a couple days later in five sets to Bakersfield.  This might have been the low point of the season, and certainly the girls must have been exhausted after two five-set matches.

9-27-18 vs Seattle U

Lia Mosher was back out and out for good for the season.  Set 1 went 31-33 Redhawks.  The Aggies came back from a 1-8 deficit in the set.  They would win in four sets anyway.

9-29-18 vs GCU

The girls won in straight sets, but Ashley Anselmo was injured during play.  She kept playing in future games, but wouldn’t be 100% for a while.  Cat Kelly was very good in a relief role.  I got my autographs with the girls afterward.  No phone numbers though.  Sigh. 

10-4-18 at UMKC

The Aggies got a straight sets win on the road against a good team.  They were missing their best player, but it still counts in the standings.  Julianna Salanoa had a great game.

10-18-18 vs Utah Valley

I think I’m skipping a couple of games here.  Cat Kelly had a career game in a five-set win at UTRGV.  The Aggies won here in four sets against Utah Valley.  The visitors really impressed me though.  I think this is the match where Halle Razzo finally definitively won the libero job.

10-20-18 vs CSU-Bakersfield

Jordan George was injured before this game.  She’s had hard luck here with the Aggies.  This was the “Block Party” game, where the Aggies stuffed the daylights out of the Roadrunners.  It was a straight sets win which included an incredible 11-point run by Tatyana Battle on serve.

10-27-18 vs UTRGV

The heartbreak.  In front of their biggest home crowd of the year for the Pack the Pan-Am event, the Aggies lost in five sets.  Their home winning streak was broken at 20 games.  Oh, that terrible first set loss that I am still not over.  The Vaqueros went on a 7-point run with the Aggies holding set point the whole time and won, stunning the large crowd.  This was also the “DT match,” where double touches were the foul call du jour. 

The Aggies really fought back after that demoralizing first set.  Savannah Davison had a rough game and was taken out for more than a set, but after this match, I think she cleaned up a lot of deficiencies in her play.  Cat Kelly had a monster game with 18 kills.    

11-2-18 at Seattle U

Straight sets road win, but Cat Kelly was out starting with this game.  I’d assumed it was an injury, but it was a nasty viral infection.  Team serving shined in this game.  The Aggies would lose a couple of days later at Utah Valley.  I never got any details on this other than they lost in five after winning the first two sets.   

11-8-18 at GCU

The Aggies won in four, but this one never seemed in doubt.  Megan Hart had a great game in kills and blocks.   Julianna Salanoa set an Aggie record with a .700 hitting percentage.  I noticed Brigette Lowe starting here, but it probably began when Cat Kelly went out. 

11-10-18 vs CBU

It was an odd four-set match win for the Aggies as three of the sets were blowouts, one of which went to CBU.  Aggie serving was deadly with 10 aces.  Natalie Mikels shined here.  Tatyana Battle absolutely dominated the third set. 

 

11-15-18 vs UMKC

This battle went five intense sets.  The Aggies started poorly, but finished well and won it.  Tatyana Battle, again, came up huge with 27 kills.  After all these five-setters, thank goodness the Aggies had been using so many players this year.  I think they all improved too with the additional play time.

11-17-18 vs Chicago St

Cat Kelly was back starting, but wasn’t ready to play for the whole match.  The Aggies won in straight sets, but had one of their best sets of the year.  In Set 2, they trailed for the entire set until finally tying it at 24 and then winning in extra points.  This was also Senior Day for Briana Ainsworth and Tatyana Battle.  No!  Don’t leave us!  


Continued in the Postseason Recap

Sports Journal November 21-25, 2018

11-21-18

I went to the wrong game this week.  The Aggie Women’s Basketball team losing on Tuesday was disappointing, but I did enjoy going.  However, the Men’s game on Wednesday versus the Eastern NM Greyhounds was way more entertaining. 

The pregame chatter was interesting.  While this game was against a DII school, Jack Nixon did mention that the Aggies lost a game to Western NM in the 80’s.  His partner and former Aggie player, Justin Hawkins, nearly fell out of his seat.  The first game I heard Hawk doing color, he was a bit stiff, but he loosened up a bunch for this game and really contributed.

AD Mario Moccia was interviewed and asked about in-game promotions.  Tonight, they were having a wiener dog race.  Mario mentioned that he’d done the paper airplane promo that happened at the Women’s game, before at his previous job.  The team was playing Air Force at the time, so that’s how it tied in.  One of the planes somehow hit his boss in the face, who then got angry with him for the promotion.  Mario wants to run a baby race sometime in the future.

Our hero from the Aggies’ win in Albuquerque (11-17-18), AJ Harris, was out tonight with a “tender” ankle.  “I thought he burned his hand off in Albuquerque,” said Jack, referring to AJ’s hot shooting.  Given the nature of this game, I just took a few notes.  The contest started off with an “administrative technical” on ENM for not having their lineup ready.  So the game started with a technical foul shot and then they had the tipoff.

The game was actually close to start off.  Jojo Zamora in a bad slump in the beginning, but kept taking shots and eventually got out of it.  “Here’s Johnny!” Johnny McCants came into game about 10 minutes in to a big cheer.  This was a surprise to everyone except Hawk, who apparently has inside information.  The local kid with the highlight reel is everyone’s favorite.  He missed a dunk to start, but then shot a surprise three and got a block right after. 

Eli Chuha didn’t move in to get in a rebound later.  Hawk came close to saying he was being tentative.  Jack said his positioning on the play was, “More Hollywood than Redlands.”  The Aggies started pulling away, though several players were in foul trouble.  Johnny added another highlight with a slam late.  It was 51-29 Aggies at the half.

I could hear the wiener dog race going on in the background of the halftime show.  I cursed not being there, as the crowd was clearly enjoying it.  I didn’t find any pictures of the event on the Aggies’ social media.  Shame. 

In the second half, McCants had a spectacular rejection.  I assume it was spectacular, because I actually heard the crowd gasp.  It was his third of game.  “All the way from Lehigh Acres!” shouted Jack after a monster jam by freshman Berrick JeanLouis.  He added another one later.  JeanLouis may become another fan favorite.  The final was 92-65 Aggies.  Four Aggies finished the night in double figures.  Before signing off, Jack called over DJ Downs.  I hadn’t seen the marketing assistant around this semester.  He is now working for the Phoenix Suns and was in town visiting.  Good for him.

11-23-18

Happy Black Friday.  I listened to a bit of the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, but I don’t cover the NFL.  Yeah, the league’s gotten some good publicity lately with a 100 point game between the Rams and the Chiefs, but don’t be fooled.  The next time there’s a racial incident in this country or, failing that, just a general media protest against Trump for running for reelection, these guys will be back on their knees and will start disrupting the games themselves.  (They don’t even have a choice in the matter anymore, like other celebrities, they will be forced to do what they’re told to by the Agenda Lords.) 

I don’t cover hockey for a different reason than football.  I love the sport, but I don’t get to see enough to really have any favorites or know what’s going on in the NHL most of the time.  Since I wasn’t doing any shopping today, I was pleased that NBC was broadcasting a morning matchup between the Philadelphia Pflyers versus the Texas Rangers.  I wish I was more familiar with league to make sure that I don’t say anything dumb here, but I think I know enough to make some general comments. 

Heh.  Actually, what’s more embarrassing is that I didn’t take any notes at all during the game, which was too bad, because it was great.  I didn’t think there’d be any need to.  Last year, I missed so many hockey games going to Aggie Sports and whenever I did watch, the games were generally bad. 

Mike “Doc” Emrick did his usual tremendous job on play-by-play and witty commentary.  I think I’d say he’s favorite sports announcer (my apologies to my beloved local guys).  Two days later, I can only remember a couple of comments.  At the start of the match, he noted, “Philadelphia is wearing their alternate black uniforms with black numbers.  They’re very stylish, but hard to read from 200 feet away.  They were not designed for the broadcaster’s convenience.”  And later, “The Philly fans are expressing some displeasure here.  If they were really angry, they’d let you know.”

The game itself was very intense.  The Flyers got one goal in the first period, but otherwise, NY Ranger goalie, Henrick Lundqvist stood on his head for most of the rest of the game against a barrage of shots.  In the other net, Calvin Pickard was also doing fine work to keep the Rangers from tying it.  Late in the third period, the Flyers added another goal.  The Rangers pulled Lundqvist and the Flyers added an empty-netter.  Moments later, the Flyers ambushed the Rangers for another goal.  4-0 Philadelphia was the final.  Trust me, the final score does not reflect how close the game was.  I’m now looking forward to the Winter Classic on New Years.

Later in the afternoon, UTEP Women’s Basketball was hosting an invitational in El Paso and were playing the Nicholls State Colonels.  Once again, I blew off taking notes, since I’d be going to work about halfway through the game.  I did learn some great news.  Katerina Zec is actually a junior.  I might get to see her play the Aggies here next year.  Yay!    

The Colonels are from the Southland Conference.  I had not heard of this conference before until last Tuesday, when member Abilene Christian beat the Aggies.  The Wildcats were at the invitational too and had beaten their opponent earlier by over 40 points.  Apparently, this team is for real.

The Colonels are too.  While it was close in the first quarter, they put up big lead in the second quarter.  I had to leave at halftime, but picked the game up later at work.  The Colonels were up by 17 at the most, but the Miners made a comeback.  They were within two points with two seconds left, but even inbounding the ball with a set play, they didn’t get a shot off.  The final was 58-56 Nicholls State (which I didn’t actually write down at the time and had to look up).  Though the nighttime reception will be bad, I’m going to try and listen Saturday for UTEP’s game versus Abilene Christian. 

Lastly, Aggie Volleyball beat UMKC to advance to the WAC finals.  I’ll discuss that elsewhere.

11-24-18

Aggie Football had their last game this season on Saturday morning versus Liberty.  It was cold and rainy in Virginia today and a small crowd was there for the game.  Jack Nixon and Cory Lucas (and AD Mario Moccia) were impressed with the facilities there.  The school has a $1 Billion endowment for sports, and Liberty isn’t even a big school.  Imagine what Alabama or Ohio State has.  NM State has an endowment too and large amount of money, but it’s just a fraction of Liberty’s. 

But this isn’t an economic contest (or is it?); it’s a football contest.  Regardless, it started badly for the Aggies as the Flames went up 0-17 in the first quarter, after two turnovers.  Jason Huntley had an answer as he ran back a kickoff for a touchdown, 7-17.  The kick was short because of a Liberty un-sportsmanlike conduct penalty.  Jevahn Fergurson then ran back an interception to make it 14-17.  This was all still in the first quarter.

Oops.  Babylon 5 is on.  Must watch.  Oh, that was great.  I rejoined the game at the start of the third quarter.  It was now 14-28 Liberty.  The Aggies took the opening drive down to the Flames’ 1 yard line, but failed to score.  By the fourth quarter, the rain had stopped, but a fog bank had moved on to the field. 

The Aggie offense could not get moving productively.  They were 1 of 5 on fourth downs and not much better on third downs.  The Liberty offense had cooled, but were using up a lot of clock with their running game.  Finally, with under two minutes left, Josh Adkins managed to lead the Aggies down the field to score, 21-28.  But, that would be the final, as they weren’t able to recover an onside kick.  Before the game and during, Jack Nixon mentioned the Aggie Volleyball team playing in the WAC championship tonight several times.  He seems like a fan of theirs.  

I had the game on the radio, while on TV, I had on a Women’s college basketball game on Stadium.  It was the Navy Mids versus the Penn Quakers.  I had the sound down, so I wasn’t getting a lot of insight while watching.  Penn seemed like the better team as they doubled up Navy in the first quarter, but Navy hung in there and even took a slim lead during the game. 

In the fourth, with under a minute left, Penn was back up, but Navy was within three.  Penn would make their free throws and come away with a 65-61 win.  Afterward, the Navy coach was actually pleased they’d managed to keep Penn from getting a field goal for over three minutes at the end.  After the game, the Navy cadets and staff stood at attention on the floor for the singing of their alma mater fight song.  They finished by pounding their chests and giving a Roman-style stiff arm salute.

Later, the UTEP Women’s Basketball team played Abilene Christian on KROD radio.  In spite of the poor reception at night, I wanted to listen to see how these two former Aggie opponents would square off against each other.  There was a late start due the previous game running long, but there was apparently the biggest crowd of the season so far for the Miners.  (Sorry in advance for the lack of details.  It was really hard to listen through the static.)

AC ran away with it in the first quarter 23-8.  They were 6 of 10 shooting three’s, and on a 10-0 run.  In the second quarter, UTEP clawed back into it and were trailing 37-30 at the half.  The ref’s were calling several travels.  The Euro-step used by several of the European players seemed to be confusing them.  UTEP cut the lead to one three times before finally taking the lead at the end of the third quarter 50-49.

The fourth quarter was epic.  The lead went back-and-forth.  With about 30 seconds left, UTEP was up by two.  That got shaved to one after AC converted on one of two free throws.  The shot clock was off.  UTEP had the ball with fouls to give, but committed a turnover on a walk because AC’s pressure defense.  AC converted on a pair of free throws after a foul to go up by one.  With seconds left, the Miners were unable to get a basket and fell 70-69.  Abilene Christian is now 6-0.  I think UTEP is the only team they haven’t beaten by double digits. 

And how did the Aggie Volleyball team do in the WAC championship?  I don’t know.  I’ll have to find out later.

11-25-18

Some dummy writing this forgot that he could have watched the local news and gotten the WAC Volleyball Championship results.  I finally remembered this evening and got my answer: Aggies Win!  I’ll recap what I can elsewhere.

Yay!

Otherwise, my sports event of the day was another Women’s College Basketball match.  I interested in watching, but suddenly fascinated when I found out it was the USC Trojans versus the Nevada Wolfpack.  Yep, it’s a game with our former Aggie coach, Mark Trakh, helming SC.  Unlike certain other coaches, Coach Trakh left here on good terms, so I’m happy to see him. 

I might have been even happier seeing his glamorous, tall, blonde assistant coach Blanche Alverson again.  I saw his other gorgeous assistant, Ashley Ford, with her.  I didn’t see dear sweet Brandee Walton, who also went to USC.  She also works for the team.  As long as we’re on the subject, the Nevada coach, Amanda Levens, was also a stunning woman.  One of the referees was also a pretty blonde.  While I’m sure either of these teams could easily beat the Aggies, they’re free to visit, and bring that referee too.  (If Coach Trakh comes, he’ll get a nice round of applause).      

USC was missing their top two scorers for the game.  Further, they’re not even considered a good team in the PAC-12 as of the preseason, though currently they’re 5-0.  The Wolfpack announcers felt that USC could be had today, though they didn’t sound very confident.  The Wolfpack are not considered to be a good team in the Mountain West. 

After ten minutes of play, the Trojans were up 19-13.  They had had a 9-0 run.  The Wolfpack had left open a Trojan player who was 11 of 16 on three’s this season.  In the second quarter, USC boosted its lead to 14 points.  A Nevada player lost her shoe, but nobody called a timeout for about two minutes.  During that time, she was playing in a sock.  It got very disorganized for both teams before the half, but USC kept rolling, 40-22. 

By the third quarter, USC was a bit sloppy and several players were in foul trouble.  That said, they continued their lead, 54-32.  Nevada went to a full court press in the fourth and USC didn’t entirely deal with it well.  Still, USC was killing it with three-pointers.  One girl banked one in at the shot clock buzzer “from Sparks,” as the play-by-play guy said (well beyond the arc).  USC won 72-51.  I apparently wasn’t really paying attention to the action and didn’t write down many details.  Most of the girls had weirdly spelled names, so I didn’t want to bother trying to write them down and look them up later.  It was good to see Coach Trakh again anyway (and his assistants and the opposing coach and that referee).

11-28-18

It’s another big rivalry game with the Aggies versus the UTEP Miners in El Paso in Men’s Basketball.  The Aggies had thrashed the Miners in Las Cruces earlier in the month (11-9-18), but the personnel were going to be a bit different this time.  Senior Eli Chuha was out today after a weight training injury.  UTEP, meanwhile, had activated two good players that were out for that game.

I really enjoyed the pregame tonight.  I got to hear all of it while I was working at my desk.  On the subject of pushing the players to play up to the DI level, color guy, Justin Hawkins, had fond memories of Coach Rick Majerus from when he was playing for Utah.  He loved being challenged by him, and said that if he’d listened to him more, he would have had a longer professional playing career.  I’m liking Justin more and more, the more I hear him.

Hawk and Jack Nixon tried to analyze this current Aggie team a bit.  The team hasn’t yet shown a superstar player.  So far, they’ve been playing unselfishly, which has been successful for them.  Sometimes teams get caught watching their star players and waiting for them to make big plays, instead contributing. 

AD Mario Moccia came on.  Justin asked Mario about the Volleyball team.  Mario is planning on going to see them play their NCAA Tournament game tomorrow.  He also mentioned that they’re having $1000 giveaway promotions at some the upcoming Aggie Men’s games.  Someone won $10K on a Jason Huntley kickoff touchdown runback this season.  That person will be presented with a check at a game.  In the interview with Coach Jans, he mentioned that he had the team over for Thanksgiving.  That’s nice, but must have been really expensive and he must have a big house.

Unfortunately, right as the game started, I got busy with work and couldn’t listen hard enough to take notes.  The first half was very close.  I’m not sure there was more than a three-point lead for either team.  They were going basket-for-basket with each other.  I heard Johnny McCants get a block and a jam.  He also picked up two fouls, but the Miners got in worse foul trouble.  It was 28-26 Aggies at the half. 

During halftime, Bernie Olivas, the Sun Bowl director, came on to talk about the game.  Right now, the matchup is still up in the air.  Invites are hinging on a makeup game in the PAC-12.  There’s no bowl conflict this year for people in Las Cruces.  I have a co-worker, who had to give away his Sun Bowl tickets, so he could go see the Aggies at the Arizona Bowl last year.

Five minutes into the second half, the Aggies went up by 11.  The Aggies got hot shooting, while the Miners went cold.  But there was still plenty of time.  With three minutes left, the Miners had closed it to within two.  You could clearly hear the 6,100 fans at the Don Haskins Center for the rest of the game. 

The referees started getting overly involved.  On two consecutive Aggie possessions, one ref overruled another to give the Miners the ball back.  Next, there was an odd goaltending call on UTEP that gave the Aggies a bucket.  There were several charging calls on both teams during the game.  Afterward, Coach Jans acknowledged that with the physical play, it was hard for the officials to make calls. 

AJ Harris fouled out with 1:30 left, but the Aggies still held a two-point lead.  Terrell Brown, who hadn’t made a shot all night, hit a jumper in the lane to make it a four-point lead.  UTEP answered with their own jumper and then fouled immediately with seconds left.  Terrell converted on both free throws to ice the game and win it 62-58 Aggies.  UTEP out-rebounded and out-shot the Aggies, but had more turnovers and the Aggies made their foul shots, which was the difference.

In the postgame, Coach Jans wished the Volleyball team good luck tomorrow.  I have a regular season review already written up for the team.  I’m not going to post it until the season is over.  I’m also withholding the postseason coverage.  We’ll see how things go.  I didn’t get to see the WAC Tournament games, but the NCAA Tournament will at least be on the radio.    

Yikes!  This went on for a while.  I should have broken this up into a couple of posts. 

NM State Aggies vs NNMC Eagles Women’s Basketball 11-26-18

 

In spite of all the Black Friday commercials, I’d spent the last three days cooped up at home and had contracted Cabin Fever.  Not bad enough to where I wanted to get back to work, of course.  I was happy for the day off to go and see Aggie Women’s Basketball.  Ron’s mom had died on Friday.  He seemed to be taking it pretty well as it had been expected.  Though he had forgotten about the game when I called him, he was probably glad to get away from things for a couple of hours.  We repeated our meal and dessert from last week (11-20-18).  Mine had diminishing returns, as the seasonal turkey cranberry sandwich from McAlisters tasted a bit off. 

At the Pan-Am Center, Kayla Green, senior pitcher for the Aggie Softball team, was working at the courtesy table.  This was an unexpected opportunity.  I said, “Hi, Kayla,” and asked if she was working for a Sports Marketing degree.  I’d seen her working at at least three different sports.  She was and was hoping to get some work experience for her resume.  She’d be working one of the hand-held cameras during the game.  Kayla was nice.  As soon as she figured out that I wasn’t going to bite, I think she was okay with talking to me.  Kayla is also taller and better built up close up than she looks in the circle from the stands. 

Inside, there was a light crowd to start.  Actually, the Band, the Cheerleaders, and the Sundancers may have outnumbered the fans.  Thankfully, it filled in a bit by the start of the game.  Danny was sitting in his usual spot and I chatted with him for a minute.  I’d listened to a couple of Miner Women’s Basketball games as they were playing Abilene Christian and another team from AC’s conference.  They’re a pretty good team as it turns out.  He’d actually been at the games and confirmed my observation.  (I’ll cover those games elsewhere.) 

Northern New Mexico College was warming up.  They looked like a high school team.  Ron observed that the Sundancers were probably taller.  (And they weren’t that tall.  Actually this group of Cheerleaders was taller than them.  Usually the dancers are fairly tall, since nobody is lifting them overhead.)  The college is in Espanola, close to Santa Fe, with about 1,100 students, according to Adam Young’s radio call scouting report.  (Ron was so pissed that he had again forgotten his radio.)

Four Aggies weren’t suited up to play.  The team is a bit undermanned (as it were).  That probably didn’t help against Abilene Christian.  The plan was to use everyone tonight.  (This would cause me problems in scorekeeping.)  Adenike Aderinto (call her “Nike”) was going to be playing in her first Aggie game.  She is a transfer student and had to sit out a couple of games until she was eligible. 

And just to do what I usually do, here’s my girl-watching report.  One of the referees was tall, pretty, and trim.  I think I was comparing her to Naomi Campbell (in black and white stripes).  There was an exotic girl in a little black dress with tats running up one of her arms in the booster section.  (She should have been wearing heels though and not slippers.)  Below us was pretty blonde girl working another hand-held camera.  Pretty, but she looked very serious or unhappy at her job.  In our Coach’s Fashion segment, Coach Atkinson was wearing skinny black pants with a loose purple blouse.      

First Quarter

I’m still not in mid-season form in basketball scorekeeping, but as you can see, there was a whole lot of scoring.  I only missed 9 points (or more) adding it up the first time.  (Okay, that does still sound kind of bad.)  I’ll put in some corrections before I post this.  For the first half, the scoreboard wasn’t showing player scoring.  When it came on in the second half, a bunch of players cycled out early on, so I didn’t get their official scoring.  There’s also a misprint on the program.  They forgot to list that loss to Abilene Christian.

The Eagles matched the Aggies over the first two possessions.  That was as close as this game got.  Early on, Nike got her first Aggie points on a pair of free throws.  Brooke Salas stole a ball in mid-air and went coast-to-coast for a layup.  I think I have about 30 variations of that sentence in my game notes.  Bear with me.  I have to say something about this game, which there wasn’t much drama to it.

Aailyah Prince got a steal and a layup.  It was 15-4 Aggies at about the five-minute mark for the first media timeout.  I’m not bothering to give a running score for the rest of this recap.  Just assume the Aggies were leading by a bunch.  I’ll just hit the highlight reel plays.  Monique Mills found Nike underneath the basket for a layup.  Mo got a steal and basket.  Prince made a steal in the backcourt and converted it to a layup.  27-8 Aggies after 10 minutes. 

Second Quarter

The Dino Dash was back between quarters!  They increased the challenge this time, by having the contestants make two dunks on the kids’ goal.  It was also harder because the guy’s T-Rex suits started deflating immediately, so they were fighting their costumes trying to get up and down the court.  The NNMC bench players couldn’t help watching the spectacle, instead of listening to their coach.

Gia Pack didn’t start, but came in for most of the game.  She got a steal and passed it to Prince for a layup.  Didi Echols stole a pass got it to Mo for a layup.  The Sun-News did an article on her (though under her actual name, Rodrea).  She came here with a pretty impressive pedigree.  She grabbed another steal, part of NNMC’s 15 turnovers to this point. 

An Aggie pass after another turnover flew into the press table.  “I had a better chance of catching that one,” said Adam.  Gia fed Kalei Atkinson, entering the game, for a layup.  #1 Leah Deaguero popped a deep three for the Eagles, one of her three in the half.  Gia got another steal, a layup, and drew a foul.  52-17 Aggies at the half.

          

Halftime

I noticed Lia Mosher and Megan Hart from our champion volleyball team sitting in the crowd in the first quarter.  I wanted to figure out a way to tell PA Ed Carnathan (I finally reacquainted myself with Ed’s last name) that they were there.  No problem.  He saw them across the court and singled them out as he promoted the girls’ upcoming NCAA Tournament match, and congratulated them on winning the WAC Championship.  Apparently, they were too shy to stand up without the rest of the team with them.  After the announcement, Ed gave them a fist pump. 

Meg was wearing hair down and loose.  She looked . . . okay.  Nah, she was beautiful as always, of course.  I wasn’t kidding that she should be doing runway modeling in the offseason (as long as she promises not to get injured doing it).  I was hoping she’d walk by after the game, so I could yell, “MVP” at her, but she left a different way.  Sigh. 

Also during halftime, some members of the Roadrunner Review Band did a pretty credible Macarena.  And there was a bicycle giveaway.  Ron and I did not win.  If I’d won, I might have given it away, since I wouldn’t have had anywhere to put it in my apartment. 

Third Quarter

Like I said, they started putting the player stats up on the scoreboard here, but this was probably where my scorekeeping went downhill.  Between a couple of unfamiliar players with similar looks and numbers, I kept marking baskets for the wrong players, and even writing it down wrong in my notes.  This was with Adam in my ear, telling me who was making the baskets.  I was convinced he was wrong half the time, which, of course, he wasn’t. 

Didi found Nike under the basket for another nice layup right off the bat.  Unfortunately, on the next possession, Didi tripped on an opposing player and fell to the floor.  She got up and came off limping.  Adam said it was diagnosed as a rolled ankle and probably not serious. 

Tayelin Grays picked up where Didi left off as guard and found Nike under basket for another layup.  During one possession, Brooke missed three layups.  She got two rebounds, but Dominique Mills finally got it in.  Brooke would miss another layup.  She got fouled again, but was only making about half of her attempts.  She’s usually close to 90%.  Brooke came out for the game around this time. 

Gia kept the roll going with another steal and layup.  She got an assist to Aissatou Fall, who also drew a foul.  During a timeout, Pistol Pete posed for Flex Cam with a little girl beside him.  Too cute.  Back to the action, Gia dished it to Grays for a basket.  AD Mario Moccia came in.  He had a couple of animated conversations in the booster section.  If we’d run into him before the game on the concourse again, we’d planned on congratulating him on another volleyball championship.  Kalei got two steals in the backcourt and got a layup off one of them.  Gia had another steal and layup before the end of the quarter.  77-29 Aggies.    

Fourth Quarter

The game suddenly started after a short break.  It actually caught me off guard.  I wonder if they actually did begin early.  #13 Jazlynn Muniz began the quarter with a three for NNMC.  Kalei answered immediately with a three on a bank.  That was the first made three for the Aggies in the game.  Amazing, given that they’d already scored over 77 points.  She then made a steal and got another layup and hit another three.  Muniz banked in a three.  Kalei came back with another three.  (See, it’s like there’s actually two teams playing here.)

Gia fired it to Nike under the basket, who drew the foul and got the free throw.  Muniz put in her third three of the quarter.  Grays got a block, Gia got the ball, and passed to Prince for a layup.  Kalei hit another a three.  Prince then put in the only other Aggie three for the game, which got the Aggie score to 101.  Muniz drained a long three for her fourth of the quarter.  At this point, even the Aggie fans were applauding her.  Our final was 101-51 Aggies.

Gia Pack nearly had a triple-double in the game.  She was only short two assists.  Coach Atkinson took her out a couple minutes before the end of the game.  I’m not sure she knew about it until Adam mentioned it to the coach in the postgame interview.  Oops.   

Brooke Salas played mostly just in the first half, as was the plan.  She finished with 11 points, but she’s still missing most of her shots like in the last game, which was not part of the plan.  Aaliyah Prince showed a lot of hustle and energy during the game.  She probably needs to distribute the ball a bit more, but otherwise, she’s fun to watch.  Kalei Atkinson, with her near constant smile, seemed to be in mostly for her good defensive work, but then suddenly lit it up from downtown in the second half.  Other teams should probably not go to sleep on defending against her.

Adenike Adrinto looked good in her first game.  Hopefully, Didi Echols will be okay for the next game.  At the moment, the Aggies’ bench is a bit short, so we also hope that since everyone played, this will be good experience for them.  The team was using a full court press for much of the game.  Ron came to the conclusion that they came in with a game plan to score 100 points tonight.  

As for NNMC, they never seemed to get down during the game.  They were loose, but professional.  At 1-11, I admire their attitude.  They also hit 11 three-pointers, 7 by Leah Deaguero and Jazlynn Muniz combined, and scored 51 points.  If they could defend better, which would probably require them to be taller, they might be a pretty good team. 

The game took about an hour-and-a-half.  That was very quick.  There weren’t many timeouts during the game and there weren’t lengthy TV timeouts or breaks.  It’s hard to get a real read on this team yet.  They feel short-handed.  They really need Brooke to find her shot.  Her and Gia going off would be a potent combination, especially if Prince, Nike, Kalei, and the Mills sisters chip in.  Next up is another team I don’t know anything about and will be my last day off for the year to see an Aggie team play.