A couple of minutes to go until game 3.
C'MON AGGIES.
We're down 0-2. CO took both games, 30-24 and 30-20. Stat wise. Ouch.
Hitting %
Game 1 CO .170 vs NMSU .065
Game 2 CO .405 vs NMSU .135
Service error wise - we're pretty neck and neck with CO but we're still making too many.
Before game 3 begins, one last comment. I would like to see the NCAA do something about the service line heckling. Pretty sad.
Washington won the early game - looking for scores is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
I'm going to guess and say we'll be underway in about 10-15 minutes after the teams warm up. It sounds like a good fanbase is there for us.
Coach's Mom - try going to
http://www.cubuffs.com/CustomerCareFAQs.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600 and see if they have any solutions to your problem. It's fine on our side. I don't think there will be any commentary on the online video.
The first game of the first round of the NCAA tourny is going long - per Gino over at KSNM 570.
And Coach's Mom - I'm right here in chilly Las Cruces...wishing I was in Boulder!!
Just a quick note. Our charter bus leaves tomorrow morning and it looks like they'll be hitting some nasty weather (wind, rain, snow in the upper elevations) on their 11+ hour journey to Boulder. We're supposed to get our first freeze tomorrow night with a ton of wind starting tonight.
If you're so inclined, a 'safe travels' prayer for our coaches, team and fans would be appreciated.
(And no - I'm still not going.)
More on the game tomorrow.
2 good news posts all wrapped up in one.
First of all, the AVCA poll came out today and we are #19!!!!!!
Nextly....
There will be a charter bus traveling to Boulder.
Bus departs on Wednesday Nov 29th at 7:30am and return on either Friday Dec 1 or Sat Dec 2.
Cost is: $350 per person/single occupancy or $550 per couple/double occupancy
Trip package includes:all ground transportation2 or 3 night stay at the Aggie Headquarter Hotel and all match tickets. (Cost of 3rd night is an additional $59 plus taxes)
Seating is limited - call to make your reservation646-4126
Oh how I wish I could go!!!
Selection Sunday is over.
The Aggies are in!
In the first round, we head to Boulder, Colorado to face Colorado. This is the team that handed #1 Nebraska its loss. From what I've been told, this will be a battle of the setters.
I'm still looking around to see where we can watch this online. The University of Colorado does have
live stats/video here but whether or not they'll show the tourny, I don't know. It's something I'll keep checking on and let you know if I find out anything. If any of you learn of where to watch, please post in the comments.
According to their release, we play at 7pm on Thursday.
I haven't heard anything about KGRT sending Kyle to do the on air play by play. Again, I'll let you know if I hear anything.
Congrats to Mike and the team. Awesome job this season!!!!
Suffice to say I didn't go to the Aggie selection brunch. I'm still feeling icky and the last thing I wanted to do was to pass germs onto the team. So I'll watch from here.
As far as the Hawaii game goes, the Farley's get together was a total bust. After being told that they would have the game on, we were informed after we'd ordered food/drinks/munchies that, no, they wouldn't have it. So we packed it all up and went over to a friends home and watched the match on the computer. Nah, we aren't diehard. :)
The sad thing is that I found CSTV on our TV yesterday. Grumble. That's where the game was being shown. Of course, I have no clue if they showed it here. OH well, it was still fun.
If you want to watch the selection show, I'd turn on ESPN News around 1pm and keep it on. They aren't very 'on time' when they start the show. I'm not sure when we'll come up, either.
I'll be back after the show to talk about where we're going and when...and who we're playing.
If you're in the Las Cruces area tonight with nothing to do, stop by Farley's for a cold one/some munchies at around 8pm. They will be showing the volleyball match. Gametime is 830pm
Just look for the crimson volleyball shirts in the bar area.
THANK YOU FARLEY'S!!!
and
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AGGIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WAC final match is set: NMSU vs. Hawaii Friday night 11/24 at 830pm Las Cruces time. The match will be televised on CSTV if you have it or you can watch it online thru WAC Sports.
I'm looking forward to a rematch on neutral territory. Should be a good one.
The semifinals are set for today:
NMSU vs. Idaho at 6pm our time
Hawaii vs. San Jose at 8:30pm our time.
Also there are a couple of nice articles in the Sun News today talking about the tournament and our Coach Of The Year!
Geoff Grammer (Grammer School Blog) raises an interesting question about our Lady Aggies in his blog -
"Is Aggie Volleball the best college team in the state?"
Boise State put up a fight but, in the end, we took them in 4 games - 28-30, 30-15, 31-29 and 30-18. We saw some nice play from Kellie Goodan, Angelle Guerre, Mary English and Krista Altermatt.
The broadcast was great. My hat is off to Kyle over at AM 570. Listening to him made it sound like you were listening to the Superbowl. He had Maria Roth co-hosting with him and I have to say that I hope Maria joins him more often. It was great to have her perspective during the match.
We move on to face Idaho tomorrow at 6pm our time in the Semifinals.
Nevada and San Jose St are playing now. I'm kinda pulling for San Jose but I think Nevada would be a better semi-final opponent for Hawaii :)
Looks like LA Tech tried to put up a fight. Fresno St won the first match,
30-27, 26-30, 29-31, 23-30
Fresno St moves on to play Hawaii tonight at 830pm our time.
Lady Aggies take on Boise St at 1pm our time - in about 20 minutes.
The WAC Tournament got underway today. It looks like WAC TV will be carrying all the games online at
http://www.wac.tv/?KEY=&DB_OEM_ID=10100&DB_LANG=&IN_SUBSCRIBER_CONTENT=
Cost is 5.95 per game.
Congratulations to the Aggie players who made the All Wac Team:
All-Conference
First Team
Alice Borden
Jackie Choi
Kim Oguh
Amber Simpson
Second Team
Krystal Torres
And, of course our Coach!!
WAC Coach of the Year: Mike Jordan
As promised, here are the
pictures from Senior Night!
Enjoy! And yes, I think Coach needs to smile more!
WAC Tourny bracket set
You can find a copy of the
WAC bracket here (.pdf file)
It looks like everything is set:
#9 Louisiana Tech vs. #8 Fresno State Weds 9:30am
#9LTU/#8FSU vs. #1 Hawaii Weds 7:30pm
#5 San Jose State vs. #4 Nevada Weds 5pm
#3 Idaho vs. #6 Utah State Weds 2:30pm
#7 Boise State vs. #2 New Mexico State Weds 12:00 noon
Senior Night was once again an amazing event.
Not only did we sweep San Jose State in 3 - 32-30, 30-22, 30-17 but the ceremony afterwards was wonderful.
The crowd - 3397 - was really on it. Of course us tailgaters were really hyped up for this match. (We held Arts n Crafts with Joanne in the parking lot of the Pan Am - the result were some pretty neat posters.)
The Senior Night ceremony is always a neat thing to watch. We said goodbye to Jackie, Alice and Tanya. Their parents were there and they recieved their jersey in a beautiful frame. Afterwards we had a nice get together for our final Sideout Club.
What? Did I take pictures? Of course I did! As its late right now, I'll get them all put together tomorrow and post here. I think I got one or two of Coach - a little misty eyed from my view.
We've got a lot to talk about this week with the WAC tournament and then waiting for the news of seeding and when/where we'll play for the NCAA tournament.
It's not over by a long shot!!!
Comcast NCAA Volleyball Tournament
Selection Show Brunch!
Guests of Honor
Head Coach, Mike Jordan
and the NMSU Volleyball Team
Enjoy a Delicious Brunch
and be part of the Celebration!
Join the Nationally ranked Aggie Volleyball Team
as they watch ESPN News
to learn their bracket, seed and location
for the 2006 NCAA Volleyball Tournament!
When: Sunday, November 26th
Time: 12:00 noon
Where: Stan Fulton Athletics Center – 3rd Floor
Cost: $25* per-person
*All proceeds benefit the Aggie Volleyball Trip to Italy Summer ‘07
Special thanks to our friends at:
and NMSU Campus Dining
For more information and reservations please call:
Bruce Liu, NMSU Fulton Dining Manager
646-4763
A 3 game sweep is a great way to return to the Pan Am Center!
I have to say how impressed I was with Mary English. She saw a lot of action in game 2 - from serving, digging, blocking, and everything in between. What a great job she did! I'm sad that I didn't see any mention of her in the Sun News or the NMSU release. I see good things in the future for her! (I wonder if she minds us yelling, "Way to go Red"?)
Last game of the regular season is tomorrow, 7pm at the Pan Am Center. We're taking on San Jose State on Senior Night where we say goodbye to Jackie Choi, Alice Borden and Tanya Allen.
The call has gone out - it's time to Pack the Pan Am. There's a ticket special happening - buy one regular admission, get one free. You can't pass that up, can you? Nope. So grab your crimson and white and everyone you know. It's going to be a special night.
Stevi Adams was at the Pan Am last night, as well. Nice to see her again.
Our final tailgate of the year is tomorrow too. We're starting at 4pm so bring some food, some chairs, some of your favorite beverages and join us in the north parking lot of the Pan Am. I don't know if we'll have the blue tent up - but we'll be easy to find. We'll be the only folks out there!
Onto much happier news.
There's a
great article in the Sun News Today by Felix Chavez - Senior Aggies will play final home stand.
One quote that got me was this: "Another sign of respect: The Aggies were invited and accepted an invitation to play in the University of Nebraska's tournament next September along with Duke and Louisville. The Cornhuskers are currently ranked No. 1 in the nation. "
Made your day, didn't it?
Check out another great article from
The New Mexican on future Aggies
Aggie Volleyball signs 3 in Early Signing PeriodTo sum up:
Kayleigh Giddens is a 5-11 outside hitter from Lubbock, Texas and Frenship High School. Prepvolleyball.com listed Giddens as one of the top 250 recruits this year, after she was named to the all-Texas team as a junior and top 79 list as a sophomore. In her sophomore campaign, Giddens led Lubbock Coronado High School to the Texas State Championship game and was named to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal all-city first team. She was also a first-team all-district and two-time all-tournament team selection. As a freshman, Giddens was named to the all-district second team.
Whitney Phillips, from Scottsdale, Ariz., is a 5-10 outside hitter from Desert Mountain High School. Phillips led Desert Mountain to back-to-back state championship titles as a junior and a senior. She was a four-time all-region and Arizona Interscholastic Association Scholar-Athlete selection. In her junior campaign, Phillips was a second team all-state honoree while the Wolves collected a second-place finish in the region. As a sophomore, Phillips guided the team to a region championship and a top 20 finish in the state. In her freshman season, she took the Wolves to a third-place finish in the region and recorded another top 20 finish in the state.
Alex Steinmetz is a 6-2 outside hitter Las Cruces High School. Last week, she led the Bulldawgs to the state championship game. Steinmetz was a three-time all-district selection from 2004-06 while she earned all-state honors as a junior. She directed Las Cruces High School to a district championship as a freshman and a senior. In her sophomore and junior seasons, Steinmetz took the Bulldawgs to a pair of district runner-up finishes.
I really don't know what to say about last night's match.
We watched via Hawaiian TeleMedia. I don't know who that team was that played in games 1 and 2. When Coach Jordan came out from the break after game 2, he asked the broadcast team if the game had started yet. Then they made the comment of "I guess he found his team in the hallway".
Game 3 was what we are used to seeing.
Did they crack under pressure? Did the fans get to them and cause them 19 service errors? Did they not only lose on the court but lose the mental game as well?
I don't know. It's disappointing for sure but I know I'm not as disappointed as the team.
Suffice to say we'll be there with bells on Thursday as they take on Fresno State in the Pan Am. The crowd will be rocking - cuz we love our Aggies, win lose or draw.
Three Aggies Earn Academic All-District Honors Congratulations to Senior Jackie Choi, Senior Tanya Allen and Junior Jordan Bostic for making the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District VI Team. Jackie and Jordan were on the first team while Tanya was a third-team selection.
Jackie has a 4.0 grade point average in accounting and economics, Jordan posts a 4.0 in journalism and Tanya has 3.83 in English. The Aggies were the only team to post two players on the six-member first team.
A writer for the Honolulu Advertiser has an article that pretty much sums up the way I've been thinking. Check it out:
"Finally, a team to test the 'Bows"What Mr. Lewis is saying is that, even though the WAC has some talented teams, none have been able to test the Wahini team until we came along. Sure there are other teams out there with talent to keep Hawaii on their toes during their games, none have been able to actually compete point for point and win.
"What it says is that there is now a legitimate big match to be played in the regular season. One with championship and seeding connotations at a time in the conference season when UH was annually strolling backwards to the postseason in years past." (From the article)
Great article. As I've been saying all along - this is a different kind of rivalry. And its going to be one that lasts a long, long time.
This just in from Jenny Castillo at NMSU:
HEAR AGGIE VOLLEYBALL ON AM 570!
# 20 NMSU Volleyball travels to Honolulu, Hawai’i for a rematch with # 14 Hawai’i on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 8:00 p.m. (MST). Hear the match live on Radio AM 570 immediately following the NMSU Women’s Basketball game vs. Lamar aired live from Beaumont, Texas at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12th.
The match can also be viewed online by subscribing to
http://hawaiiantelmedia.com/ (fee applies)
So.
Let's look at last night's game. Yes, we swept LA Tech at LCHS in our final game there, 30-21, 30-18, 34-32. Someone asked me after the game, "What happened in game 3?" Easy answer. All you had to do was watch Coach Jordan. If you had, you would have seen him sitting down and watching the game. He let the team run game 3. From the outcome, you could tell that they weren't making the right decisions or communicating very well.
Don't worry kids - he's not going to do that Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, I seem to remember that there's kind of an important game. Think it's in Hawaii??
All kidding aside - this is THE match of the year. This is for the lead in the WAC - which we have right now. This sets up the WAC Tourny and probably the NCAA tourny.
I'm not going to go into statistics or who's playing/who's hurt/etc. All I'm going to say is the following:
1. Hawaii is ready for us. They're ready for revenge for the October 13th match.
2. NMSU knows they are ready for us...and we're ready for them.
3. Senior night in the islands means its going to be a very emotional game for Hawaii.
4. The October 13th match means that the Stan Sheriff Center will be PACKED.
I said a while back that I'm not going to make any predictions here on this blog. Suffice to say, tho, you know what I'm thinking.
We'll keep it at that.
Before I forget to post this - I found out that you will be able to watch the game vs. Hawaii this Sunday online. Visit
http://www.hawaiiantelmedia.com/store/index.php?cPath=23_25 . The game costs 9.95.
Game time is 5pm Hawaii time which I've been told will be 8pm Las Cruces time. Las Cruces media is reporting that the game starts at 10pm here, as does the NMStateSports.com schedule for the team.
I hope one of my Hawaii volleyball friends will confirm this for me in the comments! Team leaves tomorrow morning for the islands.
After a long day at work, there's nothing like coming home and checking out the Monday poll from AVCA.
The Aggies are now a TOP 20 TEAM!! We recieved 380 votes, moving us up from #23 last year. BYU's defeat by UNM dropped them to 21.
It is - indeed - a wonderful day in the neighborhood!
We just got back from the Pan Am Open House. Wow.
Thanks to Will for letting me snap a few pictures. If you're interested,
check out my pictures.Question is: Will they actually be ready for the Mariachi Conference this Friday???
First off, thanks "Coach's Mom" for the info!! (Coach's Mom - hmmmmm....intriguing screenname!!)
A nice road trip for the Lady Aggies - sweeping both Boise State and Idaho in 3 games each. It's a nice confidence builder to the meeting in a week on the islands.
We're home this week vs. LA Tech on Wednesday. Early in the week game so the team can travel to Hawaii on Thursday. This is our last game at LCHS. We'll face Fresno St and San Jose St in the New Pan Am.
Speaking of the Pan Am, if you've got nothing better to do today, there's an open house from noon to 4. More details over at the
Sun News. Looks like the yellow seats are still there.
Now, some interesting news. I have 'google alerts' set up so when news of NMSU Volleyball his the web, I get an email with links to the stories. A couple of days ago, I got an alert that said "Correction: Two weeks ago, in the column about New Mexico State, I reported that NMSU was ranked in the Coaches poll for the first time in program history. That was incorrect. Bill Kauffman, currently with USA Volleyball and formerly with the AVCA, graciously pointed out that the Aggies had been ranked four times previously, all in 1986."
Excuse me?? So off I went to the AVCA website to check out 1986 and sure enough, there we were, ranked 18 and 19 for 4 weeks. I emailed Geoff Grammer about it so we'll see if he writes about it this week. My next quest is to try and figure out what our schedule was that year.
Finally - I know I never mention that school to the north of us but they are worthy of a quick mention today. UNM took down #18 BYU yesterday. It was their first win over BYU since 1995.
Yeah. I know - huh??
I don't know what is worse...
Logging onto your blog and finding out that a couple of your latest posts didn't make it to the published phase...
or
Trying to follow the volleyball game tonight and realizing that your opponent doesn't have live stats available...
Quite honestly, right now I'm trying like hell to figure out if we beat Idaho tonight. No one will tell me on Crimson Storm, nmstatesports.com hasn't updated yet (altho they just updated with the football game tonight so maybe soon?).
GAH!!
