This is one of the last conference tournament finals (though not the last, as the Big Sky and Missouri Valley finals aren’t until Saturday). And as it happens, it may be the last WAC volleyball match ever. The 10-team WAC is set to lose 6 members for next season. They’re adding 2 new ones, but you need to have 7 members in order to have an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament (erroneously referred on the broadcast as “needing 7 teams to be a conference” — the fledgling Great West Conference disproves this). They’ve got a waiver from the NCAA for next season, but it’s entirely possible that if they don’t find some new schools the league may fold.
This match pits the second-seeded Idaho Vandals against the fourth-seeded New Mexico State Aggies. I suppose you could say it’ll be the next statistical upset among conference tourneys, but really the top four teams in the WAC this year were all pretty close. The top seeds Utah State (who also have Aggies as their nickname) fell in a three-set sweep to New Mexico State in the semifinals, while the third-seeded hosts Texas-San Antonio (for some reason the acronym UTSA really bugs me) lost a five-set heartbreaker to Idaho, whiffing on three match points along the way.
The Vandals’ leader is without question junior outside hitter Allison Baker, still referred to occasionally as Allison Walker (she got married between last season and this). She takes the majority of the swings on the Idaho side of the net, and it really isn’t even close. She entered the match with over 1500 swings taken on the season, about 50 a match, and had 29 kills on 82 attempts in the win over Texas-San Antonio in the semifinals. Really, no one else bears mention from the scoring positions for the Vandals. They run a traditional one-setter offense, behind Jenny Feicht (pronounced “fight”). One player who the Vandals are sorely missing is towering 6-foot-3 sophomore middle blocker Alyssa Schultz, who is out with an injury.
The Aggies share the ball a bit more, but they too have a pretty clear leader on offense, that being 6’2″ junior middle blocker Desiree Scott. She had 10 kills and 3 blocks in the semifinal win over Utah State — not bad totals for a three-set sweep. Preslie Alexander and Bradley Nash, who involuntarily redshirted last year after blowing out her knee two sets into the first match of the season, also rack up the points for New Mexico State. The Aggies run a two-setter offense, as both Taylor Livoti (one of the top servers on the team, and ideal for back-row setter rotations) and Ciara Brown tally large numbers of assists with regularity. New Mexico State is a very young team — the only senior on their roster is second-string libero Madison Hardy.
After a service ace from back-row specialist Jenna Ellis got the Vandals on the board first, the Aggies answered with a run on Bradley Nash’s serve that included her own back-row kill. Kills from Baker, the first of many on the night, and attack errors by New Mexico State’s Nathalie Castellanos brought us even at 6, one of 13 ties in the first set. The rally on 6-6 was quite long, but the camera cut out just as it ended. C’mon ESPN! Further ties occurred at 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, but it wasn’t all just sideout after sideout. Both sides scored on serve a few times. Idaho led by 2 points a couple of times, and New Mexico State went up by one during this stretch as well, at 14-13. A hitting error by Ashley Christman put the Aggies up by 2 at 20-18, and this was the lead they did not relinquish. A nice run on serve from sophomore outside hitter Meredith Hays, which included the first of her four service aces on the night, got the Aggies to set point at 24-19, and Desiree Scott ended it emphatically with a powerful kill a point later.
It was just her third of the set (which is pretty staunchly average production), but it proved timely. Nash was the big leader for the Aggies in set number one, with 5 kills on 10 swings and no errors, for a .500 hitting percentage.
The second set began evenly, with ties to the first few point totals. On 4-4, Idaho fielded a serve that looked like it was going to land pretty far wide, and lost the point on a hitting error of their own. And that started the Aggies on a bit of a run. Only a Taylor Livoti service error broke it up, and after immediately siding out another run from Hays, including another of her aces, brought it to 11-5. Idaho finally sided out with a kill from Katelyn Peterson to end the run, and from there started their own. Jenna Ellis rattled off five in a row on her serve to knot the set at 12, with Baker leading the way on the front line. Idaho was forced to call time when the Aggies then responded with three straight to go up 15-12. Baker’s 10th kill of the match (to give her 47 straight matches with double-digit kills) got Idaho the sideout to 15-13, and another one later drew the set even at 17. After consecutive sideouts drew the deadlock to 19, the Vandals seized control after that. A run from Jenny Feicht brought them to 23-19, and the Vandals gained set point at 24-20. They converted on their first attempt, with a kill from –who else?– Baker.
The teams again started off evenly in the third set. Baker continued to score most of Idaho’s points, but she also gave a few away with hitting errors. Her hitting error on 8-7 to put the Aggies up 9-7 (a confusing play, as it first looked like Idaho was getting the point) was the first time in the set the score didn’t draw even after one side took a 1-point lead. But the match was quickly again tied, at 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Baker’s kill on 10-10 to put the Vandals up 11-10 was already her 20th of the match — in just two sets and change. She was hitting hard, to be sure, but she was also hitting smart, able to recognize where the block was and angle her shots accordingly. That’s so hard to do in real time. But that was really the high point of the set for the Vandals. Kills from Meredith Hays and Lauren Loerch put the Aggies up 15-13 at the TV timeout.
Preslie Alexander got the first kill back from the timeout, the first Aggie to get to 10. On Livoti’s serve, which included an ace, the Aggies ran out to 18-13 before Baker was finally able to again side out. Idaho nearly drew even, closing to 19-18 and New Mexico State’s timeout. On the first point back, Alexander spiked Julia Church right in the face. It caused a little trickle of blood to come from her nose. You’re supposed to immediately come out of the match if you’re bleeding (this is a universal rule in all NCAA sports), but she was able to hide it — she stayed in. Another timely kill from Desiree Scott got the Aggies to the cusp of set point at 23-20. Idaho called time to regroup, and whatever they talked about worked as they rattled off three straight to knot it at 23. New Mexico State got their first set point at 24-23, but Baker staved it off. Baker did likewise on the second set point at 25-24 after Nathalie Castellanos’ kill had gotten the Aggies that chance. Finally, on the third set point, Baker hit into the double block and New Mexico State took the set 27-25.
The fourth set was the least competitive of the night. Idaho’s only lead came at 1-0. The Aggies quickly ran out to advantages at 3-1, 5-3, 7-4, 9-6…it was just a pretty steady advantage. The Vandals closed to within one at 11-10, following an Aggie hitting error, but New Mexico State never surrendered the lead. More great serving from Hays and Nash, including an ace by the latter to seal it, proved the Vandals’ undoing. It also seemed like Baker simply ran out of gas. And who could freaking blame her — after taking 82 swings in a 5-set semifinal, she took another 72 tonight, and the errors started to climb higher in the fourth. She was hitting over .300 most of the night, but ended at 28/11/72, for a .236 night hitting (still better than her season average.
#4 New Mexico State d. #2 Idaho (25-20, 20-25, 27-25, 25-19)
New Mexico State gets the automatic bid, and Idaho’s season is over. Unlike the Aggies, the Vandals had five seniors on their roster, so they’ll look quite different next season. Baker undoubtedly was the Vandals’ pulse on offense, as only Peterson also finished with more than 10 kills, but it’s interesting to note that they spread out their options on defense. Five different Vandals, Baker among them, recorded double-digit digs, to only three for the Aggies. The Aggies had a marked advantage at the service line, recording 9 service aces on the night to only 2 for the Vandals.
I liked what I saw from this New Mexico State team tonight, but I’m not sure if I’d expect anything out of them in the NCAA tournament. Their opponent is going to be of greatly higher caliber, possibly even a seeded team in the first round. That said, as young as they are, they might dominate next season (whether there’s a WAC or not). I’ll be keeping my eye on them, and you should as well.
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