The Daily Aggie

As you've probably heard by now legendary head basketball coach Don Haskins passed away yesterday afternoon. Haskins and his 1966 Texas Western basketball team forever changed the landscape of college basketball with their victory over Adolph Rupp and Kentucky in the national championship game. Haskins was a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the WAC's Coach of the Year Award is also named after him.

We're still in a little bit of shock after the Aggie volleyball team lost to Utah last night 3-1. The Aggies simply don't lose matches at home. Since 2002 the Aggies have lost at home just six times, three of those to Hawai'i (we're including last season's WAC Tournament championship loss). The Aggies also don't lose back-to-back matches very often. Since 2001 the Aggies have lost back-to-back matches just five times prior to entering this season with two of those coming at the end of the season (2006 and 2007 losing to Hawai'i and then their first round NCAA Tournament opponent). The 2001 season was the last time the Aggies have lost more than two matches in a row, that season they lost five matches in a row but rebounded to finish 19-11 and 13-2 in conference play. These statistics just further illustrate the outstanding job that Mike Jordan has done building this Aggie program.

The loss drops the Aggies to 4-4 on the season and the road does not get any easier as they head to Palo Alto, CA to take on Stanford, Santa Clara and UC-Santa Barbara in Stanford's tournament. Lindsey Yon finished with a match high 19 kills and nine digs and had her best hitting percentage match of the season at .312. Kelli Goodan had a five kills on eight attempts with just one error for a .500 hitting percentage. Amber Simpson also had a solid night finishing with six kills on 17 attempts with just one error and added six block assists. Outside of Yon, Goodan and Simpson, the Aggies struggled offensively with Krista Altermatt finishing with a -.077 hitting percentage and the Whitneys (Woods and Phillips) each finishing with a .000 hitting percentage.

Finally before we get into today's links, our daily reminder to vote for Chase Holbrook in the Davey O'Brien Award fan voting. You may vote once per day. Currently Chase is in 4th place in the standings.

On to today's links...

The Aggie volleyball team lost last night against #4 Texas in the Pan Am 3-0. The Aggie dropped the first set 25-17, the second set 25-19 and the third set 25-17. Before we get into the particulars of the match we'd like to applaud the Aggie faithful that showed up last night. There was a good sized crowd and they were very vocal in support of the team. Hopefully all of the first time visitors to watch the volleyball team saw what they're missing out on and will come out more often.

The first set saw the Aggies get down quickly 13-3 and eventually 24-11 before the Aggies ripped off six straight points to stave off a Longhorn victory. The second set again saw the Aggies get off to a rough start falling behind 6-1 and then 17-10. However, once again the Aggies would go on a big point run as the Aggies pulled to within three points at 22-19. Unfortunately a Texas timeout was followed by three consecutive Longhorn points to win the set. Coming out of the intermission the Aggies once again found themselves in a huge hole falling behind 6-1 and then eventually 20-11. But once again the Aggies would go on a point run scoring seven of the next nine points to pull to within 22-17. Once again the Horns would win the final three points this time ending not only the set but the match.

A couple of things stood out to us. When we watched the Longhorns in person against Utah it was clear that Utah was just physically and athletically overmatched. When the Aggies took the floor there was no such disparity in athleticism. In our (untrained) observation we feel that the Aggies are every bit as athletic as Texas. There's no question that there was a huge size differential between the Aggie players and the Longhorn players but we think that if the Aggies and Longhorns played again today that the match would be a lot different. Nerves undoubtedly played a huge factor in the match and most certainly in the first set as was evidenced by the 22-9 deficit. However, if you take away the quick starts that the Longhorns jumped out to in each set, 13-3, 6-2 and 8-2, the Aggies played the Longhorns to a draw the rest of the way out. After the 13-3 beginning in set one the Aggies outplayed UT 14-12 the rest of the way. After falling down 6-2 the Longhorns held just a 19-17 advantage the rest of the way. And in set three after falling behind 8-2 the Longhorns held just a 17-15 advantage the remainder of the match.

The Aggies also went on a 6-0 point run not once but twice in the match. Fox Sports Analyst and three time gold-medal Olympian Karch Kiraly once mentioned in a PAC-10 broadcast (and we're paraphrasing here) that it's very difficult in rally scoring to go on long point runs against great teams. Well, the Aggies did it twice against a great team. Just as they did against Oregon and Illinois in defeat, the Aggies have shown flashes of what they're capable of doing.

Undoubtedly the loss to Texas stings, however, the Aggies have one more match to play tonight against a very good Utah team. The Utes swept Houston in yesterday afternoon's match. It's possible that the Cougars were emotionally spent after rallying to force five sets against the Aggies the night before. The Aggies must refocus for tonight's match, which we're sure they'll do.

The match starts at 7:00 p.m. in the Pan Am and can be seen live on AggieVision. You can also follow all the action via Live Stats through the NMSU athletic website.

Be sure to check out our photos from yesterday's match against Texas.

Finally before we get into today's links, go vote for Chase Holbrook in the Davey O'Brien Award fan voting. Chase is currently in 5th place in the standings. If you voted last year you don't need to register (you only need to remember your password). If you didn't vote last year, register to vote. You can vote once per day.

On to today's links...

The Aggie volleyball won a thrilling five set match last night against Houston. The Aggies looked to be cruising toward another three set sweep after winning the first two sets but Houston wouldn't let that happen and won the next two sets 25-23 and 25-23. As we mentioned yesterday the Aggies defeated Houston 3-1 in Houston's tournament. Houston nearly repaid the favor. Whitney Woods, Lindsey Yon and Krista Altermatt led the way for the Aggies offensively with each recording double-digit kils. At one point during the match Whitney Woods was hitting for over .630 and was frustrating the Houston defense. Woods came back down to earth a bit but still finished with an outstanding .296 hitting percentage. Be sure to check out our photos from the match. Also don't forget to check out today's edition of Meet The Aggies as we sit down with senior middle blocker Amber Simpson.

The Aggies and their faithful can now fully turn their attention towards the match that everyone's been looking forward to since the schedule was released... #4 Texas. We've now seen the Longhorns twice this season, once on film and once in person. Both times they won and both times they looked impressive in doing so. Last weekend the Horns opened up the season with a 3-0 sweep of #6 Southern Cal. Most impressive about that victory was their second set thrashing of the Trojans. Texas won that set 25-15. The other match we've seen them play was yesterday, in person versus Utah. Texas dominated the match in every way possible. The thing that stood out the most about the Horns after seeing them play in person is how hard they serve (we're talking velocity), they dig absolutely everything and probably the biggest thing is they make you pay for even the smallest mistake.

We believe the Aggies can win this match tonight but they're going to need the help of the fans. There's no football tonight so everybody needs to bring themselves out to the Pan Am and support the ladies. How often do you get a chance to have a Top 5 team came strolling into town? Not very often. When you wake up tomorrow and read our site and check the local paper and see that the Aggies have pulled off the upset, make sure that you can feel good about yourself knowing that you came out and witnessed history.

Finally, be sure to check out an excellent story from Naira Mendoza on the Aggie women's golf team and its very international flavor.

On to today's links...

The Aggie volleyball team made quick work of the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles yesterday afternoon winning 3-0 (25-21, 25-12, 25-18). After jumping out to a 22-14 lead, the Eagles cut the Aggie lead to just 22-19 with a 5-0 run. Coach Jordan called a quick timeout and had some words with his team. The Aggies came back out refocused and closed out the set. The second set was complete domination by the Aggies as they really asserted themselves using their athleticism to easily win the second set. The third set was much of the same for the team and Coach Jordan was able to get some of his younger players some valuable playing time.

Lindsey Yon was clearly the star of this match as she hit for a .467 hitting percentage racking up 17 kills on 30 swings with just three errors. She finished the match just one dig shy of a double-double with nine digs. Sophomore sensation Whitney Woods also had a solid match finishing with six kills on 12 attempts with just two errors for a .333 hitting percentage and senior middle blocker Amber Simpson had a ridiculous .667 hitting percentage getting six kills on nine attempts with zero attack errors. Coach Jordan used his trio of Aggie setters during the match with each of them getting solid minutes. Senior Alyssa Gintant and freshman Jennah DeVries both finished with 12 assists while sophomore Brynja Rodgers finished with nine assists. Be sure to check out our photos from the match.

The road gets significantly more challenging for the Aggies beginning today. The Aggies take on Houston (2-1) at 7:00 p.m. in the Pan Am. The Aggies defeated Houston 3-1 last season at their tournament and the Cougars will undoubtedly be looking to return the favor. NMSU is 4-4 against Houston all-time. Justine Farmer leads the way for the Cougars offensively with 37 kills in three matches which is more than double the number of kills of any of her other teammates. Amanda Carson has 19 digs for the Cougars and Lucy Charuk has 10 total blocks including three solo blocks in Houston's three matches.

You can follow all the Aggie volleyball action on AggieVision tonight. As always you can also follow along with Live Stats via the NMSU athletic website.

Don't forget to check out today's edition of Meet The Aggies as we introduce you to middle blocker Erin Birmingham. Erin transferred from Georgia Tech where she spent the past two seasons.

And if you didn't do so yesterday, check out our volleyball correspondent Mel's take from Wednesday night's victory over UTEP.

Also be sure to check out this week's interview with Coach Mumme. The Aggies are making the most of their extra preparation time due to the cancellation of last night's season opener. The Aggies are treating the upcoming game against Nebraska like a bowl game. The added time has also given the Aggies a chance to heal up.

On to today's links...

The Aggie volleyball team dispatched the UTEP Miners last night in the Pan Am winning the match 3-0. The Aggies dominated the first two sets winning 25-10 and 25-17. The Miners put up a fight in the third set but finally succumbed to the relentless Aggie attack losing 25-22. This marks the 12th time in the last 13 matches that NMSU has defeated UTEP and it's the 11th time the Aggies have won via a 3-0 sweep. Be sure to check out our pictures from last night's match.

Up next for the team is the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. The Eagles are 1-2 on the season with losses to Maine and UNC-Asheville and a win against Elon. The Eagles have four players with 20 or more kills on the season and freshman libero Holly Youngquist leads the team in digs with 32. This will be the first ever meeting between the Aggies and Eagles. The match begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Pan Am. and you can follow all the action via Live Stats through the NMSU athletic website.

Be sure to check out today's edition of Meet The Aggies. Today's profile highlights Aggie senior setter Alyssa Gintant.

Yesterday the WAC announced that they had reached an extension with ESPN to televise WAC events through April 2017. NMSU AD Steve Macy talks about the importance of this agreement for the Aggies in the latest edition of Steve's blog Calling All Aggies.

Finally, if you have kids and signed up for them to be members of the Bleacher Creatures call (575) 646-2521 to make arrangements to pick up your football tickets. You can also call this number if you're interested in having your kids join the Bleacher Creatures.

On to today's links...

It's Aggie volleyball game time here bleedCrimson.net. We've got a bunch of volleyball related items for you. First off is the latest entry in Brynja Rodgers' Aggie Volleyball Diary. We also have this week's interview with Coach Jordan. Coach talks about last weekend's tournament, what they learned about their team and he looks ahead at this week's matches against UTEP, Florida Gulf Coast, Houston, #4 Texas and Utah. And finally we have the return of one of bleedCrimson.net's original (and most popular) features our Meet The Aggies segment. We're highlighting the members of the Aggie volleyball team and we start off with Aggie senior outside hitter Lindsey Yon. Yon led the team last season in kills and after the first weekend of play is once again leading the team in kills.

Tonight's match is against I-10 rival UTEP. The Miners began their season at home in the Sun Bowl Invitational. They compiled a 1-2 record winning 3-0 against New Jersey Tech and dropping matches against Butler and Oral Roberts. UTEP returns five starters including outside hitters Catherine Chavez and Amy Sanders. Sanders and Chavez finished 1-2 on the team in kills with 399 and 311 respectively. Chavez was also second on the team in digs with 332. In all UTEP returns nine letterwinners while adding six faces.

NMSU is 47-21-1 against UTEP and has won 11 of the last 12 matches, their lone loss coming back on September 28th, 2004 in Las Cruces. In those 11 victories NMSU has swept UTEP in all but one of them and none have gone to five sets. Tonight's match begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Pan Am and can be seen on AggieVision and FSN Arizona (tape delay, begins at 7:30). You can also follow the action online with Live Stats via the NMSU athletic website. For more match information check out our Aggie Volleyball Gameday Central section on the front page.

Switching gears now, Aggie baseball head coach Rocky Ward was kind enough to share the Aggies' tenative 2009 schedule with us. A couple of things stand out in this season's schedule. First, the Aggies will open up with 12 consecutive home games, go on the road to Albuquerque for a game against New Mexico and then return home for another 10 consecutive home games. This schedule sets up very well for the young Aggie squad to start off the season incredibly well. The Aggies will be looking to replace a lot of their offensive production with the departures of Joseph Scaperotta, Joe Leghorn and Marcus Quade. One area that should be a tremendous strength for the Aggies is the pitching staff. The Aggies return starting pitchers Tyler Sturdevant, Heath Goin and Sebastien Vendette as well as Erik Nyquist.

The returning players and the favorable early schedule could lead to a return to the NCAA tournament for the Aggies. The conference schedule has also changed this season going from an unbalanced schedule (NMSU played Hawai'i and national champion Fresno State eight times last season) to a balanced schedule that has them playing each WAC member four times.

On to today's links...

Welcome back everyone, we hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. It was quite the eventful weekend in Aggie Country as the volleyball team kicked off their season in Illinois. The ladies lost to #11 Oregon and Illinois and defeated North Carolina. Unfortunately the Aggies' dropped out of the AVCA Top 25 but received enough votes to be ranked #29. This week is a very busy week for the team as they host their home opener tomorrow night against I-10 rival UTEP at 7:00 p.m. in the Pan Am. Then beginning on Thursday the Aggies host their own tournament with Florida Gulf Coast, Houston, Utah and #4 Texas all coming to town.

Tomorrow night's opponent UTEP went 1-2 in their opening weekend, Thursday's opponent Florida Gulf Coast also went 1-2, Houston (Friday) is 2-1, Utah (Sunday) is 2-0 and Texas (Saturday) is 1-1 as they opened the weekend at the AVCA Showcase against #7 Southern Cal and #3 Stanford. Stanford, Texas and USC were the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ranked schools in the preseason polls and the Aggies will be headed to Stanford next weekend for their tournament.

In men's basketball news Herb Pope will be headed to Seton Hall and the Aggies added two new players to their roster.

And unfortunately the Aggie football season will not kick off until Sept. 13th against Nebraska due Hurricane Gustav. The Aggies' opponent Nicholls State chose to postpone this Thursday's game (and we wish the folks down at Nicholls State all the best). This means that the home opener will now be on Sept. 27th against New Mexico.

Finally before we get into today's links, what is this world coming to? Last week we had a 9-year old little league pitcher banned from playing because he was too good and this week we have a 14-year old girl removed from a high school football team because... she's a girl.

On to today's links...

Raise your hand if you're as confused as we are. After reports from CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish on Friday said Herb Pope was staying, Coach Menzies announced yesterday afternoon that Herb is not staying after all. The announcement didn't contain all bad news however as Coach Menzies officially announced the return of Wendell "Baby Matrix" McKines and the additions of Hernst Laroche and Tyrone Watson to the team. Hernst and Laroche are both from Canada and while Laroche is eligible to play this season, Watson will redshirt this upcoming season.

Again we wish Herb Pope the best of luck at whatever school he ends up at.

While the Aggie football season won't start for another two weeks, Dustin Snyder of The Love of Sports names Chase Holbrook as one of the 10 Quarterbacks You Haven't Heard... Yet. Chase comes in at No. 5.

Have a safe Labor Day everyone!

On to today's links...

The Aggie volleyball team notched its first win of the season yesterday defeating North Carolina 3-1. The Aggies lost to Illinois earlier in the day 3-1. The Aggies are now 1-2 on the season and return home for five matches in five days beginning with UTEP on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Pan Am for their home opener. Krista Altermatt broke out of her offensive slump in the win over UNC hitting .278 on the match. In the matches against Oregon and Illinois she had posted a negative hitting percentage. In our preview of the Aggie volleyball team we talked about Krista Altermatt being the X-Factor on this Aggie squad and Coach Jordan felt that if she was playing well he liked the Aggies' chances of winning. While her negative hitting percentage in the first two games was not the cause of the Aggies' losses, it is interesting to note that in her best match the Aggies achieved victory. In the match she also recorded a team high 17 digs.

Krystal Torres had an outstanding match against Illinois tallying 23 digs and just one serve receive error. Her 23 digs tied her for the second most digs in a match during the tournament. Oregon's Katie Swoboda had 23 digs against the Aggies in a four set match and 30 digs against Illinois in their five set defeat.

After the first weekend of play Lindsey Yon leads the Aggies in kills with 43 (3.58 per set). Lindsey is picking up where she left off from last season as she led the Aggies in kills in 2007. She also recorded a double-double (double digit kills and digs) in each of the three matches.

Freshman Jennah DeVries had an impressive weekend. The young setter leaves the tournament with 60 assists and 19 digs. Her 60 assists are two behind senior Alyssa Gintant's team leading 62 assists.

On to today's links...

Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com is reporting that Herb Pope will return to the Aggies after a brief exploration of his options closer to his home on the east coast.

"He was just investigating an option that would bring him closer to home because of some personal issues," Menzies said. "But that wasn't something that materialized. ... So he's more than happy to return to New Mexico State for the season."

This is certainly good news for the Aggie men's basketball team and we hope that all is well with Herb Pope and his family.

Nicholls State Update: The eminent approach of tropical storm Gustav has resulted in Nicholls State University issuing a Phase II and Phase III Alert in accordance with their Emergency Hurricane Evacuation Plan. Their campus is to be evacuated by 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. In speaking with their media relations director, they are looking into their options. Cancellation of the game is possible, but would only be a "last resort" option. They are investigating leaving as early as tomorrow for Las Cruces, however, plans would need to be made for their return to Louisiana and/or non-return depending on the weather situation. Obviously the folks at Nicholls State have much bigger things to worry about than a football game and we wish everyone there the best during this situation.

Update II: Nicholls State will in fact be arriving early and begins practice on Sunday.