The Aggie women's basketball team bounced back from their loss against Hawai'i as they stifled the visiting San Jose State Spartans last night 54-29. No, that is not a typo, SJSU only scored 29 points. It's the fewest points allowed by the Aggies against Division I team in the program's history. Only twice has New Mexico State held an opponent to fewer points. The Aggies (back then probably known as the Roadrunners) held Holloman Air Force Base to 13 points in a nailbiter (118-13) on November 19, 1976. Two years prior to that the Roadrunners had shootout with the Police Athletic Club (not literally) winning 28-14. In the "modern era" of women's basketball, the Aggies held San Diego to 36 points (1983), UT-Pan American to 36 points (1989) and most recently, Central Michigan to 35 points (1994).

The Spartans had only scored nine points by halftime and it took them 30 minutes of game time to finally outscore Tabytha Wampler (who finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds). Wampler had a 10-9 lead at halftime and continued to outscore the Spartans until they hit their 16th and 17th points.

All kidding aside, this was a very important victory for the Aggies. They improve to 5-6 in league play. They are a half game behind Idaho (who we mentioned on Wednesday has a tough tough tough finishing stretch), a game and a half behind Nevada who finishes with Boise State, the Aggies and then must close the season with LA Tech and Fresno State, and two games behind Utah State who finishes with Idaho, the Aggies, LA Tech but then ends the regular season with the dreaded Hawai'i/San Jose State swing.

If the Aggies can finish their final five games with a 4-1 record they will no doubt finish in the top four in the league (possibly as high as third), a 3-2 finish could also net them a top four seed depending on how the rest of the cards fall.

Last night was also win number 106 for head coach Darin Spence who in his seventh season as the Aggies' head coach is the second winningest coach in program history and realistically, he's the winningest coach because several of the wins that the Aggies' winningest coach, Karen Fey (no disrespect intended) racked up at least 24 of her 130 Aggie victories against various junior colleges, Fort Bliss, Holloman AFB, William Beaumont (not sure whether it was the man William Beaumont or the hospital in El Paso), Chihuahua (obviously a team from Mexico), Simon Fraser (a Canadian college that this year joined the NCAA's Division II).

We also did a little more research and Darin Spence has led the team to 73 victories (not including this year's total) during his first six seasons in the WAC. Outside of already established women's basketball powers Fresno State and LA Tech, that's the third most wins by any WAC program trailing only Nevada and Boise State for aggregate wins (also two fairly established west coast programs).

The Aggie baseball team gets their season underway today against Houston Baptist. It should be an interesting debut considering several factors. The Aggies lost a ton of production on offense to graduation and the NCAA made changes to the bat specifications in order to try to lower scoring and shorten game times. It will be interesting to see how the Aggie offense produces with the new bats. Obviously the Aggies are known for their home run hitting prowess but the Aggies are also a very very good doubles hitting team which can be just as useful in scoring runs.

First pitch for the 2011 season is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. (MT). Streaming video will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required).

The Aggie softball team is also back in action this weekend as they play No. 6 Oklahoma today at 4:30 p.m. (MT) in the Troy Cox Classic. Following the conclusion of that game they Aggies will take on Louisiana-Monroe.

The Aggie offense got off to a good start last weekend and they will definitely have their work cut out for them today as they will more than likely face OU ace Keilani Ricketts. If the last name Ricketts sounds familiar, it should. Kalani is the older sister of standout Hawai'i pitcher Stephanie Ricketts, a player whom the Aggies also recruited heavily.

Coach Rodolph wants the team to welcome the challenge of playing a Top 10 team and go out there with no fear. This will be the first of several opportunities in the non-conference to build an at-large resume. A win either today or Sunday when the Aggies face OU for the second time, would go a long way towards building that resume.

A couple of volleyball notes to pass along, the Aggies have hired an assistant to replace Don Flora (now the head coach at Texas Tech). The Aggies announced yesterday the hiring of Keith Rubio.

Also, the University of Arizona released their spring volleyball schedule and there are a couple of dates that Aggie fans should circle on their calendar. New Mexico State will travel to Tucson on March 26th for the Wildcats' spring tournament and then on April 9th, the Cats will come to Las Cruces.

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The New Mexico State women's basketball team held San Jose State to a record-low 29 points, the fewest ever allowed by the Aggies against a Division I team, as they rolled to a 54-29 victory on Thursday night in the Pan American Center. Tabytha Wampler scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as Wampler single-handedly outscored the Spartans through the first 29 and a half minutes of the game.

New Mexico State scored the first eight points of the game as they tried to shake off their disappointing loss to Hawai'i on Tuesday night and never looked back. The Aggies led the Spartans 14-4 after a jumper from Madison Spence with 9:55 left in the first half. A layup from Sara Plavljanin would keep the Aggies' lead at 10 but the Aggies would push their lead out to 15 after a pair of Tabytha Wampler free throws with 5:34 left in the half. The Aggies would continue to lead by 15 after a jumper from Mayfield H.S. (Las Cruces, N.M.) walk-on Justina Adams, the first points of her Aggie career, put the Aggies up 23-8. The Spartans would get one free throw with a minute left in the half and the Aggies would get a pair of free throws from Madison Spence with seven seconds left in the first half to go into the break up 25-9.

New Mexico State would score the first 11 points of the second half to take a commanding 36-9 lead with 16:33 left to play. San Jose State would finally score their first points of the second half on a layup from Brittany Johnson with 16:01 left to play, the first field goal for the Spartans in nine minutes of game time stretching back to the first half.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Head coach Mike Jordan announced that Keith Rubio will be the next assistant coach for the New Mexico State volleyball team, Thursday, Feb. 17.

"We're really excited to have Keith (Rubio) on staff," Jordan said. "He's a tireless worker and a great guy. He'll bring a lot of energy and experience to the gym and handle a lot of our day to day recruiting."

Before coming to New Mexico State, Rubio spent seven seasons as head coach at Quincy University. He guided the Hawks to 13 wins in 2008 and increased the teams win total in his first three years. He also led the Lady Hawks to a 19-14 record in 2007, their highest win total since 1998.

Rubio was the assistant head coach of the women's volleyball team at the University of Oregon. He worked as the program's recruiting coordinator and camp director. He worked with the setters, middle hitters and liberos.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The New Mexico State men's and women's teams earn All-Academic Team status as announced by the United State Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association on Thursday. A total of 10 members from the men's cross country team maintain at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA and a total of six members from the women's team maintain at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA.

To qualify as a USTFCCCA All-Academic Cross Country Team, the team must have had a cumulative team GPA of 3.00 or better and have started at least five regional at their respective NCAA regional championship.

The men's team maintains 3.41 team cumulative GPA through the fall of 2010 while the women's team maintains a 3.11 team cumulative GPA through the fall of 2010.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie women's basketball team will try to bounce back from their loss on Tuesday night as they take on San Jose State tonight in the Pan Am. The Aggies had a battle with the Spartans in San Jose, similar to the one they had against Hawai'i on Tuesday night. It was a low scoring affair that the Aggies won 52-46. It was also a game in which SJSU's Sara Plavljanin scored over half of her team's points finishing with 28 on 9-of-16 shooting from the field, 5-of-6 from three point distance and 5-of-6 from the free throw stripe. The Aggies forced 25 turnovers in that game and scored 21 points off of those turnovers.

The Spartans have been held under 40 points seven times this season, including, three times in conference play. This is a game that the Aggies must win, it's a game they should win. Unfortunately, Tuesday night was a game that they should have won as well.

Obviously the second time around the Aggies will be more aware of Sara Plavijanin and it's unlikely that she will hit the Aggies for 28 again. The keys to tonight's game are the same as the keys to Tuesday night's game: Energy, Rebounding and The Big Four (Madison, Jasmine, Danisha and Tabytha). A win tonight is a must if they want to maintain hopes of finishing in the top four in the standings and earning a first round bye.

The game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. (MT) tipoff and can be heard on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces as well as online via Aggie Access (subscription required). Streaming video will also be available for tonight's game via Aggie Access.

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bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the opening weekend?
Kathy Rodolph: We started practice January 8th and so we'd been practicing an awful long time and I feel like the kids came out with tremendous energy and excitement to play and I thought that carried throughout the whole weekend. Probably what I was most excited about on the weekend was the solid contributions that we got from a lot of people. It speaks for now as well as in the future.

bc.net: Teresa Conrad and Valerie Swedberg put up some big numbers in the opening weekend and for Conrad, her numbers were a big jump over last year.
KR: Teresa had a really good fall for us and hit really well all fall and probably the most notable accomplishment for Teresa on the weekend is Cat moved her into the five hole to protect Hoku because Hoku was getting walked a lot and Teresa was really able to solidify and come through in clutch situations protecting Hoku in that five hole. Teresa did a great job offensively for us.

Valerie Swedberg is a heck of a hitter. She had broken Angie Ortega's home run record for high school so I knew that when I got her I really had a good one coming in as a freshman.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Very disappointing loss last night for the Aggie women as they lost 57-52 to Hawai'i. The freshman vs. freshman rebounding battle we had hoped to see never materialized as it was a one-sided affair with the winner Kamilah Jackson from Hawai'i. In fact, the battle on the boards was a one-sided affair with Hawai'i crushing the Aggies on the boards 52-32. The 19 offensive rebounds by Hawai'i were a killer for the Aggies. One possession in particular summed up the rebounding last night. Late in the game with the Aggies trailing UH by six, Kamilah Jackson stole the ball from Tabytha Wampler, the ball got to Shawna-Lei Kuehu who put up a shot, missed, grabbed her own rebound, put up another shot, missed and Jackson got the rebound. Eventually Megan Tinnin would commit a foul as the Aggies and Wahine battled for a loose ball but Hawai'i nearly got three shots off in trip down the floor and in doing so, took just about a minute off the game clock.

The turning point in the game, however, was an exchange with just under nine minutes left to play. The Aggies had battled back from a nine-point deficit to take a two point lead after a three pointer from Jasmine Lowe. They had built up momentum and it looked like maybe they would give themselves a little cushion. Christina Fletcher was fouled and went to the free throw line for a one-and-one. Fletcher, in her defense, had only been to the free throw line 14 times the entire season (to her credit she had made 10 of those attempts. She ended up airballing the free throw. Hawai'i got the ball and on the other end, Fletcher committed a foul on Kuehu who was in the act of shooting and made the basket. Kuehu converted the free throw for the old-fashioned three point play and the Aggies would never lead in the game again.

For the Aggies, this loss is especially disappointing considering the Wahine had lost 18 consecutive WAC road games and this loss also keeps the Aggies in sixth place in the standings, 1.5 games behind Nevada and Idaho and 3.5 games behind Utah State. It also makes their job of attaining a Top 4 seed and at least a first round bye that much more difficult. The Aggies host SJSU on Thursday night and Fresno State on Monday night. Then they travel to Utah State and Nevada next Thursday and Saturday. Realistically the Aggies need to go 3-1 in that stretch to maintain hopes of a top 4 seed heading into the final weekend at home where they'll host Idaho and Boise State.

The good news for the Aggies is all three of those teams who are ahead of them still have to face Louisiana Tech and both Nevada and Idaho have to face both Louisiana Tech and Fresno State. Idaho has the toughest finish out of the five teams battling for spots 2, 3 and 4 (we'll lump Fresno State in there as well just because they have two losses and could still conceivably drop out of the 2-seed). Idaho ends the season with Nevada, Utah State, at Fresno, at NMSU and at LA Tech.

If the Aggies can right the ship they still have a good shot at a top four finish but they will definitely need to play much better than they did last night.

On a side note, Madison Spence, who continues to play well in her final season as an Aggie, notched her very first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Madison did it all last night as she also notched five assists and five steals to go along with those double-double numbers (to put it another way, she was halfway to a quadruple-double).

Every college sports fan is probably aware of the acronym BMOC (if you're not, it stands for Big Man On Campus). Well, Hofstra's Charles Jenkins is said BMOC this morning after his heroics last night against William &Mary last night. A video is worth a thousand words. Check it out (H/T Mike Miller- MSNBC, Pete Thamel- NYT, @AJVoepel and our friends Rush The Court)

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