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Aguilar: ENMU, volleyball were right choices

PORTALES — Former Clovis High grad Andrea Aguilar didn't always plan on staying close to home to resume her volleyball career, despite coming from a large family.

However, after further consideration, she decided to stick around and attend Eastern New Mexico, and it's a decision that she's glad to have made.

"I finally came in and got to practice one day (with the ENMU volleyball team during my senior year of high school)," Aguilar explained. "I really liked the girls and it was a really fun atmosphere. I really thoroughly have enjoyed my decision to come here. It's really paid off."

It's decision that has also paid off for the Greyhounds, as well, as she will play her final home game tonight against Texas A&M-Commerce.

Aguilar emerged as the starting libero during her freshman year, and has not relinquished the role since. In 87 sets played in 2014, Aguilar recorded 297 digs and 42 assists.

Little did anyone know, she'd become a record-setter in her Eastern career, as she's registered 1,695 digs - and counting. That number includes 522 as a sophomore and 533 as a junior, and as of Nov. 2, she has 343 in 2017, with several matches left to play.

However, with a younger squad taking the floor in 2017, the senior has taken on a bigger role. Aguilar, along with fellow senior Brooklyn Biel, are co-captains this year. It's a role that Aguilar has handled exceptionally well.

"Last year, (mine and Brooklyn's) role wasn't as big. We've always been supporting roles to the team, but again, last year it started out that (the captains) kept wanting everybody's input. Just more and more each game, I'd give them, 'Hey, this needs to happen," Aguilar said.

"Our captains last year kind of helped us transition already - we were just all vocal. (Coach Poyer) is really good at interacting the younger players, because we all want to have a voice."

Poyer said he discovered Aguilar at a fundraiser beach volleyball tournament put on by Clovis High School. His first impression was amazement by how Aguilar, with a slim 5-foot-4 frame, could make every dig on every ball in the sand. From that point on, he knew that Eastern needed to have her.

In fact, Poyer calls her recruitment a "big steal" for the Greyhounds. Thus far, Aguilar has backed up her game by proving that she's one of the Lone Star Conference's best defensive players, and has even received the LSC's Defensive Player of the Week honors on multiple occasions along the way.

"She's incredible," Poyer explained. "Her read on the serves coming over (are amazing). To me, that and blocking are probably the two hardest skills in volleyball to become efficient. Forget mastering it — just being efficient.

"It's a struggle for us, because a lot of teams don't serve her, but she'll try to jump in front of Sarah (Tuioti-Mariner) or Marissa (Ellis) and try to take their passes — make it easier on them. I don't even think she weighs 100 (pounds), but she's the hardest worker on our team. She's in the weight room — you'd think she's lifting a thousand pounds. She's just a big, big part of our team."

Aguilar was a three-sport standout at Clovis High, as she also played soccer and softball. She comes from a family of seven, and as the youngest member, Andrea always watched her brothers and sisters.

Aguilar says that they've helped her immensely, and in particular they've done two things for her — brought out her competitive spirit and made her more prepared for the challenges of high school athletics, as opposed to other girls who were around the same age at the time.

Her sisters were volleyball standouts, but decided against chances to play college ball. When asked if playing in college automatically gives her bragging rights over the others, Aguilar shrugged her shoulders, laughed and said, "Maybe sometimes."

As for her volleyball career, it wasn't always her first love. In fact, she's always been a softball junkie, and like soccer and basketball, she played on travel teams and found herself always busy playing something.

Still, she thinks she picked the right sport.

"Volleyball really speaks to me. I really like how excited it makes me. I like showing up for games," Aguilar said. "It's not as big of a mental stress as softball was to me, because you would always have to picture your batting average or something like that. Here, I felt like it was a different transition. I really do enjoy other sports, and now I get the luxury of getting to watch them."