Hello Aggie family!!

For those of you who don’t know me I am Michelle Kuester and I will be a Senior this fall. This summer is a new experience for me; I have never attended summer courses or shown up for workouts early. I love being here early and regret not doing the same last summer. It is nice to have time to get to know my new teammates and spend time with the returners ahead of season. Our team chemistry is already miles ahead of last year and so is our effort. We are working out with Tony two times a week, doing cross fit workouts twice a week, and playing three times a week! The team effort on the court and in the weight room has been phenomenal. It is awesome to look around and see everyone bettering themselves and pushing to beat the person next to them. The feeling of competitiveness is strong in the newcomers and of course all of us older players as well. I am very confident in our abilities and our chances of beating Hawaii this year!  We look forward to seeing you out at games in the fall and we can’t wait to show you the new and much improved Aggie Volleyball Team!!! 

Go Aggies!!

Michelle Kuester #13

I'm adapting to NMSU great. I absolutely love it here, it feels like home. I love the views and how you can see the whole city of Las Cruces when driving down the hills we have around here. The weather is a nice change as well:) I love being in the sun and warm weather. As far as summer workouts go, I have definitely been challenged. Although I have never been so sore in my entire life, I know it will be worth it in the end and I'm glad that I am being pushed above my limits..I've been wanting to feel this pain because I know I'm getting stronger. Can't wait to continue along the journey!  I'm the taller one on the left.
#5 Maggi Jo Keffury

I came to New Mexico State because of the great tradition of success within the volleyball program, and because I really look forward to learning from the coaches and playing with the girls there. Most importantly though, is that I feel like its where God wants me to be.


#3 Meredith Hays

Hello all! 

 

To those of you who don't know me, I am Kelli Goodan from the small town of Des Moines, New Mexico, where the cattle outnumber the people.  It is located in the Northeast corner of New Mexico, between the small towns of Raton and Clayton.  I graduated from High School there, with a class of twelve people.

 

I played volleyball for Mike (and Ashley Hardee, Stevi Adams, Debby Baker, Don Flora, and Tricia Wright) for the 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 volleyball seasons.  We made school history in 2008 by making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and pushing with Hawaii for the regular season WAC Championships.  I played with a number of people, but here are just a few:  Alice Borden, Jackie Choi, Tanya Allen, Jordan Bostic, Kim Oguh, Amber Simpson, Bri Akrie, Anna Callis, Krystal Torres, Lindsey Yon, Krista Altermatt, Angel Tirado, Whitney Woods, Erin Birmingham, and many more over the years.  We have had a very successful reign of athletes, and I look forward to this year's reign to continue to push further into history.

 

I graduated in May 2010, after exhausting my NCAA volleyball eligibility, with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Community Development, a minor in Natural Resource Leadership and Agriculture Business Management.  Currently I am working on attaining my Master's of Arts in Agriculture and Extension Education.  I am currently the graduate assistant for the NMSU Volleyball team and hope to graduate in May 2012.

 

Upon graduation, I would like to become a coach somewhere, or even perhaps teach.  It all depends upon what job openings are available at the time of my departure from NMSU.  I try to live life to the fullest, and have a full schedule as a result.  My faith, family, and friends are very important to me, and I have a definite love for the game of volleyball.  Everyone has been tremendously supportive of my dreams and aspirations, and I appreciate them and love them dearly.

 

I look forward to a tremendous 2011 year for Aggie Volleyball.  I see great things in the athletes and am excited for the upcoming season.  We appreciate all your wonderful support of the program and the girls!  Thank you!

 

Go Aggies & God Bless!

Kelli Goodan

Three school Three years…
Hello Aggie friends and family! For those of you who don’t know me my name is Madison Hardy. I will be a red shirt junior this next year here at NMSU. I am a transfer student athlete; NMSU is school number three on my crazy life journey that I have embarked on.  Really New Mexico State is my 8th school in 8 years, I went to 2 middle schools and 3 high schools stretching from Reno Nevada to Placerville California. All of the moving around I did before I graduated high school made it difficult for me to be eligible to attend a Division 1 program right out of high school. I was devastated when I received this news, my plan was to come straight to NMSU and join the Aggie family.
          I started looking at Junior Colleges that I could attend till I could transfer to NMSU. I had a few options and chose a school called Iowa Western Community College located in Council Bluffs Iowa. I was a dual athlete there; I played volleyball in the fall and ran track in the spring. The volleyball program was one of the best in its division. We finished the season with a 58-6 record and 4th at Nationals. Running track in the spring was a fun experience; it is so different than volleyball. I ran the 4 x 4 and 400 hundred-meter hurdles. Those are very difficult events and I pushed my self to limits I didn’t think were possible. Iowa Western taught me so much about myself, and attending a smaller Junior College was an excellent way to ease myself into the college experience. I was tested mentally and physically everyday, at the end of my freshmen year I felt so accomplished and proud of myself for working hard and making something good out of a not so good situation.  My volleyball coach there was offered another job, so once again I was faced with a decision to make. I was offered to play at Hawaii Pacific University, a Division 2 school on the island of Oahu. Since my coach and many of my teammates were leaving Iowa Western I decided to take the offer and move to Hawaii.
         Hawaii Pacific was an adventure in itself; I absolutely love the beach and the ocean. I was able to play beach volleyball practically everyday which is something that I enjoy very much. Hawaii is a very beautiful place, and I grew a lot as an athlete and a person. Unfortunately the level of volleyball was not as competitive as I had hoped. As many of you know University of Hawaii is in our league, when I was living in Hawaii I went to watch NMSU play UH. I will never forget that moment when I realized how important it was to me that I compete at the highest-level possible, and felt like I belonged on the floor with the Aggies.  So my mind was set, I was to be an Aggie. I got my release from HPU and talked to coach Jordan. That summer I made my plans to move to Las Cruces.
         My journey has been a very eventful one so far, and all my experiences have shaped me into the person I am today.  I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, I know where I came from and how hard I had to work to become an Aggie. I wouldn’t change my journey for anything.  Everything that I have gone through has made me a better person and I feel so blessed for being able to be an Aggie.  NMSU will be my last school I promise.

Madison Hardy #12 

Hello AGGIE FAMILY!!
With only a week of volleyball practice left this spring there is still lots of room for improvement. We have a tournament this upcoming weekend at Texas Tech.
This will be our fourth and final tournament this spring. I can’t believe this is my last spring. I’m so thankful for how much I have learned about life and myself these past 3 years. It’s been an AMAZING JOURNEY so far. Three years ago I came into college a young girl and have transformed into a young women. I have seen some wonderful places, have been blessed to meet some of the most amazing
people and have made some great memories! Wow! Time sure does fly by. ONE-WEEK LEFT!! I’m looking forward to finishing my LAST spring semester STRONG! I absolutely love SPRING semester! Spring is when the team becomes a better, stronger and smarter volleyball team. We run and lift 3 times a week and have practice every weekday with tournaments on the weekends. Our strength and conditioning has been altered a little bit  and we're leaps and bounds better.  We have all worked hard this semester in the practice gym, in the weight room and in the classroom. I definitely can see big improvements from everybody, but know we still have a long ways to go. So we don’t lose everything we have gained this spring, we are to continue working out through the summer to prepare us for a challenging fall semester.  Fall will be here before we know it. We have a hard preseason schedule and I am looking forward to playing teams such as Nebraska who is one of the very physical and talented teams we will play against. The Western Athletic Conference has become a MUCH stronger conference in the last 3 years, which is good to see. With this in mind each conference game will be very challenging. Something that I was taught in my younger years of volleyball was “anybody can beat anyone on any given day.” I truly believe this. Each practice, each game you have to prepare well in order to play well. It takes HARD WORK to play WELL and takes HARD WORK to WIN! We have some VERY talented freshman coming in who will all have a big impact on our success. Some of which will be KEY players for us. I’m eager to be their teammate, to inspire them, and lead them towards being WAC champions and doing well in the NCAA’s.  Summer is almost here! YAY!! Which means……….. I become an AUNTIE of a little princess, 100-degree weather, sun tan lines, swimming pools, workouts, thunderstorms, family time, lemonade, sunshine, watermelon, smiles, BBQs and laughter. Enjoy your SUMMER EVERYONE!!!! Can’t wait to see you all in the fall!

GO AGGIES!!!
Jennah DeVries #10

Hi All!

Now that our new and most wonderful assistant coach has given us the opportunity to be more connected
with all you fans, I thought I would let you guys get to know me a little bit.  Im not sure if many of you know,
but i am the only hometown girl on our team! I was born and raised here in Las Cruces, and am ecstatic to
get to be an Aggie as well as a part of such a wonderful program.  When I graduated high school I did not
think that volleyball was something I wanted to do in college so, I entered NMSU as a normal student for my
first semester in college.  As much as I enjoyed all the freedom that came with it, there was still part of me
that was itching to get back into the gym and play again.  Thankfully, Coach Jordan was kind enough to let
me join the team in the spring semester of 2010!  I have been with them ever since and have loved every bit
of it!  It's great being back at it again.  I'll have to admit, it took me a while to get back into the swing of
things, and I have learned so much in just the year I have been apart of this team.  Fall was a big
adjustment for me and an incredible experience and I cannot wait for next season!  Now that we are back at
it this spring training hard, everyone including myself, are making huge strides.  The environment in the gym
and weight room are awesome and we are working hard preparing for this upcoming season! I hope to meet
more of you guys soon!  We appreciate all your support! Go Aggies!
Jene Coppedge #1

Hello Aggie Volleyball Friends, Fans, Family and Alumni!
Spring has sprung here in beautiful Las Cruces! 80 degree weather is the norm with no lack of sunshine, the trees and grass are getting green again, and volleyball is in full swing here at NMSU. It’s kind of bittersweet heading into my last spring season and I cannot believe how time has flown by! The past three years have been so much fun and I feel as though I’ve grown a ton as a player and person. We have about a month left of training and so far this spring has been great for everyone!
 Spring always seems to drag on, at least for me, because there is so much practice without a lot of competing against someone other than ourselves and the level of training is much higher and harder on the body but this year has been so much fun with the energy in the gym that it has gone by so fast. We got a lot of great work in during positional training for the first month and a half or so and after a month of full team practice every day it is easy to say that it really paid off. Everyone has improved from the fall and it’s been great to get a new set of eyes and opinions in the gym with the addition of our new assistant coach. We’ve really stepped up the intensity this spring with conditioning and practice and it seems to be paying off a great deal, everyone is moving faster and jumping higher and the level of competition in the gym has grown leaps and bounds. I know I’m not the only one who is ready to get back here in the fall to compete for real and show how much this spring has paid off!
Can’t wait to see you all (or most of you) in the stands this fall!!
Go Aggies!
Kelsey Brennan #6

Tricia Wright

This is my 7^th year now @ New Mexico State.  I returned to Las Cruces three years ago.  I love Las Cruces for its supported volleyball community and enjoy the food and culture.   

Tricia Wright

New Coach

Hi,
I'm the new assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at New Mexico State University.  I've been in Las Cruces a little over a month and it's been great.  We're currently on Spring Break and I'm finally catching up with recruiting. This NMSU VB Blog is a resource for all our fans, parents and followers to stay connected to the Aggie Volleyball program.  I look forward to meeting all of you in the near future.

Go AGGIES~
Keith Rubio