Beach Volleyball: UNM on season-high win streak after pair of wins over Colorado Mesa

The New Mexico beach volleyball team looked sharp in its first home action of the season, beating Colorado Mesa twice at Lucky 66 Bowl in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Lobos (10-9) have a winning record for the first time since Mar. 3 after winning the season opener and are currently on a season-high three-match winning streak.

UNM earned a sweep over Colorado Mesa on Friday, winning on all five courts in convincing fashion.

Lise Rugland and Devanne Sours took their first set 21-15 and closed things out by dominating the second set by a count of 21-6.

The Mavericks had a chance to draw even in the team score, but lost a pivotal third set against Carly Beddingfield and Jackie Baro which put the Lobos one point away from a team win. Although Beddingfield and Baro dropped the first set, they responded to win 18-21, 21-16, 15-10.

The Lobos clinched the match after Maria Doran and Eastyn Baleto took care of business on court three, as the duo won in straight sets 21-14, 21-10.

The No. 5 pair of Lauren Twitty and Julia Warren and Cassie House and Ashley Kelsey, who competed at the No. 1 position, also earned straight-set victories for the 5-0 sweep.

"Devanne, Lise, Cassie and AK (Ashley) provided some real highlights on the first court here for people with a lot of oo's and ahh's for people," Nelson said in a release.

New Mexico looked just as good against Colorado Mesa on Saturday in the second match.

The Lobos jumped out to an early lead after the pair of House and Kelsey again showed their dominance in closeout situations. They won in straight sets again 21-18, 21-7.

UNM’s Victoria Spragg and Chloe Crappell notched the second point of the day by prevailing in a tightly contested match at the No. 4 position, 21-19, 21-14.

The team got the clinch point after Warren and Twitty put on arguably the best performance of the day, winning 21-10, 21-12 at the No. 5 spot.

Doran and Baleto won on court three again to put the Lobos up 4-0 in the team score, but Rugland and Sours were dealt a rare loss at No. 1, falling to Colorado Mesa’s Abby Ney and Taylor Woods, 18-21, 24-22, 15-13.

Rugland and Sours had been 9-2 in their last 11 matches, a release said. But New Mexico still walked away with a 4-1 team win on Saturday.

The team will look to continue its hot play this weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. The team will play a pair of double-headers facing Lincoln Memorial and UAB on Apr. 14, followed by matches against UT Martin and UAB for a second time on Apr 15.

Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers football and men’s and women’s tennis. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.