The Lobo women's volleyball team suffered two road losses last weekend at the hands of Wyoming and the No. 9 team in the country, Colorado State.
UNM's two losses knock them down to 6-6 on the season and 0-2 in the Mountain West Conference.
Head coach Kelley McKee said the two losses were not the way the Lobos wanted to come out of the weekend, but she was still satisfied with the way her team played.
"Ideally we would have liked to come out of the weekend 1-1," she said. "But we still played tough, and I'm really proud of the way the team never gave up and kept fighting."
The Lobos went down to the wire against Wyoming, finally losing in five games. The Lobos' performance was a marked improvement from last year's game, when they were routed 3-0 and 3-1.
"We are moving forward and progressing as a team," McKee said. "I'm really pleased with how we have performed so far this season. In just our nonconference schedule, we have already topped our win total from last season, so we are headed in the right direction."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Junior Nicole Ryan laid down a season-high 22 kills in the match, while Monica Meihack helped out with 51 assists and nine digs.
Senior Adah Burke's 32 digs in the match gave her the third best all-time in a UNM match. Burke is living up to her preseason All-MWC selection by averaging a conference-best 4.52 digs in the game.
The Lobos were paced with double-digit kills by three other players. Kelly Therkelsen and Chelsea Sondrup each had 10 kills, while freshman Samie Weber recorded 11 kills.
Colorado State, which is now 10-1 on the season and 2-0 in the MWC, handled the Lobos easily in three games.
McKee said the Lobos' errors in the game centered on an inability to take care of the ball on their side of the net.
"The No. 1 factor is to not make so many errors on our side of the net," she said. "We can't make mistakes like that against a really good team. Our inconsistency is a problem because we play good points, and then we make a few mistakes, and the game is over."
The Lobos were held to a .082 attack percentage for the match. Sondrup's eight kills and five blocks were tops on the team. Weber continued a solid freshman campaign with her six kills and two blocks. Burke led the way defensively with nine digs, while Meihack handed out 18 assists.
Despite the two losses, the team has come together and begun to make positive steps toward moving out of the bottom of the conference, McKee said.
"The top of the league is solid, but if we can win these close games we can get out of the bottom of the league," she said. "The door is open for us, we just need to step through it."
The Lobos return to action at home Thursday against BYU. The game is set to start at 7 p.m.
