by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
If it keeps this up, the UNM volleyball team will probably have to talk to its equipment provider about getting some new gear.
In four Mountain West Conference matches so far, the Lobos have gone to five games in each one.
The latest five-game epics were Friday and Saturday - 3-2 losses to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and San Diego State University at Johnson Center.
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Before that there was the 3-2 loss against No. 20-ranked Brigham Young University and the 3-2 win over the University of Utah a week ago.
The two recent losses drop UNM's record to 9-5 overall and 1-3 in the Mountain West Conference. The Lobos are one win away from equaling their previous high in head coach Kelley McKee's four-year tenure at UNM.
McKee said the two losses this weekend were heartbreaking.
"I'm totally disappointed," she said. "Our staff is disappointed. We had opportunities in both matches to win."
McKee said the Lobos were their own worst enemy in the two losses. Against the Aztecs, UNM missed 13 serves, McKee said.
"It's our mental errors and our inability to play consistently over a long period of time," she said. "I think mentally we have to improve. A lot of errors we are making are mental. They're unforced and we have to understand that we are in control of some parts of the game."
On Saturday, the Lobos won the first game against San Diego State 30-24 before losing the next two, 30-26 and 30-27.
In the match, Nicole Ryan led UNM with 16 kills, with Michelle Miller and Kelly Therkelsen collecting 14 and 11, respectively.
Samie Weber put up eight blocks and nine kills, while Gayle Tripp had 15 digs and Sarah Kwasigroch had 63 of UNM's 66 assists.
UNM lost the first game on Friday against UNLV, 30-19, but came back to take game two, 30-27. The Lobos flip-flopped with the Runnin' Rebels in the last three games, losing game three and winning game four before dropping the fifth game to lose the match.
Ryan led the team in kills on Friday with 17, with Therkelsen chipping in 14 kills. Tripp had a team-high 17 digs, and Kwasigroch added 50 assists.
Although the Lobos have gone to five games with every conference opponent so far, McKee said the five-game matches shouldn't be happening in the first place.
"I think there is a lot of parity in the conference," she said. "With regards to us though, if we played a consistent game of volleyball, we wouldn't be in the situations we've been in."
Now it's time to see how the Lobos respond to the two narrow losses, McKee said.
"I think we have to re-evaluate what parts of the game we need to get better in," she said. "We have to be ready to improve and go into the gym and want to improve every day. It's going to be a great show of character if we can get into the gym, get gritty and say we are going to get better."
McKee said the two losses are nothing more than a small obstacle for her team to overcome - something she's sure it'll do easily.
"There's no doubt that they can come back from this," she said.
