by Brandon Call
Daily Lobo
Gayle Tripp recorded her 1,000th career dig for the UNM volleyball team Saturday.
She is the 10th player in school history to reach the milestone.
But there wasn't much celebration after the Lobos dropped a 22-30, 30-26, 31-29, 32-30 heartbreaker to the UNLV Rebels at Johnson Gym.
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"A win would have been a much better thing," Tripp said. "It is exciting, but I wish it would have come earlier and helped us win."
After jumping out to a 10-point lead and grabbing Game 1, it was downhill for UNM.
"In Game 2, we definitely didn't play our best," head coach Jeff Nelson said. "We gave up leads in Games 3 and 4. It's disappointing really."
Game 3 saw the Rebels and Lobos battle through 12 tie scores to even the game at 29. But a UNLV kill and a UNM hitting error gave the Rebels the game.
In Game 4, the Lobos gave up a six-point lead to tie the game at 27. Two UNLV errors gave the Lobos a game point at 29-27, but UNM failed to capitalize.
"We had a missed set, and we chipped the ball instead of ripping," Nelson said. "You have to play to win at that point, and we didn't do that. We played not to lose. We played safe, and it bit us in the butt."
Jeanne Fairchild posted a game-high 27 kills to lead the Lobo offense. Lisa Meeter notched 17 kills, Rose Morris added 12, and Anna Lehne chipped in 11. Jade Michaelsen had a career-high 57 assists.
But it was the negative statistics - eight service errors and .226 team hitting - that decided UNM's fate.
"When the match got close, we missed a few serves," he said. "We can't do that. We had some tough mental breakdowns at the end that cost us the match."
With the loss, UNM drops to 14-6 on the season and 5-3 in the Mountain West Conference, putting the Lobos in a third-place tie with BYU.
Halfway through the conference schedule, UNM is unsatisfied with third, Tripp said.
"We have got to make some changes and turn it around," she said. "If we can make the changes, we can be in first. It's going to take some hard work, but we just have to do it."
Nelson said the Lobos will have to pick up their play if they want to reach the top spot.
"We've got to step up and be tougher when the game is on the line," he said. "We've had a lot of wins that were close this year. We're really good when we're behind at the end of the game, but when we get to 29 first, we're not playing well. We've got to get better if we want to get where we want to be."
Volleyball at Wyoming
Thursday, 7 p.m.
Laramie, Wyo.
