by Brandon Call
Daily Lobo
The UNM volleyball team lost two matches this weekend, dropping the Lobos to sixth place in Mountain West Conference standings.
An error-plagued UNM lost to BYU 28-30, 26-30 and 22-30 on Friday. It then fell to Utah 28-30, 30-25, 24-30, and 24-30 on Saturday at Johnson Gym.
With the losses, the Lobos fall to 15-10 and 6-7 in the MWC.
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"I have never been more disappointed with the team," head coach Jeff Nelson said. "We're looking at a No. 6 seed in the conference tournament right now, and three weeks ago, we were No. 2 or No. 3."
After starting the season 7-0 and going 5-3 during the first half of MWC action, the Lobos are now 1-4 against MWC opponents in their last five conference games - losing three straight matches.
"We played the first half of the season really hard," Nelson said. "When we finished the first half of conference play, we were tied for second and in the hunt. Now, we're not battling. We look like we're just satisfied out there."
But what has been the downfall for UNM recently?
Nelson said the Lobos have been inconsistent from night to night.
"We're getting one or two people a night performing, but we're not getting team performances," he said. "At times, different players step up. But we're down the home stretch, and a lack of a good leader - a consistent leader - is showing through."
Junior outside hitter Jeanne Fairchild led the Lobos offensively, recording a match-high 16 kills Friday. Fairchild leads the MWC in kills with 4.82 per game and is ranked 25th nationally.
But Fairchild is also battling a stress fracture in her left foot that has limited her play for the Lobos and kept her out of the back row.
Freshman outside hitter Lisa Meeter has stepped up in Fairchild's absence, recording a career-high 26 kills Saturday.
"(Meeter) had a good game offensively," Nelson said. "She was swinging on some of the broken plays, catching people off guard, and she mixed in some really nice jump serves."
Defensively, junior libero Gayle Tripp inched closer to second place on the Lobo all-time career digs list with a match-high 14 digs on Friday. Her career total stands at 1,089. She needs just 25 more to move into the next spot.
And when Tripp has an off night, freshman Kelsi Phillips picks up the slack. Phillips notched 17 digs to lead the Lobos defensively Saturday.
But it was other statistics - a combined .163 team hitting and 17 service errors in the two matches - that determined UNM's fate.
"We made a lot of errors at critical times," Fairchild said. "I know that our serving errors hurt us. We are trying to be more aggressive on our serves, and with that comes more errors. But there were a lot of hitting errors that we still need to work on."
In addition to the errors, UNM also tends give opponents the early lead, Nelson said.
"It has become sort of a monkey for this team," he said. "It's hard to always be playing from a couple of points down. To always have that stress is difficult. It's been a characteristic for this team all year, and at this point, it's just exhausting."
But working on those mistakes is what the Lobos have planned for this week's practice, Nelson said.
"We've got to get back on the horse and keep trying to get better," he said. "It's not to say we're not trying. Things just aren't happening for us, and we've got to fix it."
Fairchild said the Lobos aren't crushed by the losses, but they know they have to turn things around.
"We can take this as a learning experience," she said. "We know that we are a really good team. We have the potential to be really good. We just have to believe it and go after it. And the past couple of games, we have questioned that. We need to know we can do it."
Don't count the Lobos out just yet, Phillips said.
"The next few games are very important because we need to win games to get into the postseason," she said. "After the last few games, we are definitely hungry for a win."
Volleyball at UNLV
Friday, 8 p.m.
Las Vegas
