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The UNM volleyball team will have to overcome injuries, a lack of depth and new players in its opening tournament of the season today.
The Lobos have sustained two key affronts with the loss of freshman Ashley Kelsey to a knee injury and freshman Sara Stelzer due to a head injury. The team has only six returning letter-winners from last season and has added seven new players to the squad.
Head coach Jeff Nelson said the losses are a setback, but the team still has the talent to win.
“I think that we got the right mix to be really successful,” Nelson said. “We just got to take on that attribute that we’re going be a solidified smaller group and be tough and be a good group together.”
The injuries may shake the starting lineup, but junior Lexi Ross isn’t worried about that at all.
“I feel great,” Ross said, “We have so much diversity on our team with people being able to play different positions and do it well that any combination that he (Nelson) puts out there, we’re going to do really well.”
Kelsey suffered her injury in last weekend’s alumnae game. Senior Jordan Russell said it was difficult to watch.
“It’s definitely hard to see one of your teammates go down, especially a freshman who has such a promising career here,” Russell said.
Last weekend proved to the team it still had some kinks to work out, but Russell said the Lobos have spent practices successfully troubleshooting.
“We had a good talk before practice today, just kind of balancing out how we managed ourselves,” she said at Tuesday’s practice. “I think the girls realized that they can play at this level; it may be faster, but it’s still volleyball.”
UNM hosts the Sheraton Airport/LA Boxing Lobo Classic this weekend and will face Southern University and Duquesne University for the first time in the team’s history. The Jaguars return seven players from their previous year’s squad, while the Dukes return nine.
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Nelson said both teams are a mystery to UNM and the team won’t know what it’s up against until the game. However, with Nelson in charge, the Lobos haven’t lost an opening game since its 2006 match against NMSU.
“We don’t know a lot about them because it’s the first week,” he said. “We’re kind of looking at their stats from last year and trying to see where they’re at. Southern is a little more of an unknown. It’s the one time of the year where we don’t have videos and stat programs; it’s just based on what they did last year.”
If the Lobos intend to compete with the Dukes and Jaguars, Nelson said sophomore Chantale Riddle has to be playing her best right from the beginning.
“The one thing we saw at the end of the match was that Chantale was crazy good,” he said. “I told her earlier this week that’s who she is going to have to be, that’s how she’s going to have to advertise herself. It’s not coasting to see how we do, she’s going to have to go out and get after it, because with her pure talent and athleticism she’s right up there.”
Volleyball
UNM vs. Southern
3 p.m.
UNM vs. Duquesne
7:30 p.m.
Friday 8/24 in Johnson Gym
