A handful of UNM’s sororities and fraternities came out to support the New Mexico volleyball team, which head coach Jeff Nelson said added a lot of flare to his squad at the start of the match.
“Greek night was really great,” Nelson said. “They filled the lower bowl (of Johnson Center) and made a lot of noise.”
In a 3-1 victory over the Wolf pack (5-13, 2-6 MW), the Lobos came out of the gates swinging hard while blocking out Nevada’s attack.
“We came out with a lot of energy,” Nelson said. “We came out in game one and blocked the ball down.”
UNM hit .421 in the first set compared to Nevada’s .000 hitting. UNM dominated the block as well stopping Nevada’s point of attack with 7.5 blocks and the Wolf Pack didn’t come up with a single block.
However, The Lobos were unable to keep pace with the blocking wall following the first set, coming up with just four blocks the remainder of the game.
“We talked the whole night about blocking low and blocking tight,” Nelson said. “We’ve just got to be more disciplined with our block.”
Nevada came out with six blocks of their own in set two, holding UNM to a .108 hitting percentage, UNM’s worst of the night. The Lobos could only muster up one block the entire second set.
“Nevada came out in game two and served really tough,” Nelson said. “It took us out of our game a little bit... It created some chaos that we didn’t want to happen.”
In the 25-21 loss in the second set, New Mexico’s nine errors plagued the Lobos as Nevada took advantage of UNM’s costly mistakes late in the match.
The third set was a much closer affair that took extra points to decide a victor. Redshirt senior Chantale Riddle recorded five of her 17 kills, the game high, in the 26-24 victory.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“Our hitters are very stable now,” Riddle said. “People are respecting them so it gives me a lot of seams. It’s helping me a ton.”
Riddle recorded five kills in the fourth set as well, leading her unit to a 25-17 victory to get the victory.
Nelson said the Lobos played best in sets one and four with too many errors to overcome in the second set, the only loss of the night. The head coach said his team’s outside hitting is coming together despite moving Julia Warren from the hard hitting position to the defensive load of libero.
“We’re getting there, we’re getting there,” Nelson said. “I thought Cassie (House) came up with some real big kills for us and overall had a really solid game.”
The consistent play on the outside is only going to help Riddle achieve the Lobos’ all-time kill record, held by Tania Gooley with 1,579. Riddle is now 115 kills away from the record, standing at 1,464 following Thursday night’s match.
New Mexico will move on to play San Jose State (3-17, 0-7 MW) on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Liam Cary-Eaves is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
