New Mexico has San Jose State’s number for when the teams play in California.
The only five times the teams have met on the west coast, UNM has been able to return to the Land of Enchantment with a victory. UNM’s 3-0 victory over SJSU on Saturday maintained its perfect record against the Spartans on the team’s home court.
“It was a really nice match,” head coach Jeff Nelson said in a release. “… I thought today was just a complete performance for us.”
New Mexico’s domination of SJSU was led by a lights-out performance from junior Devanne Sours. UNM’s outside hitter was perfect on the attack, collecting 15 kills on 28 attempts without a single error -- good enough for a .536 hitting percentage.
A major concern for the Lobos has been the number of errors the team has been committing, therefore UNM’s nine offensive errors elicited a sigh of relief from head coach Jeff Nelson.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Lobos were awarded 30 points off of offensive errors committed by the Spartans. San Jose State (10-7, 2-2 MW) also had eight receive errors and two service errors, giving UNM 40 of its 75 points on Spartan mistakes.
SJSU hung tight with the Lobos in the first set as the Spartans fought to a 25-23 loss in game one.
The rest of the match wasn’t even close. The Lobo offensive attack couldn’t be stopped as the squad hit for a .375 average in game two and an astounding .393 in the final set. UNM (9-7, 2-1 MW) would win those matches 25-11 and 25-13, respectively.
“Games two and three, we finally just busted loose and played great ball and stayed intense even when we had big leads or made mistakes,” Nelson said. “We just stayed on top of it.”
It wasn’t just the Lobo offense that put up a masterful showcase. Junior right side hitter Cassie House, one of two Lobos not to hit for a positive percentage, stepped her game up on the defensive side of things.
Her two solo blocks and five assisted stuffs left her with 5.5 of UNM’s 14 total blocks at the net in a match that finished in less than an hour and a half.
New Mexico is currently 1-1 on this four-game road trip after stumbling to a 3-1 loss to NMSU (13-5) on Tuesday. However, after a comforting win, the Lobos will venture to the hostile territory of Fort Collins against Colorado State (11-3, 4-0 MW).
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The Lobos will wrap up their road trip against Wyoming (13-3, 3-1 MW) on Saturday in Laramie, Wyoming.
