Colorado State’s size posed big problems for New Mexico’s offense in a 3-0 sweep at Johnson Center on Saturday night.
The Rams (21-3, 14-0 MW) showed why they are still the top team in the Mountain West after sweeping the Lobos for the second time this season.
UNM Head Coach Jeff Nelson said that although the squad didn’t perform at the high level of play it needed to against the number-one team in the conference, it wasn’t a matter of lack of effort.
“A really good team is going to expose your things,” Nelson said. “We’ve struggled with kills. We’ve got great outsides, but we’ve struggled with kills and we’ve struggled with the libero position, and both of them were exposed again tonight.”
Nelson said outside hitter Julia Warren was limited in her ability to attack the Colorado State defense, partly because the team asked quite a bit from her defensively. The head coach added that she was forced to cheat on a number of CSU possessions in order to protect a large portion of the court.
Warren wound up with just one dig and three blocking assists, but Nelson said she was asked to do too much defensively to have any sort of success offensively.
CSU’s outside hitter Adrianna Culbert was able to put together a sound outing, collecting a double-double on the outside with 14 assists and 15 digs. She also tallied eight kills during the contest.
The Rams dominated the Lobos with a balanced attack not only from the squad’s outside hitters, but in the middle as well. Acacia Andrews, CSU’s 6-foot-5 middle blocker, took part in six blocking assists and a single solo block.
Colorado State blocked 16 total balls at the net, a major reason why UNM hit for a -.054 percentage in the three sets.
Nelson said part of the reason the Lobos struggled so much was the lack of leadership from some of his key players. While setter Hannah Johnson put together 18 assists and nine digs, the head coach said he needed more out of everyone outside of the setter position.
“For the second match in a row our outsides underperformed in a big way,” Nelson said. “We just can’t do that.”
Outside hitter/libero Ashley Kelsey said that although the squad couldn’t put together a win on the night, the team was hustling to keep pace with the high-powered conference leader.
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“I think we just got a little tense,” Kelsey said. “We bounced back in the second game... we just kept plugging and chugging, and that was our main goal: to just stay with them.”
Nelson said the Lobos (14-12, 7-6 MW) will continue to search for more players to step up through the final stretch of the season. Although an NCAA bid may be out of reach, the head coach would like to see some heightened play from the team as a whole.
“We need some leadership out of our other seniors and we need some leadership out of our three juniors that have been here for three years,” Nelson said. “They’re capable of it ...Tonight was just really disappointing.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
