New Mexico volleyball finished its 2016 season on Tuesday. with an even .500 record after dropping its finale 3-1 to UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Lobos (16-16, 6-12 Mountain West) registered their ninth season at .500 or better under head coach Jeff Nelson, and tied at No. 8 in the Mountain West standings with Fresno State.
The Rebels (23-7, 12-6) placed third in the regular season after winning 25-15, 25-23, 20-25, 25-21 against the Lobos.
“This was just an incredible match,” UNLV head coach Cindy Fredrick said in a release.
UNLV started the match with an 8-3 lead, but UNM fought back with a 6-3 stretch to make it 11-9. The Rebels extended the gap to five points to go up 16-11, and grabbed nine of the last 13 points to win game one, 25-15.
Game two was closer for both teams as the score was tied on 12 occasions in a game of scoring streaks.
New Mexico tied with UNLV at 14-14, however the Rebels tallied an 8-1 run to lead 21-15. The Lobos quickly responded a 8-3 run to cut the affair to a single point, but the Rebels slammed the door on the comeback and claimed the third set point to take game two, 25-23.
The Lobos rebounded to win game three. UNM opened set three with a 7-4 lead, and although UNLV narrowed the gap to two at 10-8, a 6-3 New Mexico run gave them control. UNM eventually won round three, 25-20.
However, the Rebels found their pace in the fourth set to lead 7-2 early. UNM took a brief lead at 12-11, but UNLV bounced back a 5-1 run to lead 18-15, and finished things off 25-21 to take the match.
The Rebels outhit the Lobos .296 to .153 as a team in the match, and hit 16 more kills (62-46). The Rebels also dominated the net with 15 total team blocks against seven for the Lobos.
Despite losing the finale, various players of New Mexico shined in the match.
Senior pin hitters Devanne Sours and Julia Warren paced the team with a sixth straight match in which both posted at least 10 kills.
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Warren contributed 13 kills to the team with a hitting percentage of .242, as well as nine digs for the defensive line.
Sour registered a game-high 17 kills (.208), just the right amount to reach the milestone of 1,000 — the 13th in program history to do so after teammates Warren, Cassie House and Ashley Kelsey also hit the mark earlier in the season.
Kelsey registered a game-best 22 digs in the match, while House added eight kills offensively.
Lobo setter Lise Rugland distributed a match-high 39 assists to key the attack of New Mexico.
On the other side of the net, UNLV received sterling performances from Alexis Patterson, who recorded a triple-double, as well as Elsa Descamps and Elisa Woinowsky, who accomplished double-doubles.
Patterson set up her team with 37 assists, to go with 12 digs and 10 kills. Her solid performance helped four UNLV players register double-digit kills in the match.
Descamps posted 10 kills and 11 total blocks (one solo) for her first career double-double.
Woinowsky reached her double-double as a libero with 19 digs and 11 assists.
A portion of UNM’s team will transition over to the beach volleyball team to compete in the spring after finishing the indoor volleyball season.
Bo Yu is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country and volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Bo_YuB.
