The New Mexico volleyball team was unable to close out its match against Utah State early after building a two game lead, falling 2-3 in its penultimate home match on Saturday.
The Lobos (14-15, 4-11 Mountain West) won the first two games 28-26, 25-22, then lost momentum and dropped the last three sets 25-21, 25-19, 15-13 to the Aggies (12-15, 7-9).
“I’m not happy with our performance... because our blocking was really poor again,” head coach Jeff Nelson said. “We talked about it, but we were not making any changes — we got beat because of blocking today.”
Utah State showed dominance over the net and registered 11 blocks as a team, while New Mexico posted only two.
“We got two blocks in the whole match … that’s, to me, a new low for blocking,” Nelson said. “We have to do a better job of technical blocking.”
Although their performance in blocking was not up to par, the Lobos did well in nearly every other facet of the game, registering five service aces compared to one for USU, holding an 81-66 advantage and logging 75 assists to the Aggies’ 63.
“Our serving was good enough to win … and passing was good,” Nelson said. “We dug a ton of balls offensively.”
The Aggies held an advantage in hitting percentage. They hit .283 (67 kills) as a team while the Lobos hit .238 (77 kills).
Utah State showed its impressive attack speed when it started to bounce back in game three.
“We didn’t slow them down at all,” Nelson said. “They go really fast to the outside.”
The first half of the match was threatening, but not dangerous for the Lobos as the Aggies saved four set points in each of the first two games.
New Mexico had an early lead in game one at 7-4. The Aggies managed to tie things at 22-22, and saved four game points, but a substitution gave UNM a serve ace to win the set 28-26.
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Lobos opened set two strong with 5-1. The two teams fight forth and back, although the Aggies again saved four set points, New Mexico finished game two 25-22.
Utah State dominated the first half of game three to lead 13-6. Lobos narrowed the gap to three points at 20-23. But Utah State won game three 25-21.
“It started again with the miss of serve, and it finished with four or five hitting errors in a row,” Nelson said of the game.
In set four UNM quickly ran out to a 9-5 lead and maintained a four point advantage at 15-11. However, USU fought back with a 13-4 run to win the set 25-19.
New Mexico struck first again in the decisive fifth to an early 5-3 lead and extended it to 11-7. The Aggies, however, scrapped together eight of the final 10 points and won the set 15-13.
UNM’s trio pin hitters of Julia Warren, Devanne Sours and Cassie House each posted double-digit kills in the loss.
Warren accomplished her 10th double-double of the season, hitting .415 with a career-high 28 kills along with 14 digs.
“Julia had a lot of kills and was very aggressive,” Nelson said.
However, the other two outside hitters were not stable as their stats. Sours added 18 kills and eight digs with a .182 hitting percentage, but 12 of the kills came in the first two sets. House hit .130 with 15 kills, six digs and one block.
“I really expected our seniors to take care of the ball and do a better job,” Nelson said. “Devanne in game one and two was outstanding, and then completely ran away. Cassie really struggled the whole match.”
The head coach said despite his dissatisfaction with some aspects of play, he would shoulder the blame for losing the match.
“I believe in them…because they’re seniors,” Nelson said. “I think we will make some changes.”
Lise Rugland also registered her career-high 67 assists, but her setting needed to be more consistent. Ashley Kelsey added a career-best 28 digs as well.
The team inked four new players to its 2017-18 recruiting class on Wednesday to help begin replacing some of the outgoing seniors.
“We are very excited about that, they will be great addition to the program,” Nelson said.
The Lobos travel to play Nevada on Wednesday, expecting to regain its winning form in the remaining portion of the schedule.
“The team we play runs a fast ball to the outside, so it’s going to be more of the same,” Nelson said. “We just need to do a better job blocking the ball.”
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.
