The New Mexico women’s volleyball team will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to face UNLV in its season finale on Tuesday, hoping to cap the season with a third straight win.
The Lobos (16-15, 6-11 MW) climbed to No. 8 in the conference standings by sweeping Nevada and San Diego State last week.
The two wins guaranteed New Mexico at least a .500 record for the season, picking up some momentum before they meet conference No. 3 the Rebels (22-7, 11-6).
“It’s such a great turn for the future,” Lobos head coach Jeff Nelson said of the past week in an interview on Saturday. “It has been a while since we’ve done that.”
Although the Lobos have only one more match on the season since they didn’t qualify for postseason play, they are looking to end it on a high note.
“We want to close this out, go to UNLV and get another win and finish on a really high note,” Nelson said.
If UNM is able to secure a win in its season finale, it would cement a ninth winning season under head coach Nelson.
While New Mexico has posted a 5-3 record in the last calendar month, UNLV went just 3-5 after opening up the season 19-2.
The Rebels lost both of their matches last week, falling 3-0 to San Diego State and 3-1 to Nevada.
New Mexico relied on its four milestone seekers — Ashley Kelsey, Julia Warren, Devanne Sours and Cassie House — to repeat its solid performance in the past six games.
Kelsey just reached 1,000 digs in her UNM career on Saturday. She’s made 501 digs this season, which is the third-best in program history.
Warren demonstrated her leadership after returning from a knee injury. In the past five matches, she has registered double-digit kills and three double-doubles. And she notched her 1,000th career dig on Sept. 8.
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Sours will be with Warren, who also posted double-digit kills in the last five matches and only 17 kills from her 1,000 milestone in kills.
House claimed her 1,000 career kills record on Oct. 8, and performed strong in her last home match with six kills, two aces, five digs and three blocks.
Setter Lise Rugland will also be relied as the “thread” to organize the pin hitters with 7.90 assists per set in MW play.
UNLV would no doubt long for the win as well, while it leads the overall series vs. New Mexico 22-15.
Preseason All-MW selection Bree Hammel would be the player to watch in the match. She ranked second in aces (0.38 avg/s), and hit an average 3.85 kills per set to place third.
Another preseason all-conference pick of UNLV was Alexis Patterson, who owned an average 10.81 kills per set to ranked fourth in assists.
Since Nelson became head coach of UNM in 2007, the series record between the two teams has been almost even, as the Rebels own a slim 12-11 lead.
The new recruits were also to watch in the match. Nelson was excited that the team had a very good recruiting class.
With the trio pin hitters leaving the team, they made room for the new recruits who would have chances to play in the finale.
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.
