The University of New Mexico Lobos volleyball team has been on the struggle bus of conference play, and that seems to remain the case after another loss to the University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebels on Thursday, Nov. 6.
The Lobos lost to the Rebels already midway through October, and missed their chance to avenge the earlier loss, suffering a three set defeat.
The Lobos started the night with a tight first set loss ending 25-20. After a promising start in the second set with both teams exchanging points at net, the Rebels started to pull away from New Mexico, culminating in a second set loss for the Lobos 25-17.
After using two timeouts in each set, New Mexico went into the third hopeful for a break. Starting the set down 12-8, UNM called a timeout hoping to break UNLV’s momentum. Despite a valiant effort from the entire team the Lobos would still end up losing 25-23, ending the game without the Lobos taking a single set.
“I feel like the game overall was up and down,” outside hitter Gioia Riccato said. “Going into the game our mindset as a team was to play with joy and leave everything on the court.”
Out of the 33 kills scored by the Lobos, Riccato led the team with 11.
Going into their next game against San Diego State University on Saturday, Nov. 8, Lobo Head Coach Jon Newman-Gonchar hopes to clean up the “unforced errors and keep the heat up on offense.”
The Lobos are very hopeful going into their last home game.
“At the end of the day, any team can beat any team in this league,” Newman-Gonchar said, “Every day that the sun is up we fight.”
Michal Padilla is a freelance photographer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @DailyLobo
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