Following a winless weekend in Hawaii, the New Mexico volleyball team righted the ship with a sweep in the MGM Elegante Lobo Invitational. The Lobos dominated the weekend, sweeping Montana State and Bethune Cookman before finishing the weekend with a 3-1 win against UC Irvine.
Following a three game losing streak, the New Mexico volleyball team has now aligned its focus on finishing games off strong. UNM (2-4) was unable to come out of the Paradise Tour tournament with a victory over the No. 22 Hawaii, St. John's or No. 18 Oregon.
Head coach Jeff Nelson opened the 2014 volleyball campaign with a rigorous schedule to prepare his unit for conference play with intentions of winning a Mountain West championship. “Our goal is to build towards a conference championship,” Nelson said in the preseason press conference.
Fresh faces on the hardwood presented exceptional skill during the New Mexico volleyball team’s opening tournament. The Lobos (2-1 for the season) seem to have found comfort with redshirt freshman Ashley Kelsey cleaning things up from the libero position and with a junior transfer out of Grossmont College, middle blocker Simone Henderson. Henderson helped her squad earn wins over Seattle U (1-2) and UTEP (0-3), and was a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy night against No.
The starting unit for the New Mexico volleyball team was sharp in lone preseason play, beating the alumnae team 3-1 on Saturday. Although the annual exhibition game is designed to brush off the cobwebs and show off some of the younger talent, head coach Jeff Nelson said the alumnae opponent boasted a stiff test.
While volleyball may be her primary sport in college, Cassie House has excelled at a variety of other sports throughout her life. Most athletes dabble in other activities growing up, but House was showed exceptional talent in the swimming pool and competed at a high level before being introduced to the game of volleyball. “A lot of people didn’t know that I was a huge swimmer before I started playing volleyball,” House said.
Young teams are often threatened with having to endure a learning curve. However, the University of New Mexico volleyball team is confident that the unit will be good to go as soon as the season starts. “This team has been a long time in the making. We’re excited about it,” head coach Jeff Nelson said. “We’re poised to make a good run for a while … We’re ready to make a run at the conference championship.”
It’s been 25 years since the New Mexico volleyball team has had success like this. Thanks to UNM’s 14th sweep of the season over San Jose State on Wednesday, UNM improved to 24-7, which is the most wins the Lobos have had since 1988. The Lobos also secured second place in the Mountain West Conference with a 14-6 conference record.
The New Mexico volleyball team’s fight for second place in the Mountain West Conference continues, but the end result may not matter much for the Lobos. UNM (23-7, 13-6 MWC) will play its final game of the regular season tonight against San Jose State
The New Mexico volleyball team’s fight for second place in the Mountain West Conference continues without one of its starters. Freshman Julia Warren is out with a leg injury. The Lobos lost 3-1 at No. 10 CSU on Thursday night. Junior right side hitter Chantale Riddle had 19 kills, 12 digs and 6 blocks in the loss.
The New Mexico volleyball team is going to have to rely on its depth for the rest of the season after losing a key player to injury. UNM dominated Utah State (17-9, 9-5 MWC), completing its 11th sweep of the season, but lost freshman outside hitter Julia Warren
The New Mexico volleyball team achieved its 10th sweep of the season Saturday during the annual Dig Pink match. Going into the game, head coach Jeff Nelson wanted his team to dominate from the start, and not allow Nevada (2-20, 0-10 MWC) a chance to come back.
The New Mexico volleyball team needs to tighten up its play down the stretch as it eyes second place in the Mountain West Conference. The Lobos have improved to 16-4 on the season recording their ninth sweep against Texas Tech (8-15) on Wednesday.
A lack of communication brought the New Mexico volleyball team its third loss of the season against UNLV Saturday. The Rebels defeated the Lobos 3-1 and improved to 10-6, 5-1 Mountain West Conference in front of 2,157 fans — the largest crowd of the season at Johnson Gym.
The New Mexico volleyball team struggled with youthful errors as No. 19 Colorado State outlasted them 3-2, snapping the Lobos’ ten-game win streak.
The early success that the New Mexico volleyball team has experienced can be attributed to the team as a whole even when star players have rocky nights. The Lobos (10-1) have been winning tough games by relying on the depth of their team to pick up the slack when individual players are having off nights.
While its struggle is apparent on the offensive side of the ball, New Mexico’s Lobo volleyball team is among the defensive elite. For their second straight tournament, the Lobos completed a sweep at home, defeating all three opponents they faced this past weekend.
There is no lack of talent on the New Mexico volleyball team, but the lack of communication between players spoils some of that talent. Despite the team’s not always on the same page, UNM (5-1) is off to a hot start in the young season.
The youthful New Mexico volleyball team didn’t feel any growing pains this weekend, sweeping its first home tournament of the year. UNM (5-1) faced the UC Riverside Highlanders (0-6) on Friday at the Sheraton Airport Lobo Classic.
After its season opener in Arkansas, the New Mexico volleyball team starts its home schedule today at Johnson Gym against UC Riverside, starting at 1 p.m.
Solutions by The State News
