Oct. 3, 2008
Up Next For Lobo Volleyball
Match #16 — vs. Utah
Saturday, Oct. 4 1 p.m. (MDT)
Johnson Center Albuquerque, N.M.
Live Stats, Video and Audio: Links available on www.GoLobos.com.
UNM vs. Utah: The Lobos are 25-41 against Utah in a series that dates back to 1975. In the friendly confines of Johnson Center, UNM is 14-16 against the Utes. Last season Utah won both matches during the regular season. UNM will be attempting to end a six-match losing streak against Utah.
Up Next: The Lobos head back out on the road for the fifth time in six weeks. UNM will play at Wyoming on Thursday, Oct. 9 and at Colorado State on Sunday, Oct. 12.
QUICK HITS
Fairchild Leads MWC and Close to 1,000 … Senior All-America candidate Jeanne Fairchild continues to lead the Mountain West Conference in kills (4.55 ps) and points (4.96 ps) this season. Fairchild ranks eighth in the nation in kills per set coming into the week. The Albuquerque native just needs 19 kills to crack the 1,000-kill career mark in her time at UNM.
Michaelsen Named MWC Co-Player of the Week … Sophomore setter Jade Michaelsen was named the Mountain West Conference Co-Player of the Week on Monday for her two-match performance at San Diego State and UNLV. Michaelsen is the second Lobo to earn the honor this season. Jeanne Fairchild received the honor on Sept. 8.
NCAA RPI Announced … The first official NCAA Volleyball RPI report was released on Thursday afternoon. The Lobos are currently ranked 70th. Colorado State is the top MWC school at 4th with Utah at 45th, UNLV at 60 and BYU at 65. Unofficially, RichKern.com has the Lobos ranked 69 and the Lobos’ Pablo ranking is 40.
Quickest to 30 … Head coach Jeff Nelson has a shot at reaching his 30th win as a Lobo on Saturday in just his 45th match with the program. It took former Lobo head coach Laurel Brassey Iverson 46 matches to get her 30th win, the quickest by a previous Lobo coach.
Lobo Volleyblog … This week’s blog is from junior outside hitter Rose Morris.
About New Mexico (13-2, 3-1 MWC) … The Lobos took over second place in the Mountain West Conference with Thursday night’s 3-0 win over No. 21 BYU … UNM finished their 11-match September road trip with a 9-2 record … All-America candidate Jeanne Fairchild leads the Lobos with 4.55 kills per set, while sophomore Jade Michaelsen leads the setters with 10.70 assists per set … Defensively, junior Anna Lehne leads the front row with 1.24 blocks per set, while senior Gayle Tripp runs the back row with 4.71 digs per set … Taylor Hadfield has the best hitting percentage at .330 … Senior Sarah Kwasigroch, sophomore Lisa Meeter and Michaelsen lead the Lobos with 11 service aces each … UNM leads the Mountain West Conference in opponent hitting percentage, kills, digs, service aces and assists … UNM did not drop a set to start the season at 24-0, a school record. The NCAA record is 105 consecutive by Florida in 2003 … The 8-0 season start ranks fourth-best in program history … The Lobos are racking up travel miles this season. UNM’s mileage tally so far is 8,375 miles. Add on the 13,790 miles from the trip to Argentina at the beginning of Summer Break and the Lobos have logged 22,165 miles from May 27-Sept. 27, 2008.
About Utah (10-4, 2-2 MWC) … The Utes are currently receiving votes in the national poll and have been all season … With a 3-0 win over TCU on Thursday night, Utah evened up its MWC record to 2-2 … Senior Lori Baird leads Utah in kills per set with 2.90, while classmat Emillie Toone has the best hitting percentage at .419 … Stephani Shardlow, a sophomore, is the lead setter with 8.98 assists per set … For the defense, Baird and Toone lead the team with 1.30 and 1.27 blocks per set … Sophomore Keisha Fisher leads the back row with 3.10 digs per set … Beth Launiere is in her 19th season as the head coach at Utah and earned her 375th career win on Thursday against TCU.
All-Time vs. Utah (25-41; H: 14-16, A: 9-19, N: 2-6)
Check out the current game notes for the listing of all 66 scores.
Crowd Factor … Lobo volleyball fans made their presence known at Johnson Center on Thursday night against BYU as 2,236 filled the friendly confines. The largest Lobo volleyball crowd since the late -90s brought the Lobos’ season average up to 1,076.
Lobos on Television … Thursday night’s match was the first of four televised matches that will feature the Lobos this season. The next one is set for Sunday, Oct. 12 on CBS College Sports Network when the Lobos travel to Colorado State. The third televised match is Nov. 1 at BYU on BYU-TV, with the final regular season televised match set for Nov. 6 vs. Colorado State on The Mtn.