Nov. 8, 2008
Lobo Volleyball
Saturday: Lobos 3, Wyoming 2
Up Next: Lobos at Air Force, Nov. 13
By Richard Stevens, Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cowboys are supposed to quietly ride off into the sunset. It’s in their nature. But the Wyoming Cowgirls had no such notions Saturday afternoon in Johnson Center as they put a mild scare into the University of New Mexico Lobos, pushing the Lobos to an unexpected fifth set.
“I think our season hung in the brink,” said Lobos coach Jeff Nelson after his team’s dramatic 25-11, 25-23, 22-25, 21-25, 15-12 Mountain West Conference win.
“We sat back and coasted thinking they were going to roll over and die and they didn’t. We have everything to play for and we’re sitting back coasting. I think we’re having trouble keeping focused. I think we think just because we are at home, we are going to win.”
A loss to the Wyoming team the Lobos swept 3-0 in Laramie might have been disastrous for the Lobos’ hopes for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. The win pushed the Lobos to 19-6 overall and 9-5 in the MWC. Wyoming fell to 4-16 3-8 in the MWC.
“We weren’t scared,” Lobo Rose Morris said after the win. “We knew we were the better team and that we’d win the fifth set.”
It might have been nice if Morris had passed on that information to the crowd of 1,213 and to her coach.
“At 10-10, that was the first time I looked at my team since game one and said, ‘Yeah,'” said Nelson. “I didn’t see us really get that look, that confidence, that go-for-it, until it was 10-10 in the fifth. All of a sudden, we switched back on. That’s pretty late in the match.”
The Lobos were more on the ropes going into the final set simply because the momentum had shifted dramatically to Wyoming’s side. The Cowgirls took leads of 6-5 and 7-6 before UNM tied it at 7-7. Wyoming had an 8-7 lead when the teams shifted sides for the back stretch of the fifth set.
Wyoming won the first point after the shift and were up 9-7. A vicious Wyoming spike made it 10-8. The Cowgirls made a critical mistake with a net serve that made it 10-9 and rotated UNM’s Jeanne Fairchild, the MWC’s top kill artist, back into the front row. Fairchild and Anna Lehne combined for a block and the Lobos had a 10-10 tie.
UNM’s Jade Michaelsen used a placement push shot to give UNM an 11-10 lead. A monster Wyoming spike made it 11-11 and then a Fairchild bomb pushed the Lobos back up 12-11. Wyoming went long on a spike and the Lobos slipped ahead 13-11. The Cowgirls called a timeout. UNM was two points away from avoiding disaster.
The Lobos got a block at the net followed by a Wyoming spike and it was 14-12 when UNM called time. Wyoming’s final serve of the game headed right at Lobo Gayle Tripp, who turned and looked over her left shoulder as the ball went long.
Whew!
The Lobos ended the match with 64 kills, while Wyoming had 61 kills. Fairchild had 20 kills and Lisa Meeter had 22 digs, a career-high.
It ended up being a nice win for the Lobos only because Wyoming had stolen the game’s momentum and appeared to be the team to beat at the end.
Wyoming won maybe the game’s longest rally to take a 9-8 lead in the fourth set. A placement spike found a big hole in the back of the UNM defense and the Cowgirls’ 10-7 lead prompted Nelson to ask for a timeout to rally his Lobos. His talk seemed to work. UNM came out of the break to tie the game 10-10.
The game see-sawed a bit after that. Wyoming led 14-13 and 15-14 before UNM tied the game at 15-all. A deep Wyoming spike went off a diving Tripp and Wyoming was up 16-15. Another deep Cowgirl spike went off Tripp’s chest and Wyoming was up 17-15. The next Cowgirl spike was long and UNM had cut its gap to 17-16. A hard Wyoming spike into Tripp made it 18-16 and UNM could not handle another Wyoming spike: 19-16.
UNM’s Michaelsen used a quick push to float a ball over the Wyoming front line and UNM looked to be back in the set at 19-18. Not so. Wyoming drifted up 22-18 and Nelson again called a timetout looking for answers. The Lobos managed a small rally to cut Wyomings lead to 23-20 and Wyoming called for time, needing two points to force a fifth set.
Wyoming made it 24-20 after a nice rally. Wyoming served for the win, but the serve was long and it was 24-21. The Cowgirls got the 25-21 win when a UNM shot was long and out of bounds.
Despite being down 2-0 on the road, the Cowgirls did not go away. They came out energized for the third set and shocked the Lobos by rolling to a 9-2 lead. UNM chipped away and cut the lead to 13-12 before the Cowgirls ran to a 16-12 lead that convinced coach Nelson to ask for a timeout.
A few minutes later, Wyoming was up 19-14. Morris drilled a hard spike down the line to cut it to 19-15. A Cowgirl placement push made it 20-15. It appeared the Cowgirls would push the match to at least four sets. A UNM block made the score 22-16 followed by a long Wyoming serve that made it 22-17 and allowed UNM to rotate Fairchild back into the front line. The Lobos cut the lead to 22-19 and it was Wyoming’s turn to call a timeout holding on to a 3-point lead heading down the stretch of the set.
A UNM block made it 22-20 before a mid-court spike by Wyoming pushed the Cowgirls up 23-20. A long Wyoming serve and it was 23-21. A UNM double block at the net failed and Wyoming was up 24-21, one point away. Fairchild blew a thunder spike through the Wyoming defense to cut the lead to 24-22, but a nice placement spike down the line gave the Cowgirls the 25-21 win.
Wyoming hung around for a while in the first set before UNM took control of the net to roll to a 25-11 win. The Lobos played a clean game with 13 kills to one error. Their hitting percentage was .429. Wyoming had eight kills and 10 errors for a minus .051 percentage in the first set. Fairchild and Taylor Hadfield had four kills apiece. Meeter played a solid back row in that set with four digs.
The second set offered a little drama. It was not an easy win for the Lobos and turned out to be an indicator of things to come in the third set, won by Wyoming.
The Cowgirls hung around and called a timeout down 24-21 with UNM’s Fairchild about to serve. Fairchild came out of the break and served wide to make it 24-22. Wyoming next lofted a push shot over the Lobos’ front line that found a hole in front of a diving Tripp and it was 24-23. Lobo Lisa Meeter ended the drama by hammering a cross-court spike from the Lobos’ left side that the Cowgirls could not handle: 25-23. The Lobos went into the locker room up 2-0.
Both teams had solid kill/error stats in the second game. The Lobos had 17 kills and five errors and Wyoming improved to 15 kills to only three errors. Fairchild had seven kills in the second set.
Editor’s note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner.