Nov. 28, 2008
Lobo Volleyball
Friday: No. 25 NMSU 3, Lobos 2 (25-20, 22-25, 14-25, 25-21, 11-15)
Saturday: Lobos vs. Virginia Commonwealth (Senior Day), 3 p.m., Johnson Center
By Richard Stevens — Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
Maybe if the University of New Mexico Lobos had dug themselves into a single hole things would have been different Friday night in their 3-2 loss to the New Mexico State Aggies.
And maybe even if one of those holes hadn’t come in the fifth and deciding set, the Lobos would have been able to snap a nine-game losing streak to the visitors from Las Cruces.
“We had some highs and some lows,” said Lobo junior Rose Morris, a product of Albuquerque Sandia High. “I think our highs were high, but our lows let them get their runs and that did us in.” The Aggies won the match 25-20, 22-25, 14-25, 25-21 and 11-15.
Both teams had some impressive runs during the five-set match, but the Aggies turned in the most decisive run at exactly the right time. NMSU jumped up 5-to-1 and 14-to-6 in the fifth set, which is played to only 15 points. The Lobos rallied with a five-point run of their own to cut it to 14-11 before NMSU’s Krista Altermatt put the game away with a hard spike that was partially blocked and went out-of-bounds on the UNM touch.
“When you are faced with the inability to make any mistakes, it’s tough,” said Lobos coach Jeff Nelson of the fifth-set rally. “You can’t allow yourself to fall in that kind of hole. I’m disappointed. We had a lead in game three and just completely checked out. We dug ourselves into too many holes with some tentative play.
“I thought we’d play with a little more consistent fire. We had it (fire) at times, but just not enough. It’s all part of learning.”
The loss leaves UNM with a solid 21-7 record going into Saturday’s 3 p.m. match with Virginia Commonwealth in the Comcast Lobo Challenge. The loss to the No. 25-ranked Aggies probably didn’t hurt the Lobos’ shot at an NCAA at-large bid, but a win over Virginia Commonwealth would be a nice finish to the UNM season.
The Lobos did a nice job in rallying from a 25-14 loss in the third set to beat NMSU 25-21 in the fourth set. The Johnson Center crowd of 2,315 had a healthy dose of Aggies, but the majority of the crowd was pulling for the team from Albuquerque.
“I felt like we worked hard, but you have to give them credit because they are a good team,” said UNM’s Jeanne Fairchild. “It’s a loss, which doesn’t feel good, but we lost to a good team.”
Said Morris: “We wanted to win this for our seniors tonight, but it didn’t work out. I’m glad I have another shot at them next year.”
UNM ended the match with 59 kills, 22 going to Fairchild and 15 to Lisa Meeter. Jade Michaelsen had 47 assists and 11 digs and senior Gayle Tripp had 18 digs. Sarah Kwasigroch had 16 digs. The Aggies also had 59 kills. NMSU had 29 attack errors to 36 for the Lobos.
After getting dominated in the third set, 25-14, the Lobos came back and showed a lot of fight in the critical fourth set. NMSU went on a 7-2 run to take a 12-8 lead and it looked like things might go the way of the third set for UNM. But the Lobos refused to crumble. UNM went on a 5-2 run to tie the match at 13-all. It was a dogfight to the wire, but UNM broke out of a 17-all tie to pull ahead 20-17. Those three points came off a Meeter placement shot, a Meeter block at the net on a too-long NMSU dig and an Anna Lehne block.
The Aggies closed to 22-21 before Fairchild took over at the net with a spike and a placement push to hand UNM the 25-21 win and force the fifth set.
The third set saw both the Lobos and the Aggies make impressive runs. Unfortunately for UNM, the Aggies’ run was much longer. The Lobos struck first with a 5-point run that pulled them out of a 6-5 deficit and put them up 10-6.
Then it was the Aggies’ turn as they countered with a 5-point run that brought UNM’s Nelson on his feet asking for a timeout. The Aggies came out of the break and made it an eight-point run taking a 14-10 lead. It was a huge shift in momentum. The Lobos finally broke the run on a Taylor Hadfield block that was double-hit by the Aggies to make it 14-11 in favor of NMSU.
UNM’s Meeter got a spike to make it 15-12 but the Aggies came right back to spike themselves into a 16-12 lead. A monster spike by Lindsey Yon from the middle made it 17-12 and then UNM let a serve go long that wasn’t long enough. NMSU was up 18-12. The Aggies had a fat six-point lead as Nelson again used a timeout in an attempt to settle and rally his Lobos.
UNM came out of the break and got a block from Lehne to make it 18-13. Fairchild rotated back in for UNM, but NMSU got an outside spike from the right side and Fairchild floated a spike long and the Aggies went up 20-13. The gap was simply too much for UNM to overcome. The Aggies continued to control the net with hard spikes and timely blocks and muscled to an impressive 25-14 win. NMSU had 15 kills to six for the Lobos. Both teams had six atack errors.
The Lobos and the Aggies took turns taking control of the first two sets prior to the break. The Lobos controlled the first set from the beginning, got up 15-9, and easily held off the Aggies in UNM’s 25-20 win. The Lobos were enthusiastic and solid in the first set. UNM had 15 kills and only two hitting errors. The UNM hitting percentage was .419. Fairchild had seven kills The Aggies also had 15 kills but had six attack errors. NMSU had four service errors to one for the Lobos.
The Lobos led the second set 6-4 before NMSU took its first lead at 10-9. Then it was the Aggies’ turn to slowly separate themselves from the Lobos. NMSU got back-to-back points by blocking two Fairchild spikes and followed that good net work with a spike from Yon to go up 19-14. The Lobos never recovered from that Aggie run. UNM closed to 22-19 and 24-22 before NMSU’s Amber Simpson put down a hard spike from middle ground to give the Aggies the 25-22 win. The teams were knotted 1-1 at halftime.
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.