ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Lobos were in need of a victory. It took them one match to get it.
The University of New Mexico volleyball team topped Montana State in straight sets Friday night, winning 25-16, 25-17, 25-10 to open the 2014 MCM Elegante Lobo Invitational at Johnson Center.
The Lobos, coming off a three-game losing streak in Hawaii, stormed over the visiting Bobcats with strong net play and a standout performance across the board.
“I felt like it was a good performance against a good team,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said. “Montana State has played well against other good teams. They beat New Mexico State a couple weeks ago and we had a really convincing win tonight.”
New Mexico (3-4) dominated versus Montana State (2-5), knocking home 41 kills and 13 team blocks against a Bobcat team that managed just 20 kills and two blocks.
Chantale Riddle led the Lobos, knocking down 11 kills via a .360 hitting percentage. However, she wasn’t the only one stuffing the stat sheet, with Skye Gullatt and Julia Warren chipping in eight and seven kills, respectively.
“Offensively, Skye had another big night. This is her second big game in a row and she’s starting to play a lot better ball, more aggressive,” Nelson said.
Additionally, Devanne Sours (five kills), Simone Henderson (four) and Victoria Spragg (four) all contributed.
Along with Ashley Kelsey tallying her sixth double-digit performance in digs with 11 and Hannah Johnson posting 30 assists, New Mexico claimed its strongest overall performance in two weeks.
The Lobos outhit Montana State, registering a .262 hitting average to the Bobcats’ negative .044 percentage.
“I thought we handled the ball really well,” Nelson said. “We had great output from both middles and from our right side. I thought our back row was really good tonight.”
New Mexico opened the match with a superb showing in set one, leaping out to a 12-5 lead. The Bobcats came back to within six points at 17-11, but four unanswered points effectively put the Lobos in the driver’s seat en route to winning 25-16.
Set two was more of the same as UNM started with a 9-3 lead to force a Montana State timeout. The Bobcats closed the gap to four points at 14-10, but the Lobos rattled off a 7-3 run to go up 21-13.
Errors by Montana State combined with kills by Riddle and Sours gave the Lobos set two, 25-17, before they dominated the decisive set.
Despite tying set three at 2-all early on, Montana State was unable to stem New Mexico’s aerial assault as the Lobos went up 15-5. Spragg notched three kills and two block assists (along with Riddle) during the opening volley.
However, New Mexico benefited from seven Montana State errors — including five to end the set — as they captured the set 25-10.
The Lobos will return to action tomorrow for day two of the MCM Elegante Lobo Invitational when they take on Bethune Cookman at 1 p.m. MT and UC Irvine at 7:30 p.m.