DALLAS, Texas – It only took the University of New Mexico volleyball team an hour and 11 minutes total to sweep Houston Baptist in three sets on Friday afternoon at the SMU Invitational by scores of 25-19, 25-19 and 25-9.
“I thought we played a really good match,” said head coach Jeff Nelson. “I think we had some really good performances and played well again. We blocked much better in this match. I thought we did a really good job of controlling the net. We played a different looking lineup and I thought that went really well.”
The Lobos received good numbers from the outsides. Sophomores Cassie House and Devanne Sours combined for a total of 17 kills with eight and nine respectively. But the big performance came from senior Chantale Riddle again, recording her second double-double of the day and her third on the season. She tallied 12 kills to go along with 16 digs. She was just four blocks away from a triple-double.
“Chantale had two good defensive matches today, leading the team in digs. She is a great player. The place that she is really elevating her game is on the defensive side of the ball. She is putting up huge blocking numbers and huge digging numbers and that really helps us get going.”
In the first match today against College of Charleston it took the Lobos a little bit of time to really get a groove going but against Houston Baptist the Lobos put on an offensive and defensive show.
“I just thought we had a better match all the way around. We passed better and served better.”
New Mexico started the first set with a 3-0 run and the team was in system taking a 16-9 lead. The Huskies worked their way back into the game but the Lobos’ used a balanced attack from all three positions at the net to take a 25-19 set score. House and Sours both had four kills each while Riddle and freshman Stephanie Chavez picked up a combined 13 digs.
The second set was much the same as the first, starting out with a lead that extended into a nine-point lead towards the end. Another balanced attack from the offensive proved to be the difference in the end as House and Riddle shared kills to collect the second set 25-19. Riddle tallied five kills in that set while House added four.
It was the third set that the Lobos were really in system. They started the set off with an 8-0 run and didn’t let their foot off the gas. Houston Baptist made a few attacking errors but big play from Riddle and Sours moved the set along much quicker. The two combined for eight total kills.
Hannah Johnson tallied a total of 28 assist to go along with 12 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Skye Gullatt added five kills in the middle and Ashley Kelsey picked up 11 digs in the back row.
The Lobos improve to 7-4 on the season. The last time they started out 6-4 in the first 10 matches of the season was in 2006. They take on SMU tomorrow to finish the SMU Invitational at 1:30 p.m. MT.
“I think SMU is a really good team. They seem to have good chemistry and they are physical. They have some big wins already this year in Oklahoma and Arkansas. It is going to be a handful. We are going to have to play aggressive and steady and continue controlling the net.”