ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico volleyball claimed a four-set victory over Nevada on Thursday evening for its second straight win and snapped a four-game MW losing streak. The Lobos took the sets by scores of 25-14, 21-25, 26-24 and 25-17.
The Lobos started off strong in the first set on all aspects of the game of volleyball. They saw a lot of action at the net as the Lobos held Nevada’s offense to hitting .000 with 7.5 blocks. The Lobos also took advantage of many of the Nevada mistakes. Lobos led 8-3 and pushed the lead up to 18-11. They finished out the set with kills from Simone Henderson and Cassie House along with an attack error from Nevada.
“You know we came out with a lot of energy after the state match,” said head coach Jeff Nelson. “We had a great crowd at the start of the match, it was really great they filled the lower bowl and made some noise. I think we were fired up.”
The match started to turn the other way in the second set as Nevada figured out the holes in the Lobos defense. New Mexico also had a hard time getting the ball to the net as Nevada was serving tough. The Lobos were down 9-6 but came back to tie it up at 10-10 after a kill from House. The rest of the set went point-for-point but a few errors by the Lobos were costly in the end.
“Well the girls aren’t going to hit into our blocks for the rest of the game,” said Chantale Riddle. “They started going faster on their setting and they weren’t hitting into our hands. They were hitting out they were tipping. They weren’t doing the same thing they were doing so I think our blocking was pretty stable after awhile.”
“Nevada came back too and were really tough,” said Nelson. “I mean they were serving bombs and it took us out of our game a little bit. We got frustrated and struggled a little bit and it created some chaos that we didn’t want to happen.”
The two teams traded points in the next two sets. The third set the Lobos were down 15-12 before calling timeout. The Lobos came out of the time out and went on a 3-1 run to tie the match back up at 16-16. The rest of the set went point-for-point again and ended with a kill from Henderson and an attack error from the Wolf Pack.
The Lobos fought from behind again in the fourth set as they were down 15-14 after a service error. Nelson called a time out and the Lobos went on a 7-1 run to take a 21-16 lead. The Lobos never looked back as the set finished on three straight attack errors from Nevada.
Senior Chantale Riddle led the Lobos for the match with a .317 hitting percentage and 17 kills. She also added six blocks. House recorded 13 kills from the outside and hit .222 which is something that coach Nelson is looking for on the outside.
“We’re getting there, we’re getting there,” said Nelson. “Devon struggled a little bit, she had a little bug tonight, but she battled hard. And I thought Cassie came up with some real good kills and overall had a pretty solid match. She needs to continue to identify her block and where she should hit. She’s so physical, when she stays aggressive it’s good anywhere.”
Hannah Johnson tallied 40 assists with six digs. Sophomore Julia Warren posted 21 digs in the back row as the Lobos’ libero.
The Lobos hit .233 for that match, recording 53 kills, 48 assists, 58 digs and 11.5 digs. Nevada posted 47 kills, a .128 hitting percentage, 47 assists, 46 digs and 12 blocks.
New Mexico improves to 13-9 on the season and 5-4 in the Mountain West. Nevada drops to 5-13 on the season and 2-6 in the MW. The Lobos will finish up their five-match home stand on Saturday, hosting San Josè State at 2 p.m. in Johnson Center.