BOISE, Idaho – The University of New Mexico volleyball team used a big offensive night to take a four-set Mountain West victory from Boise State on Thursday night at Bronco Gym. The Lobos took the sets by scores of 25-21, 24-26, 25-23 and 25-12.
“Offensively everyone had good numbers,” said head coach Jeff Nelson. “Cassie and Devanne hit well on the outside and Chantale had another great night. Skye came out of the match with a great hitting percentage as well so it was an all-around offensive night.”
Senior Chantale Riddle led the Lobos at the net with 19 kills and a .410 hitting percentage. Junior Hannah Johnson recorded her 12th double-double of the season with 47 assists and 12 digs. She also put up four blocks. Riddle was just one dig away from her 10th double-double of the season. She added three blocks. Sophomore Julia Warren picked up 19 digs while junior Skye Gullatt hit .455 collected seven blocks.
On the outside, sophomore Cassie House and Devanne Sours combined for a total of 25 kills, House with 15 and Sours with 10, respectively. House hit .375 while Sours hit .267 which is what Nelson has been looking for, more consistency in the outside position. Junior Simone Henderson added seven kills with a .417 hitting percentage.
The Lobos came out strong in the first set, hitting .324 and getting a total of 15 kills, including five from senior Chantale Riddle. They led the entire set with a big lead at 14-6. Boise State worked its way back in, bringing the set to 15-13, 18-16 and 19-17. But the Broncos had three straight attack errors to give the Lobos a 22-17 advantage. The Lobos closed the set out on a kill from sophomore Cassie House and an attack error from Boise State’s Sierra Nobley.
Boise State had control of the second set leading 7-4 early. The Lobos worked their way back as they took advantage of the Broncos’ mistakes of attacking errors. But Boise seemed to be getting more kills as they only had 13 total for the first set and bumped them up to 20 kills in the second set.
New Mexico was back on track in the third set but it was still close the entire set, trading points back and forth. The set had a total of 12 ties but in the end of the set it was the Lobos that were on top. They hit .371 for the set with 18 kills. The set ended on a kill from Sours.
“I think the big thing for us this match was winning and coming back in game three,” said Nelson. “Winning close on the road is always a good thing.”
The fourth and final set of the match proved to be all Lobos as they hit a big .542 with a total of 14 kills in 24 attempts. The Lobos took the first three points of the set before Boise State manage to score. A kill from Riddle and Gullatt and a bad set from Boise gave the Lobos a 3-0 lead. Riddle five kills the rest of the way and Gullatt added two. New Mexico also capitalized on attacking errors and bad sets by Boise State. The Broncos tallied 10 errors and ended the set and match by getting aced by Johnson.
For the match, the Lobos hit .356 which is the second best hitting percentage. They tallied a total of 59 kills, 55 assists, 60 dig and out-blocked Boise State 12-7. Boise State hit .229 for the match with 58 kills, 57 assists and 55 digs.
The Lobos improve to 15-9 on the season and 7-4 in Mountain West play. The team will travel to Utah State tomorrow for the 7 p.m. match on Saturday evening. Live stream and live stat links are available at GoLobos.com.