ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico volleyball team remains undefeated in Mountain West action after a 3-0 sweep of Boise State on Saturday afternoon by scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 29-27.
“I’m thrilled about the weekend,” said head coach Jeff Nelson.”Boise is a really good team. I’m happy we won, we held them to almost 200 points below their normal hitting percentage and that’s the one thing we’ve done for the last two years. Is we’re really good at keeping teams out of the things they do best.”
The first set the Lobos came out exploding and used a balanced attack across the net. UNM was paced by sophomore Julia Warren as she picked up five kills, hitting .500 for the set. Senior Chantale Riddle put down four kills for a .273 hitting percentage.
The set was tied four times early but a 6-0 run by the Lobos put them up 11-5. Boise State worked its way back in the middle of the match, closing the gap at 14-11 but kills from Warren and Riddle provided a 16-12 advantage. The Lobos used a 9-0 run to finish out the set, getting kills from both Riddle and Warren and using Boise State’s attack errors.
In the second set, the Broncos took an early 4-0 lead but kills from sophomore Cassie House and Riddle and more errors from the Broncos pushed the Lobos back up and tying the match at 7-7. It was point-for-point for the next seven balls but two kills from Riddle and a kill from junior Simone Henderson gave the Lobos a 17-13 lead and forced a Boise State timeout. The Lobos used an 8-4 run to finish out the set.
For the second match in a row, the Lobos made the third set interesting. The two teams traded points early but after a kill from Warren and attack errors from the Broncos, the Lobos led 8-4. Boise State worked its way back in and again the set went point-for-point for the rest of the set.
With the set tied at 24-24, Boise State made three service errors in-a-row to give the Lobos an advantage to end the game. After an attack error from House, she redeemed herself with the final to kills of the set and the match for the Lobos.
“I don’t know what happened to them, those were all three kids that missed are really good servers, and probably their best servers. Yeah, and they were big misses they weren’t close. That was a break for us and we finally took advantage of it but I just felt like we waited for them to lose in game three instead of going out and winning like we had in one and two.”
For the match, Riddle led in kills with 12, hitting .235 overall. Hannah Johnson recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 30 assists and 13 digs. House added in 11 kills with a team-leading .304 hitting percentage. Maddie Mayfield, who started and played the whole match in the libero position, tallied a career-high of 17 digs. Elsa Krieg added four blocks.
As a team, the Lobos hit .225, collecting 41 kills, 36 assists, 51 digs and 11 team blocks. The Lobos held Boise State to a .103 hitting percentage and only 4.5 team blocks.
“Boise is a really good hitting team and we held them to one hundred. 103. I think the same as Utah State the other night, we held them down. So we do really good job of frustrating our opponents. But we’ve been able to keep their percentages and their numbers way down. I’d like to see ours go up a little bit, but I’m really happy with what we’re doing with our opponents numbers.”
New Mexico improves to 11-5 on the season and 4-0 in conference play. They are on the road next weekend, traveling to San Diego State on Thursday and UNLV on Saturday. The Lobos will be back for a two-week home stand starting Oct. 16 with a match against No. 7 Colorado State.