ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico volleyball team started out a little slow but used a balanced attack on the net to finish strong and claim a 3-1 win over Wyoming on Thursday night in Laramie to move into third place in the Mountain West.
The Lobos took a little bit to warm up in the first set as they were hitting the ball long and making some mistakes early. They were down 4-2 and 14-11 before they started their comeback. A couple of Wyoming errors and a kill from sophomore Devanne Sours put the Lobos within one, 15-14. The Lobos tied the set 16-16 off another mistake from the Cowgirls. The set went point-for-point until back-to-back attack errors from Wyoming that gave the Lobos a 22-20 lead. A kill from Sours and sophomore Cassie House gave the Lobos a 24-22 lead and sophomore Maddie Mayfield put the set away with an ace.
The second set started out with the two teams trading points. The set was tied six times before Wyoming started a 3-0 run to lead the Lobos 9-6 and eventally extended its lead to 17-12. Wyoming hit .412 in the set and took advantage of five hitting errors and a .244 hitting percentage by the Lobos to take the second set 25-17.
The Lobos had a strong third set as they hit .417 with a total of 12 kills in 24 attacks. They had good production at the net with seven blocks, three coming from junior Skye Gullatt. The Lobos were up 11-8 after a kill from Gullatt and Wyoming call a timeout. After the timeout, the Lobos went on a 5-1 run to jump to a 15-9 lead. The rest of the way was all Lobos as they went win the set 25-16.
The fourth set also started strong as the Lobos jumped out to a 11-5 lead. They then jumped to a 15-10 lead but Wyoming sparked a comeback and made the rest of the set interesting. The two went back and forth but kills from senior Chantale Riddle made the difference in the end.
Riddle led the match with 15 kills, putting her just eight away from UNM’s all-time career kill record and 49 away from the Mountain West record. Hannah Johnson put together her 16th double-double of the season with 45 assists and 12 digs. Julia Warren picked up 20 digs.
UNM’s outside were consistent again. House and Sours combined for 22 kills. House with 12 and Sours with 10, respectively. But what sparked the Lobos tonight were the middles. Both Gullatt and junior Simone Henderson combined for 14 kills, each with seven. Henderson hit .500 while Gullatt hit .400.
The Lobos hit .270 for the match with a total of 57 kills, 53 assists, 55 digs and outblocking the Cowgirls 15-9. The Cowgirls hit .204 for the match with 55 kills, 52 assists and 56 digs.
New Mexico improves to 18-10 on the season and 10-5 in the Mountain West, moving into third place. The Lobos continue the road trip down to No. 9 ranked Colorado State on Saturday at 1 p.m. Visit GoLobos.com for the live video stream and live stats.