ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Tonight was about getting a final win for seniors Chantale Riddle and Elsa Krieg. And the University of New Mexico volleyball team did that with a sweep over Air Force, but something special also came with the win.
Heading into the match Riddle needed 20 kills to take over the Mountain West all-time career kill record. She did that and added a couple more.
“One of the things everyone asking is, “Are you going to give her every ball? What are you going to do?”, said head coach Jeff Nelson. “And I actually thought our whole team played really well. We had great passing, which let Hannah do some things to open things up and let Chantale put up the big numbers.”
“It’s amazing,” said Riddle. “My teammates were a big support, so were my coaches. All the fans here were a big support, too. They kept trying to set me and help me getting it and definitely feels amazing to have a lot of support. It was unbelievable.”
“I didn’t start counting,” said Riddle. “The girls started counting. So I’m pretty sure I knew how many kill I had the entire game.”
She collected 22 in the three sets. She recorded eight kills in the first set and seven kills in the second and third sets. Riddle passes Kim Turner, who played at Utah from 2000-03. Turner had a total of 1,620 kills in her career and Riddle passes with 1,623 kills.
“Chantale, she lit it up. There’s just no question. She went it after and went after it and went after it. She’d tip the ball and all of the coaches would be yelling, “Hit the ball!”, because we knew she was at and stuff. We were trying not to make her aware of where she’s at. But toward the end, I think everyone in the building was. I think we had a great crowd tonight, but from point one, we just felt like everyone was just watching that. So it was so great that the pressure of that didn’t overcome our team and we just played great ball and had a great time.”
“Again, it was a perfect pass. We told Hannah, “If you have the opportunity, we want to win the game, but if you get a good ball, go back to her.” And she got a perfect ball and it was easy to go back. And it was a big kill, and she’s given us so many. There probably haven’t been too many players more fun to watch here than Chantale. She’s had a great career. But, as we said in the pregame, her greatest moment here is coming in about two weeks because she’s going to graduate.”
The match proved to be one of the better ones for New Mexico this season. The Lobos hit .308 for the match and tallied 49 kills, 45 assists and 44 digs.
The first set was point-for-point as they were tied at 7-7. A kill from Devanne Sours and two attack errors by the Falcons gave the Lobos a 10-7 lead. The Lobos kept adding on, getting kills from Riddle and taking advantage of more errors by the Falcons. The Lobos were up 23-20 and two errors from Air Force gave the first set to the Lobos.
After the second set was tied 2-2 the Lobos took the set the rest of the way, hitting .324 for the set. They extended their to a 7-3 lead after kills from Riddle and junior Simone Henderson. After 17 points went by, the Lobos were up 17-9 and moved up 24-16 before Riddle ended the set with her 15th kill.
The Lobos and the Falcons were tied at 3-3 in the third set but Riddle just kept pounding the floor, claiming the MW record at 18-13. But it wasn’t Riddle that was getting key kills for the Lobos. Kills from sophomore Cassie House, Sours and Henderson pushed the Lobos to a 22-15 lead. Riddle got the next point for the Lobos and junior Skye Gullatt added one to the floor. Air Force pushed with a kill but Riddle finished the set, match and her Lobo career with a smash to the middle of the floor.
Hannah Johnson ended the three-set match with 43 assists and seven digs. House and Sours each had eight kills. Gullatt hit a career-high of .857 with six kills on seven attempts. Riddle hit .378 with 22 kills on 45 attempts. Sophomore Julia Warren picked up 17 digs in the back row.
The Lobos finish the 2014 season with a 19-12 overall record and 11-7 record in the Mountain West.