ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Now onto the regular season.
The University of New Mexico volleyball team hosted a successful intrasquad exhibition Thursday night at Johnson Center, as the Silver squad took two of three sets versus the Cherry team, 25-22, 22-25, 25-21.
With just over a week until the Lobos open their regular season at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge, the Lobos were looking to get some experience and try out some lineups in front of their fans.
“It was fun to watch,” head coach Jeff Nelson said. “… I thought that our freshman and some of our newcomers did a really good job. I really liked the way the Silver team battled.”
The Silver team, relying on a roster that included a coach and a just a handful of expected regular-season starters, kept the more experienced Cherry team off balance for most of the night.
With only one upperclassman, junior transfer Marisa Doran, and five sophomores and freshmen, the Silver team played more loosely, according to Nelson.
“The Silver team really went for it and they were scrappy as heck,” Nelson said. “They passed really well which was fun to see. They kept the Cherry team off their system or off balance just with their great passing.”
The Cherry team — which featured both of UNM’s preseason All-Mountain West honorees, Hannah Johnson and Julia Warren, and four other upperclassmen — couldn’t find a consistent rhythm in their first on-court action of 2015.
“I thought there were some nerves on [the Cherry] side tonight and the other side just came and went for it, and that was a little bit disappointing,” Nelson said.
Statistically, the veteran Cherry team edged out the Silver squad, sporting a higher hitting percentage (.181 to .140), more assists (36 to 34) and the game leader in kills (Devanne Sours, 15 kills).
The Silver team did have solid net play, as both team tied with seven total blocks, and registered one additional kill, with 38 to the Cherry team’s 37.
“I think we definitely need to work on our blocking and our communication,” Warren said.
Both teams excelled defensively on the night, with four players on each team notching at least seven digs. Freshman Mercedes Pacheco and Johnson led the Cherry team with nine digs apiece, while Ashley Kelsey recorded nine to lead the Silver team.
In the first set, the Cherry team leaped out to a 17-11 lead, fueled by a number of miscues by the Silver team. But the Silver squad, powered by kills by Doran and a service ace by Stephanie Chavez, reeled off a 9-2 run to take a 20-19 lead.
JJ Glavan, New Mexico’s assistant coach stepping in to bolster the Silver squad’s frontline, chipped in two kills in the final plays of the first set to give the Silver team a 25-22 win.
Neither side hit particularly well in the first set, with the Silver side tallying a .102 line against the Cherry team’s .105 percentage.
The second set was a tightly played affair for the first half of the stanza, as neither side took more than a three-point lead. The Cherry team slowly upped their advantage to 16-11, forcing a Silver timeout.
While Eastyn Baleto registered three kills late to make the score 22-21 in the favor of the Cherry team, kills by Sours and Simone Henderson sealed the Cherry side’s 25-22 win.
The Cherry team hit .281 in the second set, exceeding the Silver team’s .097 hitting percentage.
Like the second set, the final set followed the same initial script, with neither side gaining much traction early. The Silver team pushed ahead to an 18-13 lead behind kills by Glavan and Doran and errors by the Cherry team.
The Cherry team crept back to within three points at 21-18, but kills by freshman setter Carson Heilborn, Kelsey and Glavan powered the upstart Silver team to a 25-21 win.
The Lobos open their season next week, Aug. 28-29, at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge in Muncie, Ind. New Mexico takes the court first next Friday at 8 a.m. MT versus Belmont before playing Albany Friday afternoon and Ball State on Saturday.