ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Devanne Sours had a career-high 22 kills and three Lobos registered career bests in digs, but the New Mexico volleyball team couldn’t prevail in a tightly contested five-set match versus LSU Saturday night at WisePies Arena aka The Pit.
Despite outperforming LSU (4-7) in a number of key statistical categories in front of an announced crowd of 3,267 fans, errors and inconsistency across the board plagued the Lobos (7-5) as they finished second in the Days Inn and Suites Lobo Invitational.
“Our heads lost that game,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said. “Physically, if you look at the stats, we won all but one statistical category. It’s the second match this year where if you were to look at the box and took away the scores you’d think we won, but we don’t because our heads get in the way and it’s unfortunate.”
The Lobos completed the tournament 2-1 and in second place behind LSU (3-0 in the tournament), with LIU Brooklyn (1-2) and CSUN (0-3) taking third and fourth, respectively.
Senior setter Hannah Johnson, who had a career-high 26 digs to go along with seven kills and 46 assists, was named to the all-tournament team, her fourth such honor in four tournaments this season.
Junior outside hitter Julia Warren joined Johnson in earning all-tournament accolades, as she finished with 15 kills and 18 digs.
But, in spite of the honors, New Mexico couldn’t pull out another five-set comeback like it did last Saturday vs. Idaho State. It’s the fourth straight Saturday to open the season that UNM has played a five-set match, but the third time it’s lost.
“It’s frustrating and tough to grasp,” Johnson said. “We put ourselves in a position to win and then with the last four points of the fifth set, we just got really mentally unfocused.”
Statistically, the Lobos had more kills (64 to 47), attempts (205 to 199), assists (60 to 40) and digs (106 to 89) than LSU, and outhit the Tigers .132 to .116.
Johnson, Warren and Sours (22 kills, 10 digs) all had double-doubles, while Ashley Kelsey (21 digs) and Stephanie Chavez (20 digs) both set career highs in digs.
New Mexico finished with 106 digs, the most by the program since it collected the same number vs. Delaware on Sept. 17, 2011.
However, New Mexico yielded 37 errors (compared to 24 by LSU), and was out-blocked 13 to 10.
New Mexico started the match quickly, going up 8-5 on LSU. But the Tigers tied it back up at 8, spurring a back-and-forth battle for the rest of the set. Neither team would go up by more than three points in the set, with 13 ties and six lead changes in the set.
UNM threatened late as Sours powered UNM to a 23-22 lead, but the Tigers closed with three-straight points to win set one 25-23.
Sours had 10 of her 22 kills in the opening frame, but UNM could only muster two other kills as it hit .163 as a team. LSU converted .217 of their attempts.
Set two opened with New Mexico taking a lead at 7-4, which the Lobos extended to 15-12. But, like in the opening stanza, LSU came back, riding a backbreaking 11-2 run to go up 23-17.
New Mexico managed to close the gap to four points a couple of times late, but LSU’s lead proved insurmountable as the Tigers claimed set two 25-20.
UNM hit just .081 in the second set, with nine errors. LSU wasn’t much more effective, hitting .189, but had four fewer errors than the Lobos.
After the break, New Mexico followed the same script as sets one and two, going up 6-2 early. LSU took the lead, but the Lobos reeled off their own 11-2 run to win 25-18.
Warren came alive for UNM in set three, capturing seven kills as UNM hit .216 in the set. New Mexico’s defense also woke up, limiting LSU to just .048 hitting.
The reinvigorated Lobos leaped out to a 9-2 lead in the fourth set, leaning on a pair of kills by Cassie House and Warren for offense. New Mexico pushed its lead to 13-6, but a 7-1 Tiger run made the score 14-13 in favor of UNM.
LSU went on to take the lead at 16-15, and both teams swapped points until New Mexico scored three in a row for a 20-18 lead. LSU answered with two points, but UNM hung on for a 25-23 win in set four to force a decisive fifth set.
Both teams traded a pair of points early in set five, but LSU tossed out a 7-1 run to go up 8-3 at the side switch. UNM responded with a 5-1 run, but LSU finished with the final five points to win the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
New Mexico returns to action Thursday as they open Mountain West play with a 7 p.m. match vs. San Diego State at Johnson Center.