FRESNO, Calif. — The Lobos go as senior setter Hannah Johnson goes, and as Johnson continued to ascend the record books, the Lobos earned a key win.
Johnson surpassed 1,000 assists for the season for the third time in her career and Cassie House posted the double-double to power the University of New Mexico volleyball team to a sweep of Fresno State Saturday.
Johnson, who now has 4,046 career assists and 1,023 for the season, led the Lobos (15-13, 8-7 Mountain West) to a resilient 25-23, 26-24, 25-22 win over the Bulldogs (14-15, 6-9) in the Save Mart Center in Fresno.
Johnson is now 128 assists behind Jade Michaelsen (4,174 assists) for the program record in career assists, and now has an unprecedented three seasons with over 1,000 assists.
Her effort Saturday, which also included five kills and five digs, was one of many strong performances, along with House’s first career double-double of 10 kills and a career-high 11 digs.
Devanne Sours also added a game high-tying 12 kills, while Julia Warren matched House with 10 kills. Senior middle blockers Simone Henderson and Skye Gullatt chipped in seven kills apiece, with five and three blocks, respectively.
Ashley Kelsey posted 11 digs, and four Lobos — Warren, Kelsey, House and Allie Askew — all had an ace.
New Mexico outhit Fresno State .319 (52 kills, 15 errors, 116 attacks) to .256 (45-15-117), and outperformed the Bulldogs in digs (47 to 39) and assists (47 to 40).
Fresno State recorded one more total block than the Lobos, nine to eight, but could never convert key plays consistently as New Mexico earned just its second pair of consecutive sweeps vs. the Bulldogs in the 22-game history of the series.
Combined with UNM’s 3-0 sweep on October 15, the series is now tied at 11 games apiece.
Fresno State opened the first set by taking a 7-4 lead, but UNM battled back and used a 6-0 run to claim a 14-11 lead. The Bulldogs would come back to tie the set up at 15, sparking a run of ties that saw six of the set’s 10 ties.
However, after Fresno State knotted the score at 20, the Lobos scored two points — including a momentum-building reversal of a call to secure a point for UNM — to go up 22-20. The Bulldogs would again tie it late at 23, but New Mexico capitalized on two late Fresno State errors for a 25-23 set win.
The Lobos hit a blistering .556 (18-3-27) in the set, getting an errorless six kills on six attempts from Sours and a faultless five kills on seven attempts from House.
The Bulldogs took a 7-4 lead to start set two, as well, but, similar to set one, the Lobos evened the score at 7. Both teams’ defense was intense in the set, with both teams scratching out points against furious rallies.
A Warren service ace gave UNM a 12-11 lead, which the Lobos extended to 15-12 at the media timeout. But Fresno State stole the lead at 18-17, inciting a back-and-forth affair. UNM would take a three-point lead at 24-21 before the Bulldogs tied it up at 24.
However, Henderson tallied a kill and Johnson laid down a nifty dump to score the final two points and earn UNM a 26-24 win in set two.
After intermission, New Mexico opened with a 4-1 run, which Fresno State answered with 6-1 run. After drawing to within one point multiple times, the Lobos finally tied it up at 14 behind a Gullatt kill.
A 3-0 spurt put UNM up 17-15, and House scored an ace and a kill to give the Lobos a 19-17 lead, which they expanded to 21-17 behind kills by Gullatt and Sours.
Fresno State crept back to within one point at 21-20, but the Lobos scored four of the final six points (including a vicious kill by Warren to set up match point) to win the set 25-22.
New Mexico is back in action Wednesday as it hosts Utah State for senior night in its final home game of the season. The Lobos will be honoring Johnson, Gullatt and Henderson in conjunction with the 7 p.m. MT match.