ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico volleyball team battled against No. 15 Colorado State in a showdown of Mountain West rivals, but fell in three sets, 25-10, 26-24, 25-18, Saturday night in Johnson Center.
Senior Hannah Johnson tallied 18 assists and redshirt sophomore Ashley Kelsey added 17 digs for the Lobos (14-12, 7-6 MW), but it wasn’t enough against the conference-leading Rams (21-3, 14-0) in front of an announced crowd of 1,437 fans.
“Our main goal was just to stay with them and constantly be energized,” Kelsey said. “We knew that they were going to get their fair share of points, but we needed to capitalize when we had momentum.”
The Lobos received solid nights serving and passing in front the biggest crowd at Johnson Center this season, but also registered season lows in hitting percentage (negative .054) and kills (25).
Devanne Sours tallied a team-high eight kills on the night, while Skye Gullatt added four. Johnson, Julia Warren and Mariessa Carrasco each finished with three kills.
Defensively, Kelsey’s 17 digs were tops in the match, while Johnson just missed a double-double with nine digs. The Lobos were out-dug by Colorado State by just six, 44-38.
“A really good team is going to expose your weaknesses,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said. “… We’ve struggled with kills and we’ve struggled with the libero position all year. Both of those were exposed again tonight.”
The Lobos opened the match with a 3-0 lead in set one, but CSU quickly erased that with an 11-2 run. New Mexico struggled to find offense in the opening frame, scoring back-to-back points just once more in the set.
The Rams closed the set with 8-0 run to win 25-10. UNM hit negative .103 in the set (7 kills, 11 errors, 39 attempts), while Colorado State converted a .400 hitting percentage (13-1-30). The Rams recorded six total blocks to the Lobos’ zero.
New Mexico fought back in the second stanza, forcing a 7-7 tie early. The Rams eventually expanded their lead to 17-10 behind their offense, but the Lobos climbed back to within two points at 17-19 as CSU committed five errors.
A 7-1 run fueled by more Rams errors pushed UNM up 24-23 late in the set, but Colorado State scored the final three points to scrape out a 26-24 set win.
“We served and passed really well in game two to keep ourselves in it and put some pressure on them, but then we made two hitting errors,” Nelson said. “… We needed to come up with a few more plays but we didn’t in the end.”
The Lobos’ defense held CSU to a .150 hitting percentage (15-9-40) as the Rams totaled 15 errors (attack, blocking, service and receipt). However, UNM’s offense couldn’t break even, hitting negative .025 (10-11-40).
Fighting to extend the match, New Mexico opened set three with a 7-5 spurt, and remained tied with Colorado State at 10-all. The Rams answered with five consecutive points to go up 15-10, and then rebuked a 4-0 Lobos run with a 7-2 run to go up 22-16.
CSU finished with three of the final four points to win the set 25-18. The Rams posted six of their 16 total blocks and hit .172, while UNM had two blocks and a negative .031 hitting percentage.
The Lobos return to action next week with a pair of road matches at UNLV and Fresno State. New Mexico is back home November 18 for Senior Night vs. Utah State.
NOTES: Colorado State leads the all-time series 49-23 and has won 37 of the last 41 matches between the two teams … Johnson now has 3,953 career assists and is 221 assists from the program record with five matches remaining