ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cassie House posted 18 kills and Devanne Sours chipped in 16, but it wasn’t enough as the University of New Mexico volleyball team dropped a five-set match to Boise State Saturday afternoon in Johnson Center.
Despite strong performances from two of their senior outside hitters, the Lobos (10-5, 1-1 Mountain West) couldn’t convert a match-point opportunity in the fourth set against the Broncos (10-5, 1-1), eventually falling 14-25, 25-17, 25-19, 24-26, 8-15 in the match.
“Losing a game like that when you’ve carried so much momentum throughout the rest of the sets is always hard,” House said. “Having match point in set four and not being able to take care of that is obviously a disappointment.”
After falling into an early deficit, New Mexico rallied to take a 2-1 lead in the match. UNM looked to be on the verge of capturing victory in the fourth set, but faltered late vs. Boise State.
Overall, the Lobos played a strong game, especially in sets two and three, but their defense, in particular on serve receive, proved to be the team’s downfall.
“I think we played really good ball,” Nelson said. “But in game four, a couple serve-reception errors cost us. Then, right at the start of game five, a couple serve-reception errors cost us.”
New Mexico was again playing without do-all senior Julia Warren, who missed Thursday’s win over Air Force and is day-to-day with a knee injury. However, the Lobos managed to again step up in her absence, with freshman Lauren Twitty playing full-rotation for UNM.
“I think it would have helped a lot having Julia at the end because I think we would have gotten out in four sets,” Nelson said. “But she’s out and I was actually pretty happy with they way we stepped up and played ball against a really good team.”
On the whole, New Mexico and Boise State performed rather similarly, with Boise State barely edging the Lobos in hitting percentage (.205 to .201), kills (59 to 58), assists (56 to 54) and digs (64 to 62).
But the Broncos posted decisive advantages in blocking (13 to 9) and reception errors (nine to four) against UNM.
House’s 18 kills on a .351 hitting percentage (18 kills-5-errors-37 attempts) led the way for UNM. Sours (16 kills, seven digs), Twitty (nine kills, five digs) and Victoria Spragg (seven kills, three blocks) also contributed.
Carson Heilborn finished with her third double-double of the season with 44 assists and 14 digs, while Ashley Kelsey (game-high 20 digs) and Maddie Mayfield (11 digs) also helped out on defense.
The Lobos opened the match with about as good of a start as they could have asked for, racing to a 7-3 lead. But Boise State quickly responded, riding a number of UNM errors to a 15-3 run.
New Mexico would cut the Broncos’ lead to six points late at 20-14, but BSU scored five straight points to win set one 25-14. The Lobos hit .000 (11-11-39) in the opening frame, while Boise State converted at a .364 clip.
UNM came out with some more intensity in the second set, erasing a 3-1 BSU lead as they claimed a 13-6 lead behind House and a number of Bronco errors. Both teams would start trading points, but Boise State would get no closer than 23-17 before the Lobos won 25-17.
“It took a little bit to get momentum,” House said, “but once we did, it was smooth, it was very functional. We were taking really good swings at the ball. We were taking good looks at the ball. We were just handling it very well in terms of recovering after that first set.”
House notched five kills in the second frame, powering UNM to a .259 hitting percentage. BSU had more trouble finding consistent offense, hitting just .086.
Set three was more of the same for the resurgent Lobos, as they rebounded from an early 6-3 Bronco lead before taking a 15-10 advantage. Boise State would come to within one point of UNM at 18-17, but New Mexico finished the set on a 7-2 run to win 25-19.
House again led UNM with five kills, but Sours started to connect, notching four putaways of her own as UNM hit .371. Spragg also notched a pair of solo blocks to help limit BSU to a .073 rate.
New Mexico looked to be in control heading into the fourth set, but Boise State jumped to a quick 8-5 lead before extended its margin to five points at 15-10. The Lobos would score three straight to make it 15-13, and they maintained contact until posting a 4-0 spurt to tie the set at 22.
After a BSU point, the Lobos scored two straight — including a key House solo block — to set themselves up with match point. But a pair of kills sandwiched around a UNM error robbed New Mexico of its shot as the Broncos won the set 26-24.
Both teams hit above .300 in the fourth set (.389 for UNM and .323 for BSU), but five Boise State aces ended up being the difference.
The Broncos rode their new-found momentum right out of the gate in set five, racing to a 7-2 lead. BSU would expand their lead to 11-4 and finished with four of the last five point to win 15-8.
“To let it get away from us was our fault,” House said. “Boise came back with a vengeance and good for them. They came back and fought. But we definitely let it slip away, and that’s upsetting.”
The Lobos returns to action on Thursday as they head to San José State in their first Mountain West road trip. UNM takes on the Spartans at 7 p.m. MT Thursday before playing Fresno State at 2 p.m. MT on Saturday.