ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After a rough go early in conference play, the Lobos have turned it around.
Now winners of four of their last five matches, momentum is on their side.
Devanne Sours posted a game-high 17 kills and the University of New Mexico volleyball team registered strong defense en route to claiming a three-set sweep of San José State Saturday afternoon in Johnson Center.
Behind Sours’ second straight superb performance of the week, the Lobos (14-12, 4-8 Mountain West) won their third straight match, dispatching the Spartans (10-14, 3-9 MW) by set scores of 25-17, 25-17, 25-20.
“Devanne had an amazing weekend and another great match,” 10th-year New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said. “She probably averaged over five kills per game this weekend and she put up big percentages. It was really great to see her healthy and to see her playing great ball again.”
Combined with a career high-tying 22-kill showing Thursday vs. Fresno State, Sours continued to shine, leading the Lobos during their current run in the second half of Mountain West play.
New Mexico is now ahead of the Spartans in the league standings and can keep moving up with six matches left in the season.
“It’s a great weekend for us,” Nelson said. “We moved up a couple spots in the conference and just played good ball. It was fun to see us have a convincing win.”
 |
|
| Cassie House |
Along with Sours’ 17 kills (on a .314 hitting percentage) and six digs, the Lobos also received strong offense from Cassie House (nine kills, two aces) and Carson Heilborn (four kills, 11 assists, career-high seven blocks).
Julia Warren also added a solid all-around performance with five kills and 12 digs, while Victoria Spragg chipped in four kills and six blocks.
Lise Rugland continued to helm the Lobos’ offense with 22 assists, and Maddie Mayfield contributed at the service line, notching two aces.
Defensively, New Mexico earned 13 digs from Ashley Kelsey and four blocks from Mariessa Carrasco.
Overall, the Lobos outhit San José State .204 to .055, as UNM posted 41 kills to the Spartans’ 31 kills. UNM also had more assists (36 to 29), aces (five to zero) and blocks (12 to 8).
“Our serving was really good,” Nelson said. “… I was really happy with it. I thought we kept them out of system and kept them off the net, which helped our defense and blocking. We had big blocking numbers.”
The Lobos opened the match on a roll, taking a 10-5 lead as San José State committed seven errors. The Spartans would come within one point at 12-11 after posting a 4-0 run, but New Mexico responded with four straight of their own to take a decisive 16-11 advantage.
A 6-2 run fueled by two Sours kills and four SJSU errors gave UNM a 24-15 lead, and the Lobos converted match point at 25-17 after the Spartans registered their 16th miscue of the set.
Sours’ five kills were tops in the set, and New Mexico managed to hold San José State to a -.048 hitting percentage.
 |
|
| Carson Heilborn |
UNM continued to click in the second set, racing to a 12-4 lead as Mayfield logged back-to-back aces. San José State would get to within eight points a couple of times late, but the Lobos kept the Spartans in check, never yielding more than two straight points to the visitors in the set.
House and Sours helped close the set for New Mexico, scoring the Lobos’ final three points as they won 25-17. Sours added six kills in the frame, while House posted five putaways.
UNM hit .310 in the set with 17 kills against just four errors.
With momentum in hand, the Lobos claimed an 11-6 lead in set three. San José State would make things interesting with a game-tying 5-0 run, but even after that 11-11 deadlock, New Mexico broke away with a 4-0 spurt.
The Spartans cut UNM’s lead to three points at 20-17, but five different Lobos scored in the ultimate moments of the set as New Mexico won 25-20.
Five Lobos had at least two kills in the set, including Sours (six), House (three), Warren (two), Spragg (two) and Heilborn (two). Heilborn and Spragg also controlled the net in the third set, tallying three blocks each to limit SJSU to a .029 clip.
“In game three, we had six blocks,” Nelson said. “It’s just making that extra effort sealing the net off and I thought we did a much better job at that as the match went on.”
The Lobos return to action next Thursday as they travel to Laramie, Wyoming to face the Wyoming Cowgirls at 6:30 p.m. MT. New Mexico also travels to Colorado State next week for a 7 p.m. MT match on Saturday.
NOTES: Sours now has 913 career kills, 87 from 1,000 in her career and 161 from 10th all time … Cassie House, who entered the week 10th all-time in career kills, passed Anna Reines for ninth in program history; House now has 1,090 career kills … Sours also moved into the top 10 in career attempts, sitting ninth all-time with 2707 attempts … House ranks seventh all-time with 2891 career attempts, one behind All-American and UNM Hall of Honor inductee Jeanne Fairchild for sixth all-time … House also moved into the top 10 for career points, sitting 10th with 1273.5 points … Ashley Kelsey now has 929 career digs and with 412 digs this season, moved just 17 digs from the 10th-most in a single season in program history