ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Julia Warren posted a career-high 28 kills and added 14 digs for her team-high 10th double-double of season, but it wasn’t enough as the University of New Mexico volleyball team dropped a 3-2 match to Utah State Saturday afternoon.
Behind additional career bests from Lise Rugland (67 assists) and Ashley Kelsey (28 digs), the Lobos (14-15, 4-11 Mountain West) battled in their slugfest against the Aggies (12-15, 7-9 MW), but couldn’t convert late in Johnson Center.
The set scores were 28-26, 25-22, 21-25, 19-25, 13-15.
“I’m not happy with our performance the whole day because our blocking was really poor again,” 10th-year New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said. “We got two blocks in the whole match. We dug a ton of balls offensively, but we lost the match because we didn’t block.”
Although the Lobos outperformed Utah State in a number of statistical categories — including advantages in kills (77 to 67), assists (75 to 63), aces (5 to 1) and digs (81 to 66) — it was the block that foiled New Mexico.
Between Utah State claiming an 11-2 advantage in total blocks and a number of Lobo errors coming at the block, New Mexico couldn’t close out the match after taking a 2-0 lead.
“We got beat because of blocking today,” Nelson said. “We had a lot of digs, but we just didn’t block any balls. We didn’t slow them down at all.”
Warren’s superb performance carried the Lobos’ offense, as the Albuquerque senior tallied 28 kills on a .415 hitting percentage. Her 28 kills are tied for the 10th-most in a single match in program history, and are the most since Ashley Rhoades posted 31 vs. Boise State in 2011.
“Julia had a lot of kills and was very aggressive,” Nelson said.
Devanne Sours (18 kills), Cassie House (15 kills) and Mariessa Carrasco (8 kills, .375 hit percentage) also contributed offensively for the Lobos as they hit .238 (season-high 77 kills, 32 errors, 189 attacks).
Rugland keyed New Mexico’s attack, dishing out 67 assists to set a new career high by 17 assists. Her 67 assists are tied for the 10th-most in a single match in program history, and are the most by a Lobo since Janelle Torres had 68 vs. San Diego State in 1999.
Defensively, Kelsey set a new personal record with 28 digs, which are the most since Warren registered 32 in 2014. Kelsey is now six digs from reaching 1,000 career digs.
Warren (14 digs) and Mercedes Pacheco (season-high 11 digs) also notched solid numbers in the back row.
New Mexico opened the match well, taking a 7-4 lead on the Aggies. Utah State would move ahead 11-9, but the Lobos would retake the lead at the media timeout, up 15-14. Neither team would exert much of an advantage, with four lead changes en route to a 22-22 tie.
However, UNM scored two straight to set up match point at 24-22, and, after swapping points, the Lobos would claim the set 28-26 on a Victoria Spragg service ace.
Warren and Sours each had six kills and Kelsey picked up nine digs to pace UNM in set one.
The Lobos came on strongly in set two, taking a 7-3 lead behind three early Warren kills. A 5-1 run extended New Mexico’s lead to 15-9, and even after Utah State pulled to within two points at 18-16, UNM posted a 4-1 spurt to go up 22-17.
Back-to-back Sours’ kills gave the Lobos set point at 24-18, and the Lobos withstood a late 4-0 Aggie run to win 25-22 on a Warren kill.
Like in set one, set two saw Warren and Sours score six kills each. House added five kills as UNM hit .310 in the set.
Coming out of intermission, both teams continued to play closely, but Utah State notched a 7-1 run to take a 13-6 lead. The Lobos managed to cut USU’s lead to four points at 18-14, and even came to within three points at 21-18, but the Aggies relied on a pair of UNM errors to win 25-21.
Warren had six more kills in the stanza, but no other players had more than three.
New Mexico looked to have things under control early in set four, running to a 9-5 lead as five different players logged a kill. Three straight Warren kills pushed UNM’s margin to 15-11, but a 5-1 Utah State run out of a timeout knotted the frame up at 16.
After a House kill, the Aggies finished the set on a 9-2 run, winning the fourth set 25-19. Warren posted another five kills, while Carrasco chipped in four kills.
Set five was more of the same, as UNM took leads at 6-4 and 7-5. Two straight House putaways gave New Mexico a 9-6 lead and forced a USU timeout, and the Lobos continued to pile on, moving up 11-7.
However, Utah State scored eight of the final 10 points of the set to claim the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
The Lobos return to action next Wednesday as they travel to Reno to take on Nevada at 7:30 p.m. MT.