AMES, Iowa — The University of New Mexico volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season Saturday evening, falling in straight sets to Iowa State in the final match of the Cyclone Invitational. The set scores were 25-19, 25-20, 25-10.
The young Lobos (2-1) struggled vs. the Cyclones (3-0) in their first true road test of the 2017 campaign, but overall showed well in their season-opening weekend as they debuted a roster featuring nine freshmen.
“This is as a good of an atmosphere as we’ll play in all year, so it’s going to help us down the road,” UNM head coach Jeff Nelson said. “Their band and their crowd were really good and constantly on us and constantly putting pressure on us.
“We have a young team, and we’ve got to learn how to handle that. Tonight’s a start and hopefully we’ll get better.”
After sweeping by their first two opponents of the weekend, New Mexico faced a more challenging test in the Cyclones of the Big 12. In front of a crowd announced at 1,956 inside the Hilton Coliseum, the Lobos played strong volleyball to open, but succumbed to the environment and the Cyclones late.
“I thought we battled well in games one and two,” Nelson said. “I was a little disappointed that we took ourselves out of some points. And the thing we did best well this weekend, overall, was extend points and keep ourselves in points. As we got stressed, we took ourselves out.”
Iowa State took little time creating a lead, running to a 13-5 advantage early in set one. The Lobos would cut the deficit down to five points a handful of times — even trimming it to four at 23-19 after a late 5-1 surge — but it wasn’t enough as the Cyclones won the set 25-19.
Victoria Spragg and Hailey Rubino both logged four errorless kills in the frame, but Iowa State’s offense converted at a .364 clip to secure the victory.
New Mexico opened the second stanza by taking a lead at 8-7 after four ISU attack errors, but the Cyclones would regain the lead for good after a 5-0 run. Neither team would maintain much momentum for the rest of the set, but the Lobos were unable to get any closer than four points late in the set.
Mariessa Carrasco would score five faultless kills in the set, but the Lobos struggled offensively en route to a .105 hitting percentage.
Coming out of the break, Iowa State took a 9-3 lead to force an early UNM timeout. New Mexico would come back to within four points of the Cyclones, but a set-ending 13-2 run proved insurmountable for the Lobos as ISU won 25-10.
The Lobos hit .000 in the set, with nine kills and nine errors. Conversely, Iowa State had 14 kills and no errors in the frame.
Overall, Rubino led the team with career highs in kills (nine) and digs (13). Elsewhere, Lauren Twitty added nine kills of her own, while Spragg finished with seven kills (and a .385 hitting percentage) and Carrasco six kills.
Carson Heilborn logged 24 assists for UNM, which hit .111 with 33 kills on the match.
Defensively, Mercedes Pacheco finished with seven digs, with Ashley Kelsey chipping in six.
New Mexico returns to action next Friday at the Glory Road Invitational in El Paso, Texas. The Lobos will play Youngstown State, North Dakota and host UTEP.
Fans can follow @UNMLoboVB on Twitter and Instagram for information and updates on the team!