UNM Defeats EKU and FGCU at Lobo Classic
EKU BOX SCORE | FGCU BOX SCORE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos found different ways to win on Friday, but it was the consistent play of key players that allowed New Mexico to be victorious in its two matches and move to 3-2 on the season in the midst of a three-match winning streak.
GAME ONE
The New Mexico volleyball team opened up the Lobo Classic with a straight-set victory over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in the early afternoon match at Dreamstyle Arena-The Pit on Friday.
With the 25-16, 25-20, 25-18 win, the Lobos improved to 2-2 on the year, while the loss dropped the Colonels to 0-4.
Junior outside hitter Tai Bierria had her best match as a Lobo, leading the team with a match-high 14 kills and 14 points. Setters Jaclyn Inclan and Sabrina Bianco both reached double digits in assists, with 26 and 16, respectively to account for all but four assists in the match. Mercedes Pacheco tallied double-digit digs for the third time this season with a team-high 13. At the net, Lauren Twitty and Victoria Spragg combined for three assisted blocks to lead the team. UNM finished the match with 10 assisted blocks, with Carly Beddingfield and Mariessa Carrasco contributing on the other two.
“I thought overall the numbers were good,” said head coach Jeff Nelson. “I would have liked to have seen us block a little better, but other than that, I thought Tai had a really good game. I thought Mercedes had a really good game; serving-wise, she looked really good. Carly, after game one, she really bounced back and had some nice swings to finish the match with good numbers. We need her to do that. She’s big and she can really rip the ball on the right side. It was nice to see her recover and play well at the end of the match.
“I’m glad I was able to get some kids playing time and was able to rest Lauren, since she takes the most swings for us. Nicolette (Clark) did a good job for us and Morgan (Schreckler) always does a good job for us when she goes in. We’re getting some decent play out of the subs. It was the first time Makayla (Tam) went in, and she did a good job picking up a few digs right away.”
Although the match was close at points, UNM held the advantage in kills (47-24), assists (46-21) and digs (41-31) as well as in hitting percentage, holding EKU to just .055 in the match while hitting .262.
It was back-and-forth early on in the first set, but the Lobos settled in and created some separation with a 7-4 lead. Eastern Kentucky rallied back to tie the set at seven, to which New Mexico responded winning nine of the next 14 points to go ahead 16-12. The Colonels got as close as three at 18-15, but the Lobos finished with a 7-1 run to take the opening set 25-16. UNM hit .367 in the set, behind 14 kills, while EKU hit -.057 on eight kills on 35 attempts.
In the second set, the visitors went ahead early with a 7-3 lead, but once again the Cherry and Silver responded to tie the set at eight. From there, the Lobos would proceed to go on a 3-0 run to take an 11-8 advantage. With the margin stretched to five at 17-12, the Lobos remained in control through the remainder of the set, using a 5-0 run to get to set point at 24-18. The Colonels fought off set point twice, but a service error by EKU gave UNM the final point to win the second set, 25-20.
New Mexico continued its momentum in the third set, jumping out to an early 6-2 lead. New Mexico pushed the lead to 11-6, which grew to seven at 15-8 with a Bianco ace, which ended up being the only ace of the match for the Lobos. UNM pushed the lead to nine at 19-10 and again at 20-11, ultimately closing the match out with a 25-18 set victory. Other than an opening kill from Eastern Kentucky, UNM never trailed in the set.
The Lobos will return to the court this evening for their second match of the tournament against Florida Gulf Coast, who defeated New Mexico State in straight sets in the opening match.
GAME TWO
Tai Bierria recorded her third double-double of the season with 13 kills and 10 digs to lead the New Mexico volleyball team to a four-set win over Florida Gulf Coast in its second match of the Lobo Classic on Friday night.
After taking the first set in a close 25-23 contest, the Lobos dropped the second set 10-25 before closing out the match with wins in the next two sets for the victory. The third set resulted in another 25-23 favorable result and the fourth was a comfortable 25-18 score to seal the match, holding FGCU to a .071 hitting percentage.
“It’s hard to look at the box because our one game was so bad that it doesn’t really reflect the match,” said head coach Jeff Nelson. “I thought Tai played really well; I thought Mercedes played well. She didn’t get a lot of digs in games two and three, but she was the one person who kept passing through the turmoil. I thought she did a really good job. I thought we had some nice runs in (games) three and four off of Mariessa’s serving, which we should. It’s our best blocking rotation. Her serve has got to score points.”
FGCU led the match in almost all of the statistical categories. They led in kills (47-39), assists (45-36), total blocks (13-9), hitting percentage (.172-.140) and service aces (8-4), with UNM holding the edge in digs by a single dig (46-45). However, it was the grit that the Lobos showed down the late stretches of sets one and three that made the difference in the victory.
“I just felt like late in the games we made the extra efforts,” explained Nelson. “You have to do that to win against a good team. I thought in two of the games they were their best on the last two points.”
Setters Sabrina Bianco and Jaclyn Inclan had another solid game, both reaching double digits in assists for the second time today. Bianco led the team with 18 assists while Inclan notched 12 of her own, combining to account for 30 of the team’s 36 assists.
“I thought our two freshmen setters really hung tough in a tough match and delivered good balls,” assessed Nelson.
At the net, Mariessa Carrasco had two solo blocks and two assisted blocks to lead the defense, while Victoria Spragg had five assisted blocks. Mercedes Pacheco joined Bierria in double-digit digs with 15 to lead the Lobos and Carrasco had a team-high two service aces.
Bierria continued where she left off in the first match of the day, registering five of her match-high 13 kills in the opening set to lead the Lobos. In the first set, late ties at 18 and 19 kept it close down the stretch before UNM fell behind 23-21, forcing a UNM timeout. Out of the timeout, the Lobos responded with the next four points in the set on two attack errors by FGCU, a Yasmin Tan and Spragg block and a Spragg kill to take the 25-23 set victory. In the set, there were five ties and three lead changes.
The Lobos dropped the second set to even the match at one. The setback proved to be a wake-up call for the Lobos, who responded with wins in the next two sets, including set three which had just one tie at 5-5 before the Lobos ran away with it, and a fourth set that had the Lobos leading by as much as six and winning by seven points.
In the third set, New Mexico scored the first two points of the set and held a two-point lead at 5-3 until FGCU had a 2-0 run to even the set at five. UNM went on a 7-1 run to break open the set and push the lead to six at 12-6. A 4-1 run on top of that made it a nine-point advantage at 16-7. After a FGCU timeout, the Eagles went on a 4-0 run of their own to cut into the Lobos’ lead and would get as close as 17-14 before the Lobos put an end to it with two-straight points. The lead extended to 23-17 before FGCU made one final push with another 4-0 run. An Eagles service error gave the Lobos set point, to which FGCU fought off three set points to make it a one-point game at 24-23. Another service error by the Eagles provided the needed point for the Lobos to take set three by a score of 25-23 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set was close early on as the Lobos’ lead fluctuated between one and two points throughout much of the set’s first 18 points. After UNM built an early 6-2 lead, FGCU responded with a 3-1 run to make it a one-point game. There wouldn’t be any separation until the Lobos went on a 4-1 run to turn a 10-8 two-point lead into a 14-9 cushion. The lead expanded to six on three separate occasions (17-11, 18-12 and 19-13) late in the set, but once again, FGCU rattled off a run to cut the margin in half at 19-16. The teams exchanged 2-0 runs before UNM sealed the set and the match with the final four points for the 25-18 victory.
The Lobos close out the Lobo Classic tomorrow with a final match against New Mexico State at 1 p.m. The Aggies split the day with a win against Eastern Kentucky in five sets.