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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The University of New Mexico Lobos fell to the Colorado State Rams in straights sets on Thursday night in a match in which the Lobos struggled to stop the Rams offensively or defensively.
UNM was outhit .333 to .059 by the Mountain West preseason favorite, with a season-low 30 kills and 24 errors on 101 attempts, and CSU held a 13-4 total team blocks advantage at the net.
With the 25-16, 25-16, 25-15 loss, the Lobos fell to 11-10 overall and 5-4 in the Mountain West.
Lauren Twitty led the team with eight kills, while Tai Bierria had the second-highest with five and Danica Rowan had a career-high four. Setters Sabrina Bianco and Jaclyn Inclan each tallied double-digit assists with 15 and 11, respectively to acount for 26 of the team’s 29 assists on the night. Inclan had the highest hitting percentage on the night for the Lobos with .500 on three kills from six attempts, a season high for the redshirt-freshman. Mercedes Pacheco had a team-high 10 digs and Victoria Spragg recorded one solo block and one assisted block to lead the defense. Twitty registered the only service ace of the night for UNM, which came on the first point of the second set.
Twitty opened the match with a kill, but Colorado State responded to score the next six points to take the early lead. The Rams continued to pull away from the Lobos, leading by as much as 10 at several different instances throughout the set. Yasmin Tan had a kill and assisted on a block with Twitty to cut the Rams’ lead to seven late in the set at 17-10, and added another assisted block with Bierria four points later that brought the deficit back to seven, but that was as close as the Lobos would get in the set. UNM was able to fight off set point three times when Spragg registered her first kill of the match followed by a solo block, and an error by the Rams, but Colorado State scored the next point to take the first set, 25-16. Bierria had three kills on seven chances to lead the Lobos in the set, and Inclan aided on six of the team’s nine assists in the set. Defensively, Pacheco had four digs and Tan had two assisted blocks for team-highs in the categories.
Like in the first set, Twitty registered the first point of the set, although this time with a service ace. UNM held much closer early on in the set, pulling within one at 4-3 on another Ram attack error. A 3-1 run by the visitors stretched the deficit to three at 7-4, but UNM went on a 3-0 run with a CSU service error followed by back-to-back Twitty kills to tie the set at seven. However, CSU scored the next six points to retake the lead for good. A kill by Nicolette Clark cut the margin to four at 14-10, but that was the closest the Lobos would get as the Rams answered with a 3-0 run that stretched their lead to seven at 17-10. The Lobos were able to string together consecutive points on a kill by Rowan followed by a block by Rowan and Spragg that made it 20-13, and later on a Bierria kill and Ram attack error that cut the deficit to six at 21-15, but CSU then closed the set on a 4-1 run to take the set by another 25-16 score.
The Lobos were forced to call an early timeout in the third set after falling behind 4-1, which did not stop the Rams’ momentum as the deficit continued to grow to 11 at 14-3 after a 5-0 CSU run. A late 3-0 run by the visitors created CSU’s greatest margin of the set of 12 at 23-11 after the lead fluctuated between 11 and 10 in the 15 points prior. UNM got consecutive kills from Rowan and Mariessa Carrasco to make it 23-13, but CSU tallied the next point to reach set and match point. New Mexico fought it off twice in part to a service error and attack error by Colorado State that made it 24-15, however, the match concluded on the proceeding point with a service error by the Lobos. Twitty closed the match with four kills in the third frame, followed by Rowan who had three kills and hit .286.
UNM hosts Wyoming on Saturday at noon, with the Cowgirls entering the contest at 14-7, 6-3 in conference play after losing to UNLV on Thursday night in four sets.