ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.– The University of New Mexico begins its final week of regular-season home matches with a Thursday night matchup against Fresno State, with first serve scheduled for 7 p.m. MT, before hosting San Diego State on Saturday at 1 p.m. for Senior Day.
UNM is coming off of a road trip to San José State and Nevada in which the Lobos split the week, defeating the Wolf Pack. Fresno State enters the contest 18-8 overall and 10-3 in the Mountain West, 7-3 in road matches and 3-2 in its last five matches. The Bulldogs are currently second in the Mountain West standings.
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NEW MEXICO SPLITS THE WEEKEND IN WEEK 11
New Mexico volleyball went 1-1 on the weekend road trip with a five-set setback at San José State (15-25, 25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 11-15) before rebounding with a win at Nevada in four sets (25-19, 22-25, 25-18, 25-23), for the season sweep against the Wolf Pack.
Mariessa Carrasco recorded her first career double-double at Nevada with 11 kills and 10 total blocks- two solo and eight assisted, while Lauren Twitty had a match-high 20 kills in the match at Nevada. Mercedes Pacheco tallied a career-high 23 digs at San José State, followed by 22 at Nevada.
On the week, Twitty led the Lobos with 32 kills, an average of 3.56 k/s, while also tying a team high in service aces with two. Victoria Spragg had a team-high 16 total blocks- all assisted- (1.78 b/s) with Carrasco second at 14 total blocks on three solo and 11 assisted (1.56 b/s). Mercedes Pacheco averaged 5.0 digs per set for the team high and Jaclyn Inclan had 39 assists, 4.33 a/s, to lead the team.
LAST TIME VERSUS FRESNO STATE AND SDSU
The Lobos lost both road matches to the Bulldogs and the Aztecs, with a three-set (22-25, 22-25, 17-25) and four-set (21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-25) match, respectively.
Against Fresno State, Tai Bierria led UNM with 10 kills, while Sabrina Bianco had 17 of the team’s 32 assists in the match. Jaclyn Inclan contributed with 14 assists and Mercedes Pacheco recorded one. Pacheco had a team-high eight digs and Victoria Spragg had four assisted blocks to lead the defense. In the opening set, there were five ties and three lead changes, and although the Lobos had a late lead at 21-19, UNM couldn’t hold on, dropping the set. UNM got as close as 23-20 in the second set before the Bulldogs registered set point at 24-20. The Lobos were able to fight off set point twice, with Spragg registering a kill, followed by a Lauren Twitty kill to make it 24-22, but the Bulldogs took the next point for the 25-22 win.
The Lobos saw their four-match win streak snapped in the first meeting with the Aztecs, as Twitty registered her ninth double-double of the season with 12 kills and 11 digs and Bierria had a team-high 14 kills in the setback. Pacheco had a match-high 13 digs to join Twitty as the only two Lobos with double-digit digs and had the only service ace on the night for UNM. Bianco had 23 assists in the match, accounting for over half of the team’s 43. At the net, Spragg and Mariessa Carrasco each had one solo and three assisted blocks. Carly Beddingfield also had a solo block to go with an assisted block and Nicolette Clark had three assisted blocks. The Lobos had an opportunity to take the opening set after gaining the early lead and later fighting back to tie the set at 21, but ultimately was unable to finish, dropping the set 25-21. In the second set, the Lobos would get within one at 19-18, 20-19 and later fought back with a late 3-0 run on back-to-back Twitty kills and a Carrasco and Beddingfield block to make it 23-22, but UNM couldn’t ever get the needed point to tie the set before SDSU took the set 25-22. UNM finally broke through in the third set, taking control of the set from the first point to set point en route to the 25-21 set win to extend the match. However, UNM couldn’t maintain the momentum into the fourth set, dropping the set 25-15.
SENIOR APPRECIATION
Saturday’s match versus San Diego State marks the last regular-season home match of the year and Senior Day for the Lobos.
UNM will honor the careers of four seniors in Carly Beddingfield, Mariessa Carrasco, Mercedes Pacheco and Victoria Spragg, made even more special in that all but Carrasco are New Mexico natives.
GOING THE DISTANCE
Nine times this season, UNM has played five sets, recording a 5-4 record.
In last Thursday’s match at SJSU, the Lobos rallied from down nine (20-11) to win the third set 25-23 and were within two points of taking the fourth set and the match before dropping the fourth set 25-23 and the fifth set 15-11.
In UNM’s match against Wyoming, the Lobos forced a fifth set with a 25-23 fourth set win, but were unable to pull out the victory as they fell behind 6-2 early on in the fifth set and lost 15-9.
In the win versus the Wolf Pack, the Lobos easily took the first set after hitting .500 as a team before the roles reversed and they dropped the second set. The third set went to New Mexico in a frame that although there were ties, the Lobos never trailed. Nevada used a late run to force a fifth set, where New Mexico scored the first five points en route to a dominating 15-4 set win. In their match at Air Force, the Lobos were unable to capture the fourth set but catapulted out to 10-2 lead in the fifth behind a 9-0 run. The Falcons made a late push to cut the margin to three at 14-11, but Tai Bierria notched the final point on a kill to seal the set and the match.
In the last non-conference match against CMU, and for the fifth time this season, UNM went the distance in a five-set victory. After the Chippewas rallied to force a fifth set, the Lobos scored the first three points of the set, closed the match on a 7-0 run, including four blocks in-a-row, en route to the 15-7 set win.
In the three matches played at the Idaho Volleyball Classic on opening weekend and the three matches at the UNF Invitational, the Lobos played five sets in two of each tournament, going 2-2. UNM lost a late lead in the fifth set to fall to Grand Canyon University to open the tournament, but finished with a five-set victory against host Idaho. At UNF, New Mexico was down to match point at 24-23 in the fourth set, with Lauren Twitty registering a kill to extend the set. The Lobos would go on to win 26-24. In the fifth set, the Lobos trailed 13-10 before fighting back to win the set 16-14.
THE CLOSER
Junior outside hitter Tai Bierria has scored the final point in eight matches, this season, six of which tallied the winning point. In MW play, Bierria recorded the final kill against Nevada, Air Force, UNLV (twice) and Utah State to clinch the victory, and recorded the final point scored by the Lobos against Boise State and San Diego State. She also had the winning point versus USC Upstate in non-conference play.
SETTING THE TONE
The Lobos have two new setters on the roster in freshman Sabrina Bianco and redshirt-freshman transfer Jaclyn Inclan. Bianco leads the team with 559 assists, averaging 5.38 per set, and Inclan is behind her with 448 assists (4.44 a/s). Combined, the duo has 1007 of the team’s 1143 assists. Bianco has started 21 matches, registering double-digit assists in all 26 matches this season. Inclan recorded a season-high 32 in the match at Air Force, has recorded double-digit assists in all but one match. Inclan also made her first start of the season against the Spartans, and has started in four matches since.
SERVES YOU RIGHT
Sabrina Bianco (18) leads the Lobos in service aces with Lauren Twitty one behind her. Morgan Schreckler (14), Jaclyn Inclan (12) and Mercedes Pacheco (10) and Mariessa Carrasco (10) round out the Lobos with double-digit service aces.
JUST DIG IT
Mercedes Pacheco is pacing the Lobos in digs with 303 digs through 80 sets, an average of 3.79 digs per set. Lauren Twitty is second on the team with 251 digs at 2.44 digs per set, followed by Sabrina Bianco and Tai Bierria, who have 186 (1.79 d/s) and 169 digs (1.66 d/s), respectively. Pacheco had a career-high 23 digs at San José State.
ROAD BLOCK
Victoria Spragg leads the team with 117 total blocks (18 solo and 99 assisted), with an average of 1.12 blocks per set. Six of her solo blocks came in the matches versus UNLV, Air Force and Nevada. In the match at Air Force, she had a career-high 12 total blocks with two solo and 10 assisted. Mariessa Carrasco is second on the team with 100 total blocks, 11 solo and 89 assisted.
Spragg and Carrasco have had breakout seasons at the middle blocker position for the Lobos.For comparison, in the last two years, Spragg had 118 total blocks in 2016 and 115 in 2017 on the season and Carrasco had 101 total blocks last year and 96 the year before (2016), numbers that the middle blockers have nearly matched with four matches left to play in the regular season.
Both rank in the top 10 of career individual records as well, with Spragg ranked fourth in block assists (328) and in total blocks (387), while Carrasco is sixth in block assists (292) and eighth in total blocks (327).
JOINING THE RANKINGS
Lauren Twitty is fifth in the Mountain West with 3.49 k/s, totaling 359 kills in 103 sets, as well as fifth in points per set at 3.98 (410 points).
Mercedes Pacheco is sixth in digs per set with 3.79. Victoria Spragg is 10th in hitting percentage with .284.
In just conference matches, Spragg is fifth in the MW in hitting percentage at .304 and is seventh in blocks per set (1.22). Twitty is fourth in kills per set (3.62) and Tai Bierria is eighth (3.16). Pacheco is fifth in digs per set with 4.02 and Twitty is fourth in points per set (4.05).
Nationally, Twitty is ranked in attacks per set (10.02), points, points per set, total kills, kills per set and total attacks (1032). Spragg is ranked in total blocks (117) and blocks per set (1.13) and Mariessa Carrasco is ranked in total blocks (100) and blocks per set (.96).
I’LL HAVE THE DOUBLE-DOUBLE, PLEASE
The double-doubles keep coming for the Lobos, as UNM has 29 on the season. Lauren Twitty had four double-doubles in six matches and one at Nevada for a team-high 11 on the season, as well as recording three double-doubles at the UNF Invitational. Tai Bierria and Sabrina Bianco are tied for the second-most on the team with six after Bianco had two in the last two matches.
In the last two matches, Bianco recorded her fifth and sixth of the season against SJSU (15 assists, 14 digs) and Nevada (22 assists, 10 digs) and Mariessa Carrasco had the first double-double of her career at Nevada (11 kills, 10 total blocks).
In the match at Air Force, UNM had three players with double-doubles with Victoria Spragg (11 kills, 12 blocks), Jaclyn Inclan (32 assists, 14 digs) and Mercedes Pacheco (10 assists, 21 digs). It was the first double-double of the season for Spragg and Inclan and the first of Spragg’s career.
Versus Furman, three New Mexico players had a double-double, but in all three UNF Invitational matches, at least two Lobos had a double-double.
Against Idaho, four Lobo players registered double-doubles. Sabrina Bianco had 30 assists and 12 digs, Inclan had 23 assists to go with 11 digs, in addition to Twitty’s 20 kills and 14 digs and Bierria’s 12 kills and 12 digs.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
ABOUT FRESNO STATE
The Bulldogs are 7-3 on the road, 5-2 in conference play. FS is 6-3 in three sets, 8-3 in four sets and 4-2 in five sets. The Bulldogs are 3-2 in their last five matches.
Taylor Slover leads FS in kills with 376 (3.72 k/s) and points (434.5, 4.30 p/s) and is hitting .218. Madelyn Halteman leads the team in assists with 997 of the team’s 1250 (9.87 a/s) as well as service aces (30). Reagan Leonard has a team-high 481 digs (4.76 d/s). Haile Watson (16 solo, 105 assisted) has 121 total blocks to the lead the team.
Leonard leads the MW in digs per set. Watson is sixth in the conference in overall hitting percentage at .323 and fifth in blocks per set. Halteman is second in assists per set, while Slover is fourth in kills per set and third in points per set (4.30).
Fresno State leads the Mountain West in digs per set (15.54), is second in kills per set (13.05) and assists per set (12.38), and fourth in hitting percentage (.227) and in opponent hitting percentage (.183).
SERIES VS. FRESNO STATE
The Lobos and Bulldogs will be meeting for the 28th time, with FS holding a 14-13 series lead. UNM and FS split the series last season, with the Lobos dropping a 3-0 match on the road after defeating the Bulldogs in four in Albuquerque. UNM is 5-7 in three sets, 4-3 in four sets and 4-4 in five. In the last 10 matches, the series has been split 5-5 and the Lobos are 2-3 in the last five meetings.
TICKETS
Single-game tickets can be purchased at Johnson Center prior to the match, or fans can purchase a New Mexico Mutual Lobo Pride Pass, which grants owners access to all home games for all Olympic sports during the 2018-19 academic year. The New Mexico Mutual Lobo Pride Pass will give one person admission to all Lobo Volleyball regular season matches. For more information on the New Mexico Mutual Lobo Pride Pass please contact the Lobo Ticket Office in Dreamstyle Arena at (505) 925-LOBO.
COACH NELSON PRESS CONFERENCE