Lobos Complete Comeback to Take Down Ospreys

BOX SCORE (PDF)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.— Down 24-23 in the fourth set and 2-1 in the match, Lauren Twitty registered her 17th kill of the match to fight off set and match point for the New Mexico Lobos, giving UNM the second life it needed to allow for a thrilling 3-2 match win over North Florida on Friday night at UNF Arena. 

The Lobos started the UNF Invitational with a 25-20, 21-25, 20-25, 26-24, 16-14 victory against the host North Florida Ospreys. With the win, UNM improves to 4-3 on the season and 2-1 in five-set matches.

As a team, UNM tied a season-high with seven service aces, led by Sabrina Bianco’s three service aces, tying a season high, and Morgan Schreckler, who had a career-high two service aces. Twitty had a match- and season-high 23 kills to lead the Lobos, registering a double-double with a team-high 16 digs.  Freshman setter Bianco had a season-best 42 assists in the match, also tallying a double-double with 13 digs. Victoria Spragg recorded five assisted blocks to lead the team, while Twitty added a solo block and three assisted blocks in the contest.

Overall, the Ospreys actually outhit the Lobos 65-61 in kills and .272 to .197 in hitting percentage, while also having an advantage in digs (74-64), assists (64-59) and total blocks (14-8).  UNM led in service aces with the seven, and in the only category that mattered, the final score. 

Spragg scored the first two points of the match for the Lobos, and after falling behind by two at 5-3, the Lobos scored the next three points to take a one-point lead. New Mexico gained a two-point separation on an Osprey attack error for a 12-10 edge, and the lead would fluctuate between one and two for the next six points, until North Florida tied the set at 14. Yasmin Tan’s second kill of the set helped UNM regain the lead at the media timeout.  There was another tie at 17 and again at 18, which would be the final time the set would be tied. Down the stretch, a Beddingfield and Spragg block, a Schreckler service ace and kills from Twitty and Beddingfield put the Lobos in the lead for good en route to the 25-20 win.  Twitty had a team-high six kills in the set, while Bianco led with nine assists and six digs. The Lobos held the Ospreys to just .059 hitting percentage in the opening set, while hitting .243.

In the second set, UNF had the early advantage, scoring three of the first four points, but UNM evened the score at three and took the lead at 4-3 on a UNF attack error. UNF responded with the next three points to take back the two-point edge. A service error and a Jaclyn Inclan ace evened the set back at six, and there would be four more ties at seven, eight, nine and 10. Bianco served back-to-back aces to give the Lobos a 12-10 lead, but heading into the media timeout, the Ospreys held a 15-14 advantage. Three-straight points by the Lobos, including a kill by Twitty, gave UNM the 17-15 edge. The Lobos led by three at 20-17, only to have the Ospreys rally to tie the set at 20. There would be a final tie at 21 before the Ospreys took a late 23-21 lead, and would end up knotting up the match at one with a 25-21 set win. The home team hit a match-high .433 in the set.

New Mexico got out to an early 6-3 lead in part to another Schreckler service ace in the third set, and would stretch the advantage to six on a 5-0 run to make it 14-8. Beddingfield and Spragg combined for a block as well as kills by Twitty and Beddingfield to spur the run. The Ospreys matched it with a run of their own to tie the set at 14. Spragg temporarily gave the Lobos the 15-14 lead, but the Ospreys took the next two points to take the lead at 16-15, and would proceed to push it to four at 20-16 off of a 4-0 run. UNF’s lead stretched to five at 22-17, but two-straight errors by the home team cut the deficit to three.  North Florida had set point at 24-19, which New Mexico was able to fight off with a Beddingfield kill, before UNF took set three by a score of 25-20.

Set four had nine ties in the first 18 points, before UNF took a 12-9 lead. The Lobos answered with the next four points, with Twitty giving the Lobos a 13-12 lead on a kill.  After a tie at 13, UNF went in front 16-13, forcing a UNM timeout. The Osprey advantage spread to 18-14 with the Lobos fighting back within one at 18-17, using kills from Twitty and two UNF errors, before eventually tying the set at 20 on a Tai Bierria kill followed by an Osprey attack error. There would be ties at 21, 22 and 23 before UNF would get a kill for set and match point at 24-23.  From there, back-to-back kills from Twitty and Bierria allowed the Lobos to claim set point at 25-24, capped off by an Osprey ball handling error to give the Lobos the 26-24 set win and force game five. There were 16 ties and six lead changes in the set. The Ospreys outhit the Lobos .297 to .149 in the set.

UNM jumped ahead 2-1 in the decisive set on back-to-back kills by Beddingfield, but UNF responded with the next three points to take a 4-2 lead, forcing an early UNM timeout. The Lobos would trail by two at 5-3, only to tie the set at five and again at six with kills by Twitty. UNF would take the next three points to lead 9-6. UNM fought back within one at 10-9, with a kill by Mariessa Carrasco and another Beddingfield kill, but UNF scored three of the next four points to take the late 13-10 lead.  Once again, Twitty stepped up with two kills, paired with an Osprey attack error, and the Lobos fought back to tie the set at 13.  Twitty gave the Lobos match point at 14-13 on a kill on the next point, but UNF fought it off. Twitty capped off the match with a block, after a service error by the Ospreys gave the Lobos match point at 15-14.

 In sets four and five, Twitty had 12 combined kills (six in each set), providing timely hitting. In each of the sets that UNM won, the junior outside hitter had six kills to lead the Lobos in each of those sets. She finished hitting .278 on 23 kills and eight attack errors on 54 attempts, while scoring a total of 26.5 points in the match.

The Lobos had three players in double figures in kills, with Beddingfield adding 12 and Spragg having 10. Inclan had 11 assists to reach double figures once again.

The Lobos return to the court for day two of the UNF Invitational at 8 a.m. MT to take on Furman, followed by a final match against USC Upstate at 2 p.m. MT.