PHOENIX, Ariz.— The University of New Mexico beach volleyball team dropped its two matches on Saturday by identical scores of 5-0 to No. 15 Loyola Marymount and Arizona State.
The Lobos fall to 0-3 on the season after their season-opening weekend.
In the opening match against Loyola Marymount University, all but one court were straight-set defeats. Abbey Willison and Claire Nenninger took their opponents, Veronica Nederend and Erin Martin, to three sets after forcing the third set with a 21-18 win. The pair lost the third set, 15-11, for the 21-15, 18-21, 15-11 loss.
UNM’s no. 1 team of Lauren Twitty and Dali Rosado fell 21-16, 21-17, and Makayla Tam and Morgan Schreckler lost after identical set scores of 21-16 on court two.
Emily Nenninger and Jaclyn Inclan were defeated 21-12, 21-15 on the third court and court four’s pairing of Carly Beddingfield and Joey Benson fell 21-14, 21-17.
A short while later, the Lobos faced the Arizona State Sun Devils, where they also lost 5-0.
UNM won the opening set on courts one and three, with both courts playing to three sets.
On court one, Twitty and Rosado lost a close second set 21-18 after opening with a 21-16 set win and ultimately lost 15-11 in the decisive set.
Beddingfield and Benson opened their match on court three with a 21-13 but lost 21-14 in set two to force a third set. The pair would unfortunately drop the close third set, 17-15, to give the point to the Sun Devils.
Court five was the first court to finish, with C. Nenninger and Willison falling 21-16, 21-10.
E. Nenninger and Inclan lost a close first set on court four by the score of 22-20 before losing 21-11 in the second set.
The clinching point for ASU came from court two, with Cierra Flood and Ashley Wenz defeated UNM pair Tam and Tan 21-10, 21-16.
UNM travels to Kingsville, Texas next weekend for the Kingsville Tourney hosted by Texas A&M-Kingsville. The Lobos will face Louisiana-Monroe and Houston Baptist as 11 a.m. MT and 2 p.m. MT, respectively, on Friday. On Saturday, UNM will play Texas A&M-Kingsville at 8 a.m. MT before closing the weekend with Missouri Baptist at 10 a.m. MT.