HOUSTON, Texas— The University of New Mexico beach volleyball team closed out the HBU Beach Invitational on Saturday morning with a pair of 3-2 wins against Texas A&M-Kinsgville and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
In the first match of the day with Texas A&M-Kingsville, the Lobos captured the team point on the first two courts to get out to an early 2-0 advantage. The Javelinas got a point back on the third court before court No. 1 secured the Lobo victory. All but one court, court five, went two sets.
Abbey Willison and Emily Nenninger put UNM on the board with a 21-17, 21-15 win on court four, while Jaclyn Inclan and Claire Nenninger fell in the first set 21-9 before battling for a 21-18 second set win and a 15-11 third set win to take the dual.
Carly Beddingfield and Joey Benson fell 21-14, 21-13 on court three, but Lauren Twitty and Dali Rosado got the point back and sealed the win for UNM with a 21-18, 21-12 win.
The second court was the last to finish with Yasmin Tan and Morgan Schreckler dropping a 21-16, 21-14 decision, however, UNM took the 3-2 win.
It marked the second time this season that UNM has defeated the Javelinas by a score of 3-2, pushing the all-time record to 3-1.
In the final match of the weekend against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the teams split the first two matches with Willison and E. Nenninger prevailing in three, 22-20, 17-21, 15-13. Inclan and C. Nenninger fell in two sets, 21-15,21-18.
Twitty and Rosado gave UNM the 2-1 lead in the team points with a straight-set win by the score of 21-18, 21-17 to push the duo’s win streak to seven matches and a 16-4 record on the season as a pairing.
Benson and Beddingfield made it 3-1 on court three with a three-set win, falling in the first set 21-18 before taking the second set 21-18 and the third set 15-6.
Schreckler and Tan closed the weekend of matches with a straight-set defeat of 21-17, 21-15.
However, UNM won its first match all-time against the Islanders with the 3-2 win.
The Lobos (8-12) resume competition on April 12 and 13 with a final tournament at the University of Arizona, with matches scheduled against Santa Clara, Ottawa University Arizona and Arizona.