Twitty Tallies 1000th Career Kill, UNM Drops Two to GU and OSU
SEATTLE- The University of New Mexico volleyball team opened the Redhawk Invitational with losses to Gonzaga and Oregon State on Friday, with the first match going three sets and the second match going the distance at five.
Continuing a season trend, all eight matches the Lobos have played this season, three have gone five sets with the remainder going three.
Although the Lobos were on the losing end of the second match against the Oregon State Beavers, there were two bright spots in the match centering around Lauren Twitty and Kaitlynn Biassou. One highlight of the day occurred in the third set of the match against Oregon State, as senior outside hitter Twitty became the 14th Lobo to reach 1000 kills in a career.
Leading the Lobos on the day was freshman outside hitter Kaitlynn Biassou who tallied 31 kills, 23 of which came in the match against OSU. Jaclyn Inclan had over half of the team’s total assists on the day with 41 (of 81 total) and Twitty recorded four service aces, three of which came against Oregon State. At the net, Rachel Murphy led the Lobos with seven total blocks, two of which were solo.
MATCH ONE:
The Lobos dropped the first match to Gonzaga in three sets by scores of 25-19, 25-20, 25-17. There were a total of 11 tie scores and five lead changes, with the closest set being in the first set with four ties and three lead changes.
Biassou led the team with eight kills, while Inclan contributed a team-high 11 assists and Alena Moldan posted a match-high 11 digs. Moldan also tallied a kill and an assist in the match. Yasmin Tan and Twitty each had two service aces, the two for Tan being a career high.
Gonzaga outhit UNM .333 to .224 in the match and had eight service aces to UNM’s five.
The Lobos got out to a fast start with the first three points of the match on a Tai Bierria kill, a setting error by Gonzaga and a block by Murphy and Biassou and pushed out to a 4-1 early lead. Gonzaga tied the set at five but Tan restored the lead on her first kill of the match. There were two more ties at six and seven before the Lobos pushed the lead back out to three on a Bierria kill, Tan ace and Biassou kill for the 11-8 Lobo lead.
Momentum turned at that point as the Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run to retake the lead for good. A service error out of a Lobo timeout brought UNM back within one, however, the Bulldogs built the lead up to four at 16-12. Twitty tallied two kills to try to bring UNM back in the set but the Bulldogs pushed the lead to six at 21-15. Following another UNM timeout Tan responded with a kill and UNM pulled within four on a Bulldog attack error before Gonzaga took the first set 25-19.
Four different Lobos registered two kills in the set: Tan, Twitty, Bierria and Biassou.
Like the first set, the Lobos got out to an early lead on a Bulldog attack error and Murphy kill, which built to 4-1. GU tied the set at four but a service error regained the lead for UNM at 5-4. There were ties at five and six before a Twitty kill and service ace made it 8-6 UNM. Gonzaga tied the set at eight and took a 10-8 lead, the only lead change of the set, with a 4-0 run before Bierria ended it with a kill. A Bierria kill and GU attack error later tied the set at 12, the final of five ties in the set, however, GU scored the next two points to go back up by two.
Out of a timeout at 15-12, the Lobos pulled it within one before GU went on a 4-0 run to pull away by five at 20-15. A Nicolette Clark kill ended the run, followed up by a Murphy solo block and Tan ace that cut in to the deficit to make it 20-18. GU closed on a 5-2 run to take the second set, 25-20.
Biassou and Bierria led the team in the set with three kills apiece, accounting for six of the team’s 10 kills.
Biassou opened the third set with a kill before GU took the next two points to go up early on. A tip by Bierria tied the set at two before a 6-1 Gonzaga run extended the Bulldog lead to five at 8-3. Clark ended the run with a kill, however the Bulldogs built a six-point lead at 10-4 forcing a UNM timeout. Out of the timeout, the Lobos tallied two-straight points on a Bulldog service error and Twitty solo block, although Gonzaga earned the points right back to go back up by six at 13-7.
UNM went on a 4-0 run with a Biassou kill following a long rally, a Tan solo block and a GU attack error to make it 13-11. A trade of 2-0 runs kept the Lobos within two, however, GU then went on a 7-1 run to go up 22-14. The Lobos would get points from a service error, Bierria ace and Twitty kill before falling 25-17 in the set to conclude the match.
The Lobos hit a match-high .333 in the final set with nine kills, six of which came from Twitty and Biassou at three each.
MATCH TWO:
A short while after the conclusion of the match with the Bulldogs, the Lobos were back on the court at the Redhawk Center to take on the Oregon State Beavers. After falling in the first set, UNM responded to take the next two sets to take a 2-1 advantage in the match. The Beavers closed the match winning the next two sets for the 22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 22-25, 10-15 Lobo defeat.
In the closely contested match, there were 24 ties and nine lead changes.
Twitty and Inclan each had double-doubles, with Twitty recording 15 kills and 12 digs and Inclan recording 30 assists and 10 digs.
Biassou finished with a season and match-high 23 kills, the most kills by a Lobo in a match this season and the first to reach 20 this season. Additionally, it was the most kills by a Lobo since Twitty recorded 25 against Wyoming on Sept. 23, 2017. She was one of three Lobos to reach double figures in kills, joined by 15 each from Bierria and Twitty.
Moldan reached double digits in digs once more with a match-high 27. The freshman libero was also one of three Lobos who registered two service aces in the match, joined by Inclan and Twitty, and had five assists.
The Lobos scored the first two points of the match on Biassou kills and got ahead early by a score of 5-1. UNM maintained the edge, going up as much as six at 9-3 with Biassou having four kills early in the set.
OSU responded to tie the set at nine before Twitty ended the run with a kill to put UNM back in front. There was another tie at 10 before a Murphy kill restored UNM’s lead and a tie at 11 but a Twitty block as well as an ace and a Biassou kill pushed UNM back up by three at 14-11.
Later on in the set, the Beavers tied the set at 16 and took a 17-16 lead before ties at 17 and 18 and a Murphy and Clark block put UNM up 19-18. The lead grew to three at 21-18, although OSU recorded the next five points to tie the set and take a 23-21 lead. A Murphy and Clark block brought UNM within one but OSU took the first set 25-22.
Biassou finished the set with five kills and Inclan had seven assists. UNM managed to narrowly outhit OSU in the set .191 to .190 with 14 kills in the set. Between the two teams, there were seven ties and three lead changes.
In the second set, there was just one lead change after six ties which came late in the set and allowed the Lobos to pull away with the set to tie the match at a set apiece.
There were two ties early on at one and two before OSU went ahead 6-2. Biassou ended the run with a kill and the Lobos climbed back in to the set at 7-5 before ultimately tying the set at nine following a Twitty kill and block (with Murphy). A Biassou kill tied the set at 10 before Oregon State answered to take the lead again at 13-11. The Beavers’ lead expanded to four at 16-12 and at 18-14.
UNM fought back within one at 18-17 and eventually kills by Biassou and Bierria tied the set at 19. There was a final tie at 20 before UNM went ahead 21-20 following a Beaver attack error. UNM’s lead extended to two on a Biassou kill and again at 23-21 on an Inclan dump that fell in the middle of the court for the Lobo point. The Beavers fought off set point at 24-21, but a Clark kill gave the Lobos the 25-22 set win to even the match at one.
UNM outhit OSU .244 to .125 in the set with 15 kills with Biassou accounting for five and Twitty and Bierria with four each.
In the third set, there was more back and forth with nine ties and four lead changes. Biassou opened up the set with a kill and early on there were ties at one and two and three before OSU scored the next two points to go up 5-3. UNM tied the set at five and then scored the next three points to take an 8-5 lead. OSU tied the set at eight but UNM recorded the next point on an attack error to retake the lead. There were three more ties at nine, 11 and 12 before UNM pulled ahead 15-12 on kills by Biassou and Bierria.
A service ace by Moldan and a Biassou kill extended the lead to five at 17-12. The Beavers used a run to cut it to two when a Clark created some cushion with a kill to make it 19-16. Twitty’s 1000th kill of her career made it 20-17 and from there, a Tan ace and back-to-back attack errors by OSU pushed the lead to six at 23-17. A Beaver kill ended a 4-0 Lobo run momentarily, but Twitty and Murphy finished the set with consecutive kills to give UNM the 25-18 set win to take the 2-1 advantage in the match.
Twitty and Bierria each had four more kills to lead the Lobos’ offense.
UNM fell behind 2-0 and the Beavers would grow on their lead to 9-2 behind a 6-0 run that the Lobos wouldn’t be able to recover from in the fourth set.
The Lobos attempted to fight back in the set, with the aid of back-to-back Twitty kills and back-to-back aces by Inclan that brought UNM back within three at 12-9. Back-to-back Biassou kills and a Bierria kill made it 15-13 and an attack error made it 15-14, the closest UNM would get in the set.
The Beavers scored the next two points to go back up 17-14 and would later go up by five at 23-18. The Lobos would fight back with a 3-0 run behind a Twitty kill and two attack errors by OSU to pull within two at 23-21. UNM fought off set point with a Biassou kill, but ultimately OSU won the fourth set 25-22 to force a fifth set.
Biassou tallied seven kills in the set and Inclan had two service aces to highlight the set.
The deciding set had two ties at one and two on a Murphy solo block that opened the set and a Biassou kill tied the set at two before Oregon State went ahead 6-2. Bierria ended the run with a kill but OSU maintained its lead at 8-3. A Bierria ace made it 8-5 Beavers but a 3-1 run pushed the margin back to five at 11-6. UNM pulled as close as four at 11-7 and again at 14-10 but it was Oregon State who came away with the set at 15-10 to take the match.
Biassou finished with three more kills in the set, accounting for half the team total.
UNM (2-6) concludes the Redhawk Invitational with a final match against host Seattle on Saturday at noon MT. The match will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network.