ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — The University of New Mexico volleyball team returns to Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit for a mid-morning Saturday match against the Air Force Falcons with first serve scheduled for 10:30 a.m. As part of a Lobo doubleheader with football, those who show their football tickets at the door will receive free admission.
GAME NOTES | LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM | TICKETS
NEWS AND NOTES
LAST TIME OUT
The Lobos opened the week with a Tuesday night match at UNLV, in which UNM dropped the match in four sets (12-25, 25-19, 16-25, 19-25). Jaclyn Inclan recorded her ninth double-double of the season with a team-high 15 assists and 10 digs. It was also the redshirt-sophomore setter’s third straight and fourth in five matches. Lauren Twitty led the Lobo offense with 10 kills, the sixth match in-a-row that the senior outside hitter has recorded 10-plus kills. Alena Moldan finished with a team-high 15 digs with Tai Bierria notching 12 to go along with eight kills.Abbey Willison continued to have success from the service line and at the net, recording a team-high two service aces and accounted for a solo and two assisted blocks for the team high as well.
ADDING TO THE MILESTONES
After already reaching one milestone this season, senior outside hitter Lauren Twitty added to her achievements at UNM. The senior co-captain played her 100th match at UNM against Wyoming on Saturday, Sept. 28. Earlier this season, in the third set against OSU, Twitty became the 14th Lobo all-time to reach 1000 kills in a career. It took Twitty 94 matches and 314 sets to accomplish the feat.
Next on the milestone watch is setter Jaclyn Inclan, who is nearing 1000 career assists as a Lobo. The redshirt-sophomore has 987, just 13 shy of the milestone.
LEADING THE LOBOS
Lauren Twitty leads the team in kills (258, 3.15 k/s), service aces (22) and points (311, 3.80 pts/s). Jaclyn Inclan leads in assists with 467, averaging 5.77 a/s and Alena Moldan leads in digs with 310 (3.78 d/s). Rachel Murphy has a team-high 68.0 total blocks, eight solo, while Twitty leads in solo blocks with 11.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINES
Several Lobos have recorded double-doubles this season, led by nine from Jaclyn Inclan. Inclan has tallied a double-double in the last three matches, four in the last five and six in the last 10. Lauren Twitty is second on the team with eight, half of which have come in the last 10 matches. Tai Bierria has had four on the season, three in the last 10 matches.
DOUBLE-DIGIT HITTERS
The Lobos are getting consistent and even contribution from their three outside hitters. Lauren Twitty leads the group with 258 kills and has recorded double figures in the category in 14 of the 21 matches and in each of the last six matches. In the last 10, Twitty has reached double digits in eight, led by a season-high 20 in the win at Nevada. Tai Bierria has recorded 10-plus in 11 matches, including three of the last four and seven of the last 10. Her season high of 17 also came at Nevada. Freshman Kaitlynn Biassou has caught fire as of late to be a key contributor to the Lobo offense, recording 10 or more kills in five of the last six matches and hit an efficient and season-high .438 against Utah State with 18 kills on 32 swings. She followed that up with 19 at Nevada, hitting .359.
GOING THE DISTANCE
Twenty-one matches in to the season, the Lobos have already played seven, five-set matches, continuing a trend from 2018. In 2018, the Lobos played a total of 12 five-set matches, the most five-set matches in a single season in program history, surpassing the precedent of 10 set in 2012. Among those five-set matches, the Lobos staged a comeback against North Florida to force a fifth set and ended the season with a victory over MW champion Colorado State.
UNM had its most success in four-set matches, winning six of eight. However, this season the Lobos have played just five four-set matches, playing nine, three-set matches and seven, five-set matches. UNM is 3-6 in three-set matches, 1-4 in four sets and 2-5 in five sets.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
The Lobos tallied several season highs in Thursday’s match at Nevada, leading to UNM’s first conference win of the year. UNM produced its most kills (73), assists (70), blocks (17.0) and points (94.0) and the second-most digs (79) in a match this season against the Wolf Pack and hit a season-best .309. The Lobos got stronger offensively as the match unfolded, hitting .250 in the first, .262 in the second, .308 in the third, .361 in the fourth and .444 in the fifth.
Three Lobos finished with double figures in kills led by a match-high and season-high 20 from senior Lauren Twitty. Freshman Kaitlynn Biassou finished one behind her, hitting a team-high .359 on 39 swings in her return home to Reno and playing in front of friends, family and former teammates. In the fifth set, she tallied the last three kills for the Lobos to seal the win. Two Lobos recorded double-doubles with Jaclyn Inclan leading with a team-high 35 assists to go along with a team-high as well as career-high 26 digs and Tai Bierria’s season-high 17 kills and 11 digs. At the net, it took career highs in blocks from Abbey Willison, recording nine assisted in her second start at middle blocker, and a career-high eight assisted from Yasmin Tan. Maddie Freiwald finished with a season-high 29 assists as well as two service aces.
ABOUT AIR FORCE
Air Force entered the week having won its last two matches, a four-set win over Fresno State and a five-set win over San Diego State, but lost on Thursday night to UNLV in four sets. The Falcons are now 4-5 in conference.
The Falcons have had one common non-conference opponent with the Lobos in Gonzaga, which they lost to the Bulldogs in three sets.
Bailey Keith leads the Air Force in kills and points, with 226 kills on the season, averaging 2.63 k/s, and 258.0 points (3.00 pts/s), while Andi Ahlers leads in assists with an average of 8.41 a/s, and has accounted for 71 percent of the assists on the team with 690. Ahlers also leads the AFA with 23 service aces. Alex King has a team-high 354 digs (4.16 d/s) and Taleah Cooper leads with 48.0 total blocks (six solo).
Air Force is 2-3 on the road this season, 1-4 in three-set matches, 4-5 in four sets and 2-5 in five sets.
SERIES vs. AIR FORCE
UNM is 38-4 all-time against AFA, including a 26-match win streak that started Oct. 8, 2004 and spanned to Oct. 22, 2016. The Falcons broke up the streak with a five-set win on Nov. 15, 2017, but the Lobos have won the last two matches. UNM is 19-1 in Albuquerque.
PRIDE PASS
The Lobos open their home schedule on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. at Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit. Fans can purchase Lobo Pride Passes for access to all home matches this season for $50 by clicking HERE. Other ways are directly through the Lobo Ticket Office in person or on the phone (925-LOBO). The Lobo Ticket Office is located in Dreamstyle Arena and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.