MW RELEASE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— She tallied the final kill of the 2019 New Mexico volleyball season and in the final week of her collegiate career, she earned her first career Mountain West weekly honor.
Senior outside hitter Tai Bierria was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week by the conference on Monday morning, the first Lobo to be awarded the honor this season.
Bierria led the Lobos in kills, points, and attempts and tied for the team high in service aces as well as finished in the top five in digs in the two matches in week 13. On the week, the senior finished with 25 kills (3.57 k/s), hitting .304 (25-8-56), 13 digs, two assists, two service aces and two total blocks (both assisted) for a team-high 28.0 points (4.0 pts/s) while starting both matches and playing in all seven sets.
Against UNLV and Air Force Bierria registered double-digit kills. On Tuesday night, she tallied the team high with 15 against the Rebels on Senior Night, tying UNLV’s Mariena Hayden for the match high, while hitting .323 and finishing with a match-high 17 points. She was also one dig shy of recording a double-double and added a service ace versus UNLV. In the final match of the season, Bierria recorded the final point of the match to not only give her 10 in the match to tie the team high, but complete the sweep over the Falcons. On the night, the outside hitter hit .280 with 10 kills and three errors on 25 swings.
Of note, the Georgia native registered six of the team’s 11 kills and an ace in the second set against UNLV and hit .444. In the second set, kills by Bierria brought UNM within one at 7-6, again at 9-8 and tied the set at nine for the first tie since 2-all. Another kill by Bierria gave UNM a late 18-17 lead, and her service ace gave UNM set point at 24-22. In the final set at Air Force, she recorded four kills, bookending the set after opening the set with a kill and finishing the set with a kill to give UNM the win. Further, she accounted for two kills in the final four points for UNM in the third set as the Lobos closed on a 4-1 run.
The Lobos went 1-1 on the week but finished the season winning five of its last seven matches, including two sweeps.
On the season, Bierria finished with 302 kills, an average of 2.63 k/s, placing her second on the team in kills and tied for the team high in hitting percentage with .211. She led the team in service aces with 27, was second in points with 349 (3.03 pts/s) and finished third in total digs with 254 (2.21 d/s).