Lobos Lose in Four to San Diego State
SAN DIEGO, Calif.— The University of New Mexico volleyball team took set three, 25-23, to extend the Mountain West match on Saturday afternoon, but the Aztecs closed in the fourth set for the 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 win.
Kaitlynn Biassou once again led the Lobo offense with 14 kills, with freshman Emma Smith with the next highest total at six. Smith also had two assists and six total blocks, one solo and five assisted.
Smith was one of three Lobos to finish with six total blocks, with junior Avital Jaloba credited with six assisted and fellow freshman Tori Tua matching Smith with one solo and five assisted.
UNM finished with 13.0 blocks in the match.
Alena Moldan led with 12 digs with Chloe Clark closely behind her with 10 digs and Kara Erfurth had a solid stat line of 30 assists to go with two kills, three digs, three total blocks (all assisted) and a service ace.
San Diego State got out to an early lead in the opening set, scoring the first three points, a margin that grew to five at 8-3. UNM closed within two on a Tua solo block and two Aztec attack errors, but SDSU responded to push the lead back to four at 10-6. Later in the set, the Aztecs went on a 4-0 run that made it 17-11 and a 3-0 run that made it 20-12. UNM fought back to get within four at 23-19 on a Biassou kill and fought off set point at 24-19 before SDSU got the final point for the set win.
The second set had three ties in the first 10 points with ties at one, four and five, to which point SDSU scored the next five points to take the 10-5 lead. UNM was able to use a 3-0 run to get the margin to three at 13-10 with two Biassou kills and a combined block from Smith and Erfurth.
After the Aztecs built back their five-point lead, the Lobos again chipped away at it to close within two at 16-14 with kills from Biassou, Tua and Smith. However, SDSU used another 5-0 run to push the Lobo deficit to seven at 21-14. The Lobos did rally late in the set, fighting off three set points to make it 24-20 but again the Aztecs took the set 25-20.
Biassou finished with five kills in the set, her highest total in a set among the four sets.
In the third set, it was the Lobos that used runs to create an early advantage, scoring the first two points of the set and going on a 4-0 run to make it 6-3 Lobos. UNM led by as many as four at 10-6 before there would be an exchange of 2-0 runs and ultimately a tie at 15-all. There would later be an exchange of 3-0 runs that would create another tie at 19 and a 22-19 Lobo lead. SDSU cut it down to one but UNM was able to reach set point at 24-21 and would go onto win the set 25-22 with Biassou recording the final kill in the set.
UNM hit a match-high .312 in the set with 13 kills as three Lobos finished with three kills in Biassou, Smith and Wolf. Wolf went 3-for-4 in the set and the Lobos added from four service aces from four different Lobos in the set.
UNM’s momentum didn’t last long as SDSU jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth set and went on a 5-0 run that made it 11-3 Aztecs. The Lobos trimmed that down to two at 16-14 on a block by Tua and Smith, although SDSU scored the next three points to stop the Lobo comeback. The Lobos fought off two match points at 24-17 and 24-18 but SDSU took the set 25-19 and the match.
With the loss, the Lobos drop to 2-4 in the MW while SDSU moved to 3-3. Up next for UNM is a two-match series at Air Force set for Feb. 26 and Feb. 27.