Team Effort Helps Lobos Complete Comeback to Close Season
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Trailing 20-11 in the fourth set and 2-1 in the match to Utah State on Saturday afternoon in The Pit, The University of New Mexico rallied to not only force a fifth set, but to win the fifth set to conclude the season.
Suiting up just seven Lobos for the second match in three days, four of which were freshmen, the Lobos relied on a complete team effort with several Lobos turning in career highs.
Outside hitter Kaitlynn Biassou finished with her fifth double-double of the season with a career-high 25 kills to go along with 11 digs and Hayley Torres posted her best match as a Lobo, with a match- and season-high six blocks (one solo and five assisted), a season-best 13 digs and tied her season high in kills with four.
Of the 14 matches this season, Biassou has tallied 10-plus kills in 10 matches and 20-plus matches in two.
Alena Moldan again shed her libero jersey and finished with three kills, eight digs, three assisted blocks and a service ace and freshmen Tori Tua and Kali Wolf each recorded 11 kills with Wolf adding a service ace and a team-high 14 digs for her third double-double of the season.
Kara Erfurth produced a game-high 47 assists, her fifth match with 40-plus assists, and finished one dig shy of a double-double and Jazlynn Soriano accounted for nine digs and an assist as the libero.
Biassou was a force from the start of the match, tallying seven kills in the first set and hitting .429, with Wolf hitting .500 with five kills and Tua and Torres accounting for three and one kill, respectively.
A Tua and Moldan block opened the match, but the score would remain close through the first 10 points with three ties. The pattern would continue to the media timeout, with neither team able to gain more than a two-point lead as UNM held a 15-14 lead at the break. There was a final tie at 18-all before a Tua kill and Aggie attack error provided a late Lobo lead. Utah State got back within one at 20-19, but consecutive Biassou kills, another Aggie attack error and a Tua kill provided a Lobo set point at 24-19. USU fought it off twice before Biassou put the finishing touch on the 25-21 Lobo set win.
There were a total of eight ties and just two lead changes in the opening set, with the Lobos outhitting the Aggies .282 to .133.
While there were seven ties and five lead changes early on in the second set, Utah State evened the match with a 25-18 second set win, pulling away after a Torres kill made it 11-10.
Utah State continued to control the match in the third set, winning 25-15 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
It looked as if the fourth set would follow the same trend, with the Aggies getting out ahead 15-5, causing UNM to use its second timeout of the set. The deficit reached nine at 19-10, but the Lobos’ relentless effort and a few Aggie errors provided an opportunity to fight back in the set.
Utah State errors assisted in the comeback, with a service error, two ball handling errors starting the run, and continued with a Biassou kill and a combined block by Biassou and Wolf that made it 20-16.
The Aggies were three points away from taking the set and the match at 22-18, but a Wolf kill, a Tua and Torres combined block and another Wolf kill pulled the Lobos within one. A Utah State kill kept the Aggies in the lead, and following a USU attack error, another kill pushed the visitors to match point at 24-22. With the match literally on the line, freshman Tua stepped up with the kill to keep the Lobos alive and a Biassou kill completed the comeback to tie the set at 24. Another Biassou kill on the next point gave UNM set point of its own, and following a Utah State timeout, a USU ball handling error forced the deciding fifth set.
After trailing by nine at 19-10, the Lobos went on a 16-5 run, and a 21-9 run from their greatest deficit of 15-5.
Biassou had five kills in the fourth set with Tua closely behind with four.
Two early Biassou kills helped the Lobos get out to an early it 3-1 advantage, but the Aggies would go on a 3-1 run to tie the set at four. A Tua kill followed by a Moldan kill provided some separation at 7-5 and a second Moldan kill took the Lobos into the media timeout leading 8-6. Out of the break, Utah State scored the next three points to take a lead, to which the Lobos would create another tie on the next point. Two Biassou kills provided two more ties at 10 and 11 before the Lobos closed with the final four points on two Aggie attack errors, an Erfurth and Torres combined block and a solo block by Torres on match point for the 15-11 set win.
UNM hit .353 in the final set with Biassou hitting .571 (5-1-7) and recorded three total blocks with solo blocks by Biassou and Torres and an assisted block. Erfurth accounted for all seven assists in the set.
With the win, the Lobos conclude the season 4-10 in Mountain West play and plenty to build on for the fall season.
UNM opened the season 2-0 and swept the week one conference awards with Wolf (offensive) and Uxue Guereca (defensive), the first time since 2017 that the Lobos swept the weekly conference award. Wolf was also the first freshman to win the offensive weekly honor since Sarah Lobo won it in 2017. Guereca was the first UNM freshman to win defensive player of the week since the conference awarded both a defensive and offensive player in 2015. It was also the first time ever that a pair of freshmen won the weekly conference awards in the same week.
Furthermore, the Lobos played six different lineups throughout the first six weeks and played five freshmen on the season, with two freshmen leading the team in two categories in Erfurth (411 assists) and Tua (40 blocks) and Wolf second in kills (117) and points (136.5). In total, eight Lobos saw action for the first time.
Entering the final weekend, Biassou was sixth in the conference in kills per set at 3.34, service aces per set (0.39) and was fifth in points per set at 4.0 with 164.0 on the season. Additionally, Erfurth was third in the conference in assists per set at 8.77. After the final matches, Biassou finished with 3.45 kills per set and 4.04 points per set with Erfurth at 8.74 assists per set.