Lobos Travel to UTEP for Borderland Invitational

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— After a successful Lobo Invitational to start the season, the Lobo volleyball team heads to El Paso, Texas and the Borderland Invitational set to start Thursday.

UNM will have three matches in the tournament, facing host UTEP on Thursday at 6 p.m. MT, followed by South Dakota on Friday at 4 p.m. and Portland State on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Only the UTEP match will be available to watch, but there will be live stats provided for all three matches.

The Lobos continued their home court success, improving to 12-3 at home in the last two seasons following 3-1 victories over Cal State Fullerton and Abilene Christian.

New Mexico was tested in both matches and found ways to win, led in part by the production of Uxue Guereca. The redshirt-junior led the Lobos with two double-doubles, tying the team high in kills (15) and digs (17) in Friday’s match and finished with a match-high 18 kills to go with 13 digs in Saturday’s win.

When the Wildcats led 14-8 in the third set, Guereca spurred the Lobo comeback, starting the rally with three-straight kills and finishing with seven kills and an ace in the Lobo set win. Guereca closed the match with six kills in the fourth, giving the Lobo 13 kills in the final two sets with just two errors.

Guereca finished the weekend with 37.0 points (4.63 per set), 33 kills (4.13 per set), 30 digs (3.75 per set), three blocks and two service aces.

Defensively, Alena Moldan was true to form, seamlessly everywhere on the court diving to keep plays alive and finished with 48 digs between the two matches to lead the Mountain West in digs per set (6.0). Moldan tallied a career-high 31 digs in the win over Abilene Christian, recording 14 digs in the second set and nine digs in the third set to aid in the Lobo win.

As a team, the Lobos lead the Mountain West in digs per set at 19.75 and are third in opponent hitting percentage (.153) and kills per set (14.0).

The Lobos also had newcomers step up in both matches, with Anilee Sher contributing a match-high 33 assists and 17 digs for her first double-double as a Lobo in Saturday’s win and Lea Zurlinden stepping up to provide the match-clinching kill in Friday’s fourth set 27-25 result.

Double-doubles were prevalent in Friday’s win with Kali Wolf finishing with 15 kills and 11 digs to go with Kaitlynn Biassou’s 14 kills and 10 digs and Guereca’s aforementioned double-double.

On the other side of the net, the Lobos will face South Dakota for the first time in program history, a team that UNM hasn’t played in 11 years in Portland State and a team that although they have a long-standing history, hasn’t played in five years in UTEP.

UTEP enters the weekend 2-1 after defeating Northeastern (3-2) and Pacific (3-2) and losing to Northwestern (3-0) at the Northwestern Tournament.

The Miners are led by Serena Patterson, who finished with 41 kills (3.15 per set) and 47.5 points (3.65 per set) and by Hande Yetis, who had 65 assists (5.0 per set). Defensively, UTEP is led by Alianza Darley’s 16.0 total blocks and Hula Crisostomo’s 39 digs. Sara Pustahija was named the Conference USA Volleyball Freshman of the Week, after finishing with 37.5 points scored, 26 kills (2.0 per set), three block assists and three solo for 10 blocks. She was second on the Miners in kills and a total of five aces.

Patterson and Darley were selected to Conference USA’s Preseason Team with the Miners picked to finish third in the conference. UTEP returns seven starters from a year ago and 10 letterwinners.

South Dakota also enters the invitational 2-1 after beating Missouri (3-2) and Northern Kentucky (3-0) and falling to No. 4 Louisville (3-0). USD was led by Elizabeth Juhnke’s 51 kills (4.64 per set) and 55.5 points (5.05 per set) and Lolo Weideman’s seven service aces. Brooklyn Schram was the lead setter with 103 assists (9.36 per set), with Schram also leading with 39 digs (3.55 per set).

Juhnke and Madison Harms were named Summit League Players to Watch, with the Coyotes picked to finish second in the league after earning three first-place votes and 74 points in the voting, one point behind preseason favorite Denver. USD is coming off its third NCAA Tournament berth in four years.

Portland State enters the weekend 1-2 with a win over Oregon State (3-1) and losses to Long Beach State (3-1) and No. 19 Oregon (3-0).

The Vikings were led by Makayla Lewis’ 37 kills (3.36 per set) and 42.0 points (3.82 per set) with Madison Friebel leading with 67 assists (6.09 per set). Parker Webb led the team with six service aces. Defensively, Ashleigh Barto led with 10.0 total blocks (two solo, eight assisted) and Ellie Snook, who had 40 digs (3.64 per set).

PSU was picked to finish third in the Big Sky preseason poll with one first-place vote, and return five starters from last year’s team.