Lobos Close Week at Utah State Saturday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobo volleyball team remains on the road to close out the first week of Mountain West competition to face another tough team in Utah State, with first serve set for Saturday at 11 a.m. MT.
The match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with live stats available.
UNM is coming off of a hard-fought five-set defeat to Boise State on Thursday night, in which the Lobos had two players finish with a double-double, three players finish with double-digit kills and three players set career highs.
Uxue Guereca led the Lobos in kills with 16, while Kali Wolf was closely behind at 15 and Kaitlynn Biassou at 13. Biassou’s streak of reaching double-digit kills continued in Thursday’s match to 11, with Wolf’s extending to five matches and Guereca’s to three.
Guereca registered a double-double, her seventh of the season, with a career-high 20 digs, with Alena Moldan finishing with a match- and career-high 32 digs. Anilee Sher also tallied a double-double, her second of the season, following a match-high 40 assists to go with 13 digs. Wolf nearly added another double-double with eight digs in the match, but found success at the service line with a career-high six service aces.
Moldan leads the MW in digs and digs per set with 230 and 4.79 per set on the season, with Biassou tied for the MW lead in total service aces with 21.
On the other side of the net, the Aggies enter the match 9-3 on the season, 1-0 in the Mountain West after beating Air Force in five with a reverse sweep. Tatum Stall leads USU in kills with 119, followed by 109 for Shelby Capllonch, with Leah Wilton-LaBoy and Beatriz Rodrigues as the main setters with 244 assists and 227 assists, respectively.
Utah State leads the MW in service aces per set at 1.96, with the Lobos second in the MW in digs per set (15.44), third in opponent hitting percentage (.179) and third in service aces per set (1.85).
The Lobos are 22-14 all-time against the Aggies and 9-4 in Logan. UNM is 3-2 in the last five matches, 6-4 in the last 10 and is 13-3 in three sets, 5-3 in four sets and 4-3 in five sets. The teams split the series last season with the Lobos losing in three in Logan and winning in five in Albuquerque.
Following Saturday’s match, the Lobos begin a four-match homestand starting with Wyoming on Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. The Lobos host Colorado State on Oct. 1 at 1 p.m., Air Force on Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. and UNLV on Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for the matches at golobos.com/tickets.