Lobos Fall to SJSU in Four
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico Lobos fought a good fight, but in the end, San José State took the final two sets to defeat the Lobos 25-21, 24-26, 25-20, 25-23 in front of 1,039 fans at Johnson Center. The loss dropped UNM to 14-8 overall and 5-7 in the Mountain West. UNM stayed a game out of fifth place as Wyoming fell to San Diego State in Laramie for the first time in 10 years.
The Lobos lost the opening set 25-21 and were trailing 20-17 in the second when the squad went to work. Kali Wolf and Kaitlyn Biassou got UNM within a point, and a Spartan attack error evened the set at 21-21. Two quick points for San José State put the Spartans on the edge of a 2-0 lead, but Biassou got one point back on another kill (one of her team-high tying 13 on the day). Blaire Fleming of SJSU, who also had 13 kills, hit one wide to tie the set again, this time at 23. Amethyst Harper put the Spartans within a point with a kill, but they wouldn’t score again.
Uxue Guereca at that point took over. She recorded three straight kills, the last to give UNM a hard fought 26-24 win in set two.
However, UNM couldn’t sustain momentum. The Lobos fell behind 20-17 again in the third, and couldn’t rally, ultimately falling 25-20 in the set. UNM then trailed 19-16 in the fourth before reeling off five straight points,. four with Alena Moldan serving. Biassou had two kills in the run and Molden had an ace as well. The run got to 21-19 when SJSU’s Jiana Lawson knocked down a kill to make it 21-20, the first of three straight Spartan points. A service error made it 22-all, but a blocking error by UNM gave the point right back. UNM was behind 24-22, but it saved a match point when Lauryn Payne hammered a ball home to make it 24-23. San José State ended the match when Haylee Nelson slid home the last of her 13 kills on the day.
The Lobos now head out on the road for four straight before returning home for the final weekend of the season when they host Utah State and Boise State in what is shaping up to be an inportant weekend of matches, November 17 and 19.