Lobos Set For UND Classic Sep. 7-9

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Fresh off its second consecutive winning weekend and tournament win, New Mexico Volleyball heads to Grand Forks, N.D. this weekend to take part in the UND Classic Sep. 7-9, with matchups against North Dakota (1-5), Montana (1-5) and Green Bay (2-4).

After a 2-1 weekend at The Pit as hosts of the Lobo Invitational, the Lobos (4-2) came away with their second tournament championship in as many weeks. They opened with a comeback four-set win over previously-unbeaten CSU Bakersfield (23-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-10) on Thursday and followed with a statement sweep over a St. John’s team picked to finish fourth in the Big East (25-16, 25-19, 25-19) before dropping a five-set battle with Utah Tech (27-25, 14-25, 24-26, 25-16, 9-15) in the finale.

UNM is picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Coaches’ Poll – the highest they’ve been slated to finish in Head Coach Newman-Gonchar’s five seasons at the helm in Albuquerque. UNM is coming off its second consecutive winning season, going 17-12 overall and 8-10 in conference in 2022 en route to a fifth-place finish and the Lobos’ second straight MWC Tournament berth. Newman-Gonchar has posted a 62.7% win percentage over the last two completed seasons, with 20 wins in 2021 marking the most for the program since 2013. 

In the last week, UNM held opponents to a MWC-best .126 hitting percentage, with opponents committing 84 attack errors to the Lobos’ 54. The Lobos hit for a season-best .333 average in their rout of St. John’s, committing a season-low 10 attack errors.

UNM returns 70% of its point output from 2022 –  including two-time All-MWC outside hitter Kaitlynn Biassou and fellow starters Kali Wolf and Uxue Guereca – as well as adding grad transfers Angela Crosetti (Libero), Athina Dimitriadis (MB) and Mattison Matthews (MB) to shore up the rotation.

Angela Crosetti ranks No. 39 in NCAA D-I in digs per set (4.88) after earning MWC Defensive Player of the Week honors last week following her first collegiate action since 2021. Melissa Walden ranks No. 33 in the nation in total assists (226) and is averaging a career-high 9.42 assists per set – good for No. 2 in the MWC. She’s emerged as an efficient attacking tool, averaging 0.63 kills a set – the second-most among conference setters – while coming away with kills at a .412 clip.

Thursday’s matchup with North Dakota is set for a 6 p.m. start, with streaming available via Midco Sports Plus and live stats at golobos.com/vbstats.

ALL-TIME SERIES
UNM is 7-1 against this weekend’s field all-time, having never lost to Green Bay or Montana and falling in straight sets to North Dakota in the sole meeting between the two programs in 2017. They most recently faced Green Bay in 2021.

WEEKEND RECAP
After a 2-1 weekend at The Pit as hosts of the Lobo Invitational, the Lobos (4-2) came away with their second tournament championship in as many weeks. They opened with a comeback four-set win over previously-unbeaten CSU Bakersfield (23-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-10) on Thursday and followed with a statement sweep over a St. John’s team picked to finish fourth in the Big East (25-16, 25-19, 25-19) before dropping a five-set battle with Utah Tech (27-25, 14-25, 24-26, 25-16, 9-15) in the finale. UNM currently leads the MW in total digs (384) and digs per set (16.00), while holding opponents to a .158 hitting percentage.

BIASSOU, DIMITRIADIS NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Kaitlynn Biassou both picked up All-Tournament Team honors at the Lobo Invitational last weekend, the second such honors of the season for Dimitriadis and first for Biassou. Dimitriadis racked up 23 kills (1.92/set) on .314 hitting over the weekend, providing 9 total blocks, 5 digs and an ace while leading the Lobos in receptions without picking up an error.
Biassou finished with 33 kills on the weekend (2.75/set), serving up a team-high 8 aces with the second-most digs on the team in that span (26). She also ranks No. 6 in the MW on the week with 13 total blocks over those three games.

WALDEN’S WORLD
Melissa Walden ranks No. 33 in the nation in total assists (226) and is averaging a career-high 9.42 assists per set – good for No. 2 in the MWC. While surpassing 30 assists in every game she’s appeared in, she’s emerged as an efficient attacking tool, averaging 0.63 kills a set – the second-most among conference setters – while coming away with kills at a .412 clip. She’s now up to No. 5 amongst active MW players in assists per set (6.90), and likely to keep climbing if she maintains her current pace.

UXUE LEADS THE WAY
After a big junior year that saw her record 16 double-doubles in total, outside hitter Uxue Guereca shows no signs of slowing down. Over the Lobos’ six games so far, she recorded two more double-doubles, cracking double-digit kills twice. She’s currently leading UNM in kills (85), points (95) and attack % (.360), and ranks No. 8 in the MW in hitting and No. 3 in kills per set (4.05)
Guereca touts the fourth-highest kills per set average amongst active MWC players (3.19) and fifth-highest points per set (3.69).

LIZ ON THE BLOCK
Elizabeth Woods had a breakout game in UNM’s Lobo Invite opener against CSU Bakersfield, recording a career-high 11 blocks (2 solo, 9 BA) while putting down 8 kills on team-high .571 hitting. Her 27 total blocks on the season (1.29/set) leads the Lobos and ranks No. 5 in the Mountain West, and she had the second-most blocks of any MWC player over the past week (13). UNM’s 15 team blocks against CSUB was the third-most in a single game among MW teams that week.

EARLY RETURNS
Jon Newman-Gonchar’s Lobos are picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Coaches’ Poll – the highest they’ve been slated to finish in Newman-Gonchar’s four seasons at the helm in Albuquerque.
UNM is coming off its second consecutive winning season, going 17-12 overall and 8-10 in conference in 2022 en route to a fifth-place finish and the Lobos’ second straight MWC Tournament berth. Newman-Gonchar has posted a 62.7% win percentage over the last two seasons, with 20 wins in 2021 marking the most for the program since 2013.

A LOOK AT THE ROSTER
UNM’s nine returners combined for 70% of the Lobos’ total points last season, with 2022 All-MWC Outside Hitter Kaitlyn Biassou along with fellow 2022 starters Uxue Guereca (338 kills, 393.5 points) and Kali Wolf (228 kills, 276 points) highlighting the Lobos’ experience on the outside. The Lobos also added four freshmen and three impact grad transfers to offset the loss of middle blocker Avital Jaloba, libero Alena Moldan and setter Anilee Sher to graduation.
Lauryn Payne, Madison Blanco, Melissa Walden and Elizabeth Woods all look to play bigger roles after combining for 239 set appearances in 2022, and seven newcomers – four freshmen and three graduate transfers – augment UNM’s depth all over the court. Walden played in 26 of UNM’s 29 matches last season at setter, and ranks No. 2 among active MWC players in career assists per set (6.56). She has yet to finish a game this season with less than 30 assists, averaging a career-high 9.42 a set.
Woods started each match for UNM, providing 10 kills in 10 sets with a team-high 10 total blocks. She

TERRIFIC TRANSFER TRIO
Grad transfer middle blockers Athina Dimitriadis (692 kills and 215 blocks over four seasons at Hofstra and FIU) and Mattison Matthews (career .312 hitting % over four seasons at Virginia) both bolster the Lobos’ front line, while St. John’s transfer libero Angela Crosetti looks to play a significant role in her first collegiate action since 2021. Dimitriadis has 313 set appearances to her name, with Matthews appearing in 192 over her time at Virginia.
Dimitriadis and Crosetti have appeared in every set so far for UNM. Crosetti has nearly twice as many digs (117) as any other Lobo while producing 23 assists and serving up 3 aces.
Dimitriadis was named to the All-Tournament Team at both the adidas/UCI Invitational as well as the Lobo Invitational — over 24 sets of action, she’s racked up 48 kills and 15 blocks.
Matthews has been efficient in six set appearances, posting five kills with only one attack error while producing the second-most blocks per set (1.17) on the team.

GOOD, BETTER, BEST, BIASSOU
In her fifth and final season at UNM, Kaitlynn Biassou has continued to get better each year. This year, she sees the Lobos making a similar jump.
“This is the most depth we’ve had since I’ve been here, and I’m super excited about our potential,” Biassou said. “We made it to the (MWC) tournament the last two years and lost in the first round both times. This year I want to get back and win the tournament. That’s what I’m focused on.”
Through six games, she’s notched 66 kills to go with 59 digs and a team-high 11 aces.
Biassou put up career-high numbers for the third straight season in 2022, with 431 kills (3.68 per set) to go with 33 service aces and 504.5 points – all team-highs for UNM. The Reno, Nev. native ranked No. 4 in the Mountain West in kills and No. 3 in points per set (4.31) while also picking up 227 digs (1.94 per set) and tallying 75 total blocks. Among active MWC players, Biassou ranks No. 2 in kills per set (3.35) and points per set (3.91).
In MWC play last season, Biassou cracked double-digit kills in 14 out of 18 conference matchups, matching a career-high twice with 26 kills vs. Wyoming (Sep. 29) and at Nevada (Oct. 15). Those two performances were the third-highest total by a MWC player in a conference game last season, with her 31 points in that Wyoming match ranking as the most in a single game in MWC action. Additionally, Biassou’s 21 kills against Utah State (Sep. 24) ranked as the second-most in a three-set match.
Biassou is also a threat at the service line, with four matches with three or more service aces — including five against Abilene Christian — and eight matches with multiple aces in a match.  She’s served up 11 aces over 24 sets so far this season.

EXPERIENCE ALL OVER
A total of seven seniors (4 grad seniors, 1 redshirt senior, 2 true seniors) combined for 1,652 sets played — the most seniors Newman-Gonchar has ever had on a roster during his time at UNM.
Co-captains Kaitlynn Biassou, Kali Wolf and Uxue are the first trio to record at least 200 kills and 20 service aces each in the same season under Newman-Gonchar, and first since 2016. 

STIFLING EFFORT
Over the first two weeks of the season, the Lobos have held opponents to .158 hitting — over the last week, their .126 opponent average was the best among MWC teams, and they forced a conference-best 84 attack errors in that span. UNM held 16 opponents below a .200 hitting percentage last season, with one opponent (Portland State) below .100 (.089).
In 2022, UNM held opponents to a .187 hitting percentage, which ranked No. 1 in the Mountain West. In MW matches in 2022, UNM led the league in digs per set (16.14) and finished 2nd in opp. hitting % (.188).

GROWING BUZZ
The Lobos have seen an increase in attendance in each season since 2019 — not counting the 2020-21 season that limited attendance — and UNM’s average attendance of 841 per home game last season is its highest since 2016 and most since Newman-Gonchar took the reins.
Over UNM’s first weekend slate at The Pit for the Lobo Invitational, the Lobos averaged 883 fans in attendance per game, including over 1,100 fans at UNM’s three-set win over St. John’s last Friday.

RECORD WATCH
Earlier last season, Biassou became the 15th Lobo all-time to reach 1,000 career kills. Currently at No. 4 on the program’s all-time kills list at 1,364 after 33 last weekend, she’s 260 away from moving ahead of Chantale Riddle for the top spot — a feat she’s surpassed in each of the last two seasons.
Biassou joined the top-10 career points list against Nevada last season, and currently sits at No. 4 all-time with 1600. She’s 4 points from third-place and 310 from the top spot — also held by Riddle — and has scored at least 450 points in each of the last two seasons.
Biassou entered the program’s all-time Top 10 in service aces last weekend and is now 22 away from the No. 2 spot. 

LATE-NIGHT THRILLER IN IRVINE
Friday night’s five-set comeback win over Irvine was the longest ever played in UCI’s Bren Events Center, going 3 hours and 10 minutes in total. Double-doubles from Uxue Guereca (20 kills, 20 digs), Kali Wolf (12 kills, 11 digs) and Melissa Walden (41 assists, 19 digs) led the way as the Lobos rallied from down 2-1, ripping off a 4-0 run down 12-11 in the final set with four straight kills – three from Dimitriadis – to seal the deal. Kaitlynn Biassou added 13 kills and 7 digs, serving up a pair of aces.

CROSETTI NAMED MW DEFENSIVE POTW
After a highly productive weekend in her first collegiate action since 2021, New Mexico Libero Angela Crosetti was named the first Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week for the 2023 season.
A grad transfer by way of St. John’s, Crosetti leads the MW in total digs (68) and digs per set (5.67) after appearing in all 12 sets for the Lobos at the UCI Invitational, where they went 2-1 overall and finished as tournament champions. She also tallied 35 errorless receptions and generated 15 assists in the process. Lobos volleyball players earned MW weekly honors four times last season, including a sweep of all three awards.