Lobos Fall to Cowgirls in Final Regular Season Match
LARAMIE, Wyo. – New Mexico Volleyball fell in straight sets (16-25, 25-27, 20-25) on the road to split the season series with Wyoming in its regular season finale Saturday at UniWyo Sports Complex.
Having already clinched a Mountain West Tournament berth after Thursday’s results, the Lobos conclude the regular season with an 18-11 overall record and 10-8 mark in conference play, matching the 2021 season for the best conference win percentage of Head Coach Jon Newman-Gonchar’s tenure. They finish tied for fourth in the MW standings with a No. 6 seed in the conference tournament.
The Mountain West Tournament is set for Nov. 22-24 at the COX Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nev. In the opening round, the No. 6-seed Lobos will get a third matchup against the No. 3-seed UNLV Rebels, who they swept the regular season series with in a total of seven sets. The winner of that match takes on No. 2-seed Colorado State at 5 p.m. MT on Nov. 23.
That opening-round matchup is set for 5 p.m. MT on Nov. 22. The match will be broadcast via the MW Network, with live stats available via golobos.com/vbstats — follow @UNMLoboVB on socials for scores, highlights, gameday content and more.
BY THE NUMBERS
Kaitlynn Biassou led the Lobos with 10 kills – her sixth consecutive match with double-digit kills and her 14th in her last 15. She added six digs and a block assist to that total.
Three other Lobos recorded eight or more digs – Kali Wolf (8), Uxue Guereca (13) and Melissa Walden (11). Walden finished with a double-double, producing 27 assists at a .314 clip. Wolf backed up Biassou’s performance with seven kills, with Guereca adding six.
Elizabeth Woods hit a team-high .400, finishing with five kills. Athina Dimitriadis added two more along with a team-high two solo blocks and three block assists.
THE ACTION
17 kills from the Cowgirls in the opening set was too much to overcome for the Lobos, who were held to a season-low six kills on .000 hitting in that span en route to a 16-25 set loss. UNM improved to .256 hitting in the second frame, getting four kills each from Biassou and Guereca – but the Cowgirls rallied from down 21-18 to tie things up late and force extra points, stealing the set to put the Lobos in an 0-2 hole for the second time this week.
UNM battled through another tight set in the third that saw 13 ties and four lead changes, but a 5-0 run turned a one-point UNM lead into a deficit they couldn’t rally from as the Cowgirls closed out the sweep.