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Lobos' Last-Gasp Rally Sinks Aztecs in Five-Set Thriller

by Connor Gilbert
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Down 14-7 in the fifth set after letting the third and fourth slip away with no room left for error, New Mexico Volleyball mounted an improbable 9-0 run to close out its first conference win of the season (25-22, 27-25, 14-25, 16-14) and send San Diego State (9-3, 1-1 MW) home empty-handed Saturday at the Johnson Center.

In a back-and-forth momentum match that saw the Lobos open the second set on their first 9-0 run of the day before the Aztecs fought back to tie things up at set point — UNM scored three of the next four to take a 2-0 advantage before SDSU won the next two sets to force a fifth. It’s the sixth win in a row over the Aztecs for the Lobos (8-4, 1-1 MW), matching a six-match streak from 2007-09 for the longest string of wins over SDSU in program history.

“We battled to the very end and that’s exactly what I expect our team to do,” said UNM Head Coach Jon Newman-Gonchar, who improved to 6-2 against the Aztecs with the win. “Some days are going to come up short — some days we’re going to come up on the right side of it. And today we came up on the right side.”

It was the first match between the two teams to go five sets since 2018, before Newman-Gonchar was head coach.

“I’m just thrilled for them and absolutely so proud of them for the fight they had in that fifth after starting off a little bit slower than we would have wanted, Newman-Gonchar said. “To see us go back in the service line and be aggressive on the defensive end of it — a lot of really good things to be proud of today.”

PLAY OF THE MATCH

BY THE NUMBERS
Lauryn Payne set a new career-high with 23 kills and Jada Bouyer put away a season-high 17 kills on .368 hitting to lead the way, while Madeleine Miller posted a career-high 48 assists and served at match point eight times over UNM’s final 9-0 surge to help seal the deal, serving up three of UNM’s seven aces in that span. She finished with her team-leading seventh double-double of the season in the process, notching four digs in that final set to reach 13 on the day along with Madison Blanco – the second-most on the team behind Falanika Danielson (22), who surpassed 20 digs for the fourth time this season and led UNM in digs for the ninth time in her last 10 matches.

Elizabeth Woods supplied nine more kills to go with a solo block and a block assist (1.5 TB) and Liepa Lavickyte posted a career-high six kills to go with seven block assists. Madeleine Miller and Payne both finished with three block assists each.

Kialah Jefferson added four more kills while picking up 11 digs – her eighth match cracking double-digits – and serving up an ace, with Woods, Blanco and Danielson all finishing with an ace each as well.

ALL-TIME SERIES
With the win, the Lobos improve to 26-44 against San Diego State all-time, but have had better luck against the Aztecs recently — they’ve now won sixth straight over SDSU, four of which were at home. This match was the first time the two teams have gone to five sets in their last 10 meetings.
The Lobos went 4-1 against SDSU and travel partner UNLV last season – when UNM defeated both teams on the road in the same week in October, it was the first time they’d done so since 2010. They managed to salvage a weekend split this time around after falling to the Rebels in four on Thursday night.

HIGHLIGHTS

UP NEXT
The Lobos continue Mountain West play on the road with a matchup with Air Force (2-11, 1-1 MW) in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Tuesday. That match will be streamed via the MW Network atΒ GoLobos.com/Watch, with live stats and all other matchday essentials available at GoLobos.com/FollowVB. Follow @UNMLoboVB on IG, X and Facebook for match coverage, promotional information, updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

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