The Lobos dominated the weekend, sweeping Montana State and Bethune Cookman before finishing the weekend with a 3-1 win against UC Irvine.
“UC Irvine is a great team ... They’re a mature team,” UNM head coach Jeff Nelson said in an article on golobos.com. “We were a little bit immature at times in not continuing to go at them, but I liked the way we played.”
The Lobos (5-4) struggled with passing and serving with consistency in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic. In the article Nelson said his squad spent a lot of practice time working on the shaky areas of its game.
“We spent a ton of hours on serving and passing this week and it was much improved over last weekend,” Nelson said. “I feel a lot more comfortable with what we’re doing.”
On the back of senior right side hitter Chantale Riddle, UNM appeared on its way to its third sweep of the weekend against UC Irvine. Riddle had 19 kills with 15 digs and five blocks in the final match of the tournament, netting her tournament MVP honors.
Riddle’s double-double was not the sole standout performance. Setter Hannah Johnson collected 40 assists in the tournament’s final game.
“Hannah played great, too,” Nelson said in the article. “She had great leadership and just kept us in a lot of points.”
Riddle, Johnson and junior middle blocker Skye Gullatt were the three Lobos recognized as All-Tournament participants for the weekend.
“Skye had a really good weekend, both offensively and blocking,” Nelson said.
UNM cruised through the first two sets against UC Irvine, winning 25-20 in the first match and held off a late comeback, winning the second one 25-23. Flirting with a perfect weekend, UNM lost the third set.
“We made too many errors in game three,” Nelson said. “We just got sloppy right from the start, making errors and it just kind of stuck with us.”
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Diminishing the amount of errors made a difference to UNM in the match. UNM was held to a .183 hitting percentage and capitalized on Anteater miscues. UC Irvine hit .130 after committing 29 errors in the match.
Earlier on Saturday, the Lobos swept Bethune Cookman. Julia Warren had a team-high nine kills in the win.
The Lobos’ first win of the tourney came against Montana State on Friday. UNM had 41 kills and 13 team blocks compared to the Bobcats’ 20 kills and two blocks.
UNM will now shift its attention to the final tournament of the year before beginning conference play. The SMU Invite in Dallas, beginning on Friday, will feature the College of Charleston, Houston Baptist, as well as SMU.
The Daily Lobo sports desk can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLoboSports.
