A sour start to conference play leaves New Mexico searching for answers.
The Lobos came into tonight’s game disgruntled about its fifth-place preseason placement, but had a rough showing against the Aztecs in the three set loss. UNM suffered a 3-0 sweep in the team’s Mountain West opener against San Diego State in a sloppy showing on the Lobos’ home court.
New Mexico had trouble putting anything together offensively, giving SDSU (4-9, 1-0 MW) plenty of room for errors of its own. Neither team hit above .176 on a night filled with miscues.
Although the Lobos were able to jump out to early leads in each set of the match, UNM’s inability to get into any sort of rhythm plagued the team for its second consecutive loss. Head coach Jeff Nelson said the team is not playing together, a major problem for a team that just finished its 13th match.
“We didn’t play like a team. We played very selfish tonight,” Nelson said. “… This team just doesn’t have the focus to get through it right now.”
The Aztecs completely demolished UNM’s plan of attack, winning the majority of the battles at the net. The Lobos did not receive a positive hitting percentage from any of the team’s starting hitters in a contest desperate for someone to step up.
Devanne Sours, generally a reliable option for Nelson’s squad floundered from the outside hitting spot committing seven attack errors, three service errors and two receiving errors. She finished the night with just four kills, her lowest of the season.
“I don’t think that our starting group is getting in the match and being invested,” Nelson said. “I feel like we continue to start slow and I don’t think we’re invested when the match starts.”
Nelson expressed his discomfort at the libero position after being forced to change players at the position at intermission for the second consecutive game.
In a match with 50 attack errors committed between the two clubs, Deja Harris for SDSU had a remarkable night. The redshirt freshman shocked Nelson’s group with a 15 kill performance. The middle blocker had trouble with just one ball while stuffing UNM at the net for four solo blocks and assisting on three while hitting .700.
“She had a great match. She put up huge numbers,” Nelson said. “That was the kid we didn’t stop.”
Despite such low hitting numbers across the board for both squads, UNM’s middle blockers did not have too bad of a time creating shots. Skye Gullatt slammed six balls off the hardwood, assisted on five balls at the net, and had a solo block of her own.
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However, Gullatt’s sound performance was no where near enough to assist UNM (7-6, 0-1 MW) to garner even a single set.
“This was a really disappointing loss and I don’t have a lot of excuses for it,” Nelson said.
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on twitter @Liam_CE.
