Head coach Jeff Nelson knows how to start a season on the right foot.
The UNM volleyball team took two wins on Friday, its opening day of the 2016 fall season. This was also the first day of the UNM Tournament, which is happening this weekend at Johnson Center.
The day began by New Mexico sweeping Abilene Christian 3-0 during their 12:30pm match.
They took the first set 25-15, the second 25-19, and the third 25-13. With this win, Nelson improved his season opener record to 10-0.
It was a good win for the Lobos to get under their belt, but they couldn’t relax too much, as their second opponent proved to be more difficult.
The Lobos faced the Arizona State Sun Devils at in the evening portion of the double-header at 8 p.m.
“ASU was a huge match for us, against a Pac-12 school. Pac-12 is a premier volleyball conference. I think all of our players were looking ahead a little bit,” Nelson said.
New Mexico took the first set 25-23. The second set belonged to the Sun Devils 25-21.
The third set was a tough battle.
The Lobos began by leading this set 2-0. They were in control for a few minutes but the score soon became 9-9. Then it was Arizona who took control.
New Mexico was one or two points behind for a while, until they managed to tie 22-22.
The Sun Devils got to 24 while the Lobos where still at 23, but a strong hit by Cassie House kept the Lobos in the running.
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“We found Cassie. Her best hit is what we call a three set,” Nelson said. “At the end there, we just said ‘throw up the three, throw up the three.’ She put up about four or five kills in a row. We had a couple really big digs in there.”
Arizona State was the first team to get to 25, but New Mexico didn’t stay more than one point behind after this. The Sun Devils kept taking the lead, but the Lobos wouldn’t give up.
In the end, UNM’s grind paid off, as they took the third set 29-27.
Nelson said he could really only describe this comeback as “awesome.”
“When you get that intensity going, you just hope you are going to win,” he said. “When you are playing that well you have to keep chipping away and hopefully things will turn out right.”
The Lobos began the fourth set with confidence and scored six points before allowing the Sun Devils to get on the scoreboard.
New Mexico led for most of this set with one of the biggest leads being 19-12.
UNM won with a comfortable 5-point lead, 25-20. Nelson said he liked what he saw during this set.
“We started out a little nervous today,” he said. “I thought our fourth game was our best game. I just think that as the whole day went on, we got better and better.”
With their 3-1 win against Arizona State, the Lobos begin their season with a 2-0 record. The Lobos have two more games on Saturday: Idaho at 12:30 p.m. and Fairfield at 6 p.m.
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She mainly covers men's soccer and basketball. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
