New Mexico volleyball continued its revenge campaign to sweep San José State in Johnson Center on Saturday.
The Lobos (14-12, 4-8 MW) climbed two spots to No. 8 in the Mountain West conference after sweeping the Spartans (10-14, 3-9 MW) 25-17, 25-17, 25-20 to extend their winning streak to three-straight in conference play.
“It’s a great weekend for us, and we moved up a couple spots in the conference,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said in an interview.
The Lobos were efficient on the offensive end, serving five aces while allowing none from their opponent over the course of the match.
“We made a couple of mistakes, but our serving overall was really good,” Nelson said.
Despite five serve errors, the Lobos attacked the passing of the Spartans effectively, and forced the defending team to perform only 29 assists while UNM logged 36.
“It really helped our defense and blocking,” Nelson said of the team’s serving.
New Mexico also showed dominance at the net, as it accomplished 12 total team blocks while San José State had eight blocks.
“Especially in game three, we had six blocks … to seal the net off,” Nelson said.
UNM registered a hitting percentage of .204 with 41 kills to outperform SJSU’s 31 kills with a hitting percentage of .055.
Devanne Sours delivered 17 of the Lobos’ total kills, leading all players in the category for the second consecutive match.
“Devanne had an amazing weekend, another great match,” Nelson said. “She probably had five kills per game this weekend. And she put up big percentages.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Sours seemed to acknowledge the level of commitment needed to set a career-high in kills on Thursday only to eclipse the mark in Saturday’s match. She said she is driven by a simple goal.
“Just be the best team player I can possible be,” Sours said.
Sours was arguably the best player on the court again, registering a hitting percentage of .314 with two block assists and six digs.
Cassie House was the second-best player in kills behind Sours. While not quite as consistent as Sours, she still hit .217 with nine kills. House also contributed two aces, four digs and 1.5 blocks.
“Cassie played better today, and especially served really tough today for us,” Nelson said. “She puts up a big block and has some nice kills certainly.”
Senior captain Julia Warren again showed her talent in both offense and defense, hitting .125 with five kills, one service ace and 12 digs.
Libero Ashley Kelsey helped Warren build up the defensive line with 13 digs.
The middle blockers of UNM really dominated at the net in the match. Victoria Spragg registered six block assists and four kills, while Mariessa Carrasco had one block, three block assists and two kills.
Setters Lise Rugland and Carson Heilborn shared the setting task. Rugland finished a match-high 22 assists and Heilborn clipped in 11 assists, with one block, six assists and four kills.
“We did a really nice job on setting, staying in system and isolating the hitters we want to be hitting at,” Nelson said. “Because in every rotation, we knew where we wanted the ball to go.”
New Mexico dominated game one at the net and jumped out to lead early 12-7. The Spartans narrowed the gap to one point at 12-11, but the Lobos responded with an 8-2 run to lead 20-13 and closed things out 25-17.
Game two was tough for San José State as well, as it fell behind early 7-17 against New Mexico. The Spartans fought back but could never get back on track, eventually falling 25-17.
The two teams had a tight start in game three at 6-6. UNM broke the ice first in a 5-0 run to lead 11-6. However, SJSU responded with a similar run to tie the game at 11-11. New Mexico seized control to lead 18-13 and finished game three with 25-20.
The Lobos seemed to have picked up some momentum at home before they travel to face Wyoming on Thursday and Colorado State on Saturday.
“Of course, it’s a tough weekend,” Nelson said of the coming week. “Just play good ball, have people healthy and continue our push to get ourselves back where we want to be.”
Bo Yu is a sports reporter at the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country and women’s volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Bo_YuB.
