The New Mexico volleyball team rebounded in the final two games to revenge Fresno State 3-2 in Johnson Center on Thursday.
The Lobos (13-12, 3-8 Mountain West) have begun finding the win column, notching three victories in their last four matches. Though they stumbled in games two and three, they came back to silence the Bulldogs (12-10, 3-8) in five sets, 25-18, 23-25, 18-25, 25-20, 15-10.
“This was significantly better than last time we played with them,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said of the match. “So that’s a big step up.”
UNM outhit Fresno State by a significant margin, connecting with a .262 success rate compared to Fresno State's .162. The Lobos also accomplished 8.5 team blocks to outpace the 3.0 blocks of the Bulldogs.
“Blocking turned the game around,” Nelson said. “We had 1.5 blocks going into set four and we finished the game with 8.5.”
Three Lobos had double-digit point performances to secure the win for the team. Outside hitter Devanne Sours contributed a match-high 24.5 points, Julia Warren added 12.5 points and Victoria Spragg hit 10 points.
Sours was the star of the match, hitting a career-high-tying 22 kills with one service ace and three block assists.
“Devanne was player of the game, for sure,” Nelson said. “Her and Julia both, they both had big numbers and played really well, but Devanne was just unstoppable offensively tonight.”
Sours also finished with a career-best .541 hitting percentage with just two errors on 37 total attempts.
“It felt good today in warmups,” Sours said in an interview. “I finally stepped up a little bit. It’s my senior year and I think it’s time.”
Sours said she owed her great performance in the match to the whole team.
“I think today was mostly a team effort,” Sours said. “I think the team was really going for it. We needed a big comeback.”
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Warren also turned in a reliable performance, accomplishing another double-double in both the offense and defense line. She hit .346 with 10 kills and 14 digs, while Spragg added nine kills to the Lobos, hitting .346 with two block assists.
“Victoria had a pretty good night too,” Nelson said. “She came out really strong.”
Spragg and Warren played really strong in game one, and the Lobos dominated the game with a .458 hitting percentage, while the Bulldogs only hit .105.
UNM started fast, surging out to a 7-2 lead against Fresno State. The Lobos extended the gap to 14-6 before ending the set 25-18 with a block.
Set two was one of the most competitive games of the match, as things stayed tight throughout. New Mexico led at 20-19, forcing a Fresno State timeout.
The Bulldogs knew they couldn’t afford to go down 2-0 and rebounded to lead 24-21. The Lobos saved two game points, but lost 25-23 on a service error.
“We lost a close one, we let some leads go,” Nelson said. “In the locker room, everybody was feeling how we lost that close game, and I think we carried it back on the court.”
The Lobos fell behind early in game three, surrendering the first five points of the set. They charged back to pull within two points at 7-9, but the Bulldogs extended the gap to nine points to go up 18-7.
New Mexico never gave, even when it trailed 9-22, as the team fought back late with a 7-1 run to narrow to 16-23. UNM again saved two game points, but could not escape the set and fell 25-18.
“It took us a little time to shake it off,” Nelson said of losing game two and three. “Once we did, we started to control of the game again.”
The Lobos started set four strong with a series of clever settings and blocks, taking control early and running out to a 16-11 lead.
This time it was Fresno State that narrowed the gap to two points at 15-17, but UNM made two blocks to create some distance and won the game 25-20 with another block.
“The biggest difference was in game 3 when they got ahead 20-8,” Nelson said of winning set four. “We just kept telling the team to just get momentum for the fourth and fifth games, and they did that.”
In game five, Fresno State led at 10-9, but the Bulldogs suffered three straight attack errors, opening the door for the Lobos to take the decisive fifth set 15-10.
The two teams did not combine to put on a serving exhibition as some may have expected. Each team served just three aces, but made up for it with a fierce defensive display with the Bulldogs performing 54 digs, while the Lobos logged 53 digs.
The Lobos rallied together and shared the defense among the whole team, as libero Ashley Kelsey added 13 digs. Warren led the team with 14, Setter Lise Rugland contributed nine, Mercedes Pacheco performed eight digs and Sours had six.
“We have been working on it and practicing,” Nelson said about defense.
“I think everyone was working really hard in the back row,” Sours said. “It was a really good back and forth effort both ways.”
The settings of the Lobos were also smooth in the match. Rugland accomplished 32 assists, while Carson Heilborn chipped in 14 assists.
“We need to keep it simple. We’ve got such big hitters, we just need to let them take swings,” Nelson said of the setting.
The Lobos will host San José State on Saturday as they take on the Spartans in UNM’s first “Howl-o-Ween” event at noon.
“We need to come out on Saturday with more (of) the same, just keep it simple and let us hit,” Nelson said.
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.
