New Mexico volleyball ended its hot hand in Mountain West play by dropping two close matches over the weekend, falling 3-1 to Wyoming and 3-2 to Colorado State.
The Lobos (14-14, 4-10 Mountain West) saw their 3-match winning streak halted by the Cowgirls (17-9, 10-3) losing 25-18, 25-16, 19-25, 25-13 on Thursday.
Saturday proved too hard for New Mexico,to grab a win from No. 2 Colorado State (17-7, 11-2) even though it held a 2-0 lead. The Rams fight back in the last three sets and Lobos fell 23-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-7. As a result, New Mexico fell to ninth in the conference standings.
The opportunity was there, but lack of consistency made it unable for UNM to turn in a winning performance.
“I was really disappointed,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said on Thursday. “We played at highs and lows. We got some really good performances in different games but we didn't sustain it.”
Wyoming hit .285 ,outpacing the .168 mark of New Mexico, and dominated the net with nine blocks against six. The Cowgirls alsoheld a 62-51 advantage in digs.
The Lobos similarly lost the first two sets to the Cowgirls on Thursday. UNM rebounded to take game three with a .696 hitting percentage, its highest since 2010. However, the team crashed in game four, losing 13-25.
“We battled to win game three and then just kind of went away,” Nelson said. “That was disappointing because I thought we looked really good in game three. I thought we were going to keep battling.”
Despite the loss against the Cowgirls, the trio of pin hitters of the Lobos — Julia Warren, Cassie House and Devanne Sours — showed solid performances.
Warren orchestrated her team-high eighth double-double of the season and House and Sours both hit 11 kills.
The trio registered equally impressive numbers on Saturday, all logging double-digit kills against Colorado State.
Warren posted a career-high 21 kills with 14 digs to log her ninth double-double of the season. Sours continued to be outstanding on court with 15 kills and House contributed 13 kills.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“It was a very good volleyball match,” Nelson said. “We battled very hard and really rebounded well tonight after a rough night on Thursday.”
The Lobos hit .166 on the night, with 62 kills and 8 blocks. But that was not enough to contain the Rams as they hit .291, dominating the net with 59 kills and 22 blocks.
Colorado State opened the match strong to run ahead 18-14 in game one. The teams went back and forth as UNM went on a run to go ahead 20-19, then CSU reeled off three straight points to retake the lead at 22-20. The Lobos battled back to win the set 25-23 with four straight points.
New Mexico started game two with a 5-2 lead, and extended the lead to 10-5. The Rams would cut the gap to two points at 22-20, but Lobos finished this game with 25-21.
However, the Lobos could not translate their 2-0 advantage into a win.
“I thought we were really good in games one and two and pretty solid in game four,” Nelson said.“However, I felt we played tentative after we went up 2-0. We had chances and that’s disappointing but it was a great match.”
UNM jumped out to a 10-8 lead in the potential game three clincher after intermission. However, a 7-2 run from the Rams gave them the advantage at 15-12 finished the set on a 9-2 run to win, 25-16.
Gaining momentum from a victorious third set , CSU opened game four with a 12-6 lead. New Mexico fought back to tie the score at 17 and later held a 21-20 lead. However, Colorado State again closed out the set strong with a5-1 run to win, 25-22.
In the decisive fifth set, the Lobos held an early 3-1 edge. However, the Rams only gave away four more points and went on to win the set 15-7 for the match win.
Although UNM could not find a way to win, it should be confident after tight battles against two of the better teams in the conference.
Middle blocker Mariessa Carrasco added nine kills to the offense line. And setter Lise Rugland‘s career-high 50 assists guaranteed the team’s spread attack.
Ashley Kelsey registered 20 digs to New Mexico’s defensive line, with six blocks from Carrasco (six blocks) and three from House (three blocks). Kelsey owns 966 digs in her career.
The Lobos will host Utah State next Saturday in Johnson Center and hope to finish the conference play with some home wins.
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.
