The New Mexico State volleyball team picked up their second win in a row against WAC newcomer Southern Utah on Thursday evening in four sets (25-12, 23-25, 25-20, 25-23). Continuing the trend of elite offensive gains, Lia Mosher and Rylee Fay both recorded career highs.   

Coming into the first set, NM State took the early lead right out of the gate 14-1. Aces from Rylee Fay and Mari Sharp pushed the lead to 13 points before the team would go up 20-7. A kill from Katie Birtcil would close out the first set 25-12 NMSU.

Parallel to the first set, the Aggies would continue to dominate jumping out to a 5-1 lead. However, Southern Utah wouldn’t go down without a fight as they would come back from an 8-4 score, by going on a six-point stretch that would put them up 10-8. The momentum would shift again when NM State would go on a 5-1 run to put NMSU up 14-12. The set would stay close as the Thunderbirds would steal the set 25-23. 

In the third set NM State would come out with a 6-1 run. Their lead would grow to 13-7 with Fay tallying another ace. Fay would go on to be the only person with seven service aces in her second match of the season. Southern Utah would keep the back-and-forth theme scoring the next couple of set points. Once again, the Thunderbirds would have a short-lived lead 19-12 before Mari Sharp would record her 24th kill to end a four-point run by Southern Utah.  

The fourth set proved just as aggressive, jumping out to a quick 10-6 lead. The Aggies would respond by getting three kills in a row from Birticil, Sharp and Mosher, in that order. Bringing the Aggies within one, they would bang out another three-point run to go ahead 21-18. Eventually would go up 24-20, the Thunderbirds would respond with three straight, before Lia Mosher would put the nail in the coffin with a kill to end the game 25-23. 

Birtcil would have herself a game with 21 kills and 14 digs to get back-to-back double-doubles and record her fourth double-double of the season. The Aggies will continue their home stand on Saturday when they meet Utah Tech at 1 p.m. looking to keep up their winning streak.