After a tightly contested series, the New Mexico women’s volleyball team fell in the first match against the University of Texas El Paso Miners but rebounded in the second match to finish 1-1 in the series.
The Aggies stepped out in the first set and immediately set the tone with a quick 25-12 victory with five kills coming from senior Mari Sharp. The tables turned in the second set as NMSU lost momentum after a slow start and lack of communication. Their offensive efforts proved to be unsuccessful due to a strong blocking performance from UTEP’s Alianza Darley who led the Miners to take the set 25-14.
The Miners continued to overpower the Aggies in the third set and scored the first four points unanswered. After a short timeout, the Aggies regrouped and inched closer and closer attempting to rally and regain control. The Aggies saw relief after a sophomore Ashley Herman attempted to get the offense rolling but the effort was insufficient as the Aggies dropped the set 25-23.
Aiming to force a fifth set, the Aggies desperately needed to make a change in the fourth. UTEP’s Kaya Weaver led the offensive effort for the Miners as they gained an early lead. Despite a 4-0 run, the Aggies were unable to respond and fell 25-20.
Mari Sharp led the Aggies’ offense with 13 kills, but heavy hitting errors plagued the Aggies as they finished with their worst hitting percentage yet at .090.
After the match, head coach Mike Jordan spoke on his team’s underwhelming performance.
“They [UTEP] scored at will in the middle of the floor,” Jordan said. “We have to get that figured out before tomorrow. They made smarter decisions out-of-system. We hit the ball down into the block too much. We’ve got to fix that. It was a winnable match, but we can’t get the performances we got from some people and expect to beat a good team.”
Needing to seek redemption in the second match, the Aggies turned to Mari Sharp who put on a stellar performance and tallied a career-high 19 kills, eight digs, four blocks and a service ace.
The Aggies stepped into the match with clear determination and, after a hard-fought battle, took the first set 29-27.
With the momentum on their side, the Aggies’ offense continued to perform as sophomore Ryleigh Whitekettle earned five kills on just six swings. The Aggies took the second set 25-22 after sophomore Bianca Perez perfectly set up redshirt sophomore Starr Williams for the final kill.
The Miners refused to leave the Pan Am without putting up a fight and took the next two sets 25-18. Kaya Weaver continued to be the powerhouse for the Miners and managed to stump the Aggies’ defense.
Both teams started to show fatigue going into the fifth set but Sharp again led her team to emerge victorious by a final set score of 15-12. After a back-and-forth battle, the Miners managed to shorten the Aggies lead to 12-11 before Sharp nailed a kill for the side out and a block for match point before finishing off the match with a kill.
After the match, Sharp commented on her personal and the team’s performance.
“19 (kills) sounds like improvement!” Sharp said. “I’ve been waiting for that, so I’m happy with it. The win means a lot to me. Even though we split, I’m still so proud of my team, and I’m so proud of myself. I’ve worked so long for this, and it felt amazing. It feels really amazing.”
Coach Jordan also reflected on his team’s better performance in match two.
“The setting was a little bit better,” Jordan said. We went into the 5-1 more, and I think that helped certainly in stretches. I think defensively we were pretty good. We gave ourselves better transition opportunities with the smalls; Bella [Castro] and Morgan [Stewart] coming on the floor.”
Now that NMSU has taken care of business with UTEP, they await another two game conference series against Liberty. The Aggies now sits at a record of 12-5 overall and 5-1 in Conference USA. After these matchups, they’ll play be back at the Pan American Center on Friday Oct. 13 against Western Kentucky at 6 p.m. Coverage will be streamed on ESPN+.
