The UNM Lobos drove back to Albuquerque victorious once again, after beating the NMSU Aggies both at home and on the road. The Aggies had clawed their way back to a .500 winning percentage, only to suffer not one but two brutal losses in the battle of I-25.
In the first set, the Aggies made a good impression, with the usual suspects, Starr Williams and Yasso Amin, giving NMSU a 5-0 lead with a combination of kills and serve aces. As the night proved later on, this was just a slap in the face to wake up the Lobos. This is when one of many UNM runs began to get within two points as both sides battled for momentum.
After tying the set at twelve points, the Lobos played like a boa constrictor, slowly taking over the game and suffocating the Aggies throughout the night. Once their 4-point lead was established, they never let the Aggies back into the set. Even when the Aggies got close to the lead, more errors and UNM kills built the Lobos’ lead back up before the set ended on an attack error by Amin 25-19 to the Lobos.
The Lobos dominated more in the second set, immediately building a 5-point lead again. Just as the Aggies whittled the lead down to 3-points, the Lobos knocked them down again. They cooked up another long run using the same recipe of errors and kills.
The Aggies showed they still had some fight left when kills from Lauryn Payne, Nicole Briggs, Amin, and Maggie Lightheart combined with some errors going the Aggies way made set two a close one. But in the words of Jojo, it was just ‘too little too late’ as UNM built another lead before their inevitable 25-21 set win. Meanwhile, the screams of head coach Mike Jordan and assistant coach Gregg Whitis could be heard from the third row, with timeouts letting them vent frustration and chew out the players. This showed more than anything that the match was won before the third set even tipped off.
The Lobos built a 17-4 lead, hungry for more Aggie blood. But even with two more kills from Williams, the Aggies never got within ten points of the lead. The night was capped with Williams having the teams 32nd and 33rd errors to complete the UNM sweep. All the team could do is try to be better next time, a very attainable goal after this match.
The battle of I-25 saw the Aggies win one out of seven total sets including tonight’s sweep, with 57 combined errors while allowing 84 kills and having a -2.8 hitting percentage on the night. Not even 21 combined kills from Williams, Amin, and Briggs made a difference as the Aggies have been a been a hot and cold team all season.
True to their form, the Aggies met these back-to-back losses with weekend wins, taking on Southern University and University of the Incarnate Word. The September 20th matchup against Southern University saw the Aggies take care of business with 42 kills in a 3-set sweep. Against the University of the Incarnate Word on the 21st, the reliant Aggies responded to a first set loss by winning the match in the next three. Once again, the Aggies have a .500 winning percentage at 6-6 with conference play beginning this week.
Aggie fans can watch their team take on the Kennesaw State Owls from home on Friday, Sept. 27, at 5pm on ESPN+.
