In a game that started with a dance-off between teams during a technical delay, the New Mexico State volleyball team improved their record to 4-3 with today’s victory over the Abilene Christian Wildcats. While the dance off was entertaining for the fans and players of both teams, there was still a volleyball match to be played.  The Aggies put the Wildcats away in three sets, winning the first two sets handily by scores of 25-17.  In the third set the Aggies were pushed a little bit harder by ACU, but still won 25-22.

“Any time we get a W we’ll take it,” said head coach Mike Jordan. He added, “It’s nice to get a sweep, especially when you’ve got two matches in the next 24 hours, so we’ll take that any time we can get it for sure.” The Aggies will play Delaware State later tonight at 7:00 and Samford tomorrow at 7:00.  Both games will be played as part of the Borderland Invite in the Pan American Center.

The performance that really stood out in this afternoon’s match was that of junior outside hitter Tatyana Battle.  Battle finished the match with 17 kills on 35 attempts, and committed only two errors.  She and Jordan had spent a lot of time this week on her decision-making and her shot selection, and it seems to have paid off.

“She’s doing a really good job of working the ball off the edges when we’re out of system and not hitting low into the block, which was her problem for about a week before that. So, for her to make that adjustments and have that kind of success, that’s a great thing. That’s what you want from your players,” said Jordan.

Battle was satisfied with her performance after the game, attributing her success to the extra time she spent working on “hitting off the edge,” which means trying to hit the ball off the edge of the opponents’ hands.

“I tried to apply that into the game tonight, and I think that they worked pretty well for me,” said Battle.

Jordan Abalos and Kassandra Tohm also played well for New Mexico State. Tohm finished the match with 10 kills on 21 attempts, while Abalos contributed eight kills on 21 attempts.  The Aggies finished with 46 kills and swung .217 on the afternoon.  Freshman middle blocker continued success this season with a team-high 4 blocks.

Abilene Christian was led by Jacey Smith. She finished the matched with seven kills on 21 attempts and 10 digs.  The 1-7 Wildcats of the Southland Conference will play Samford tomorrow morning at 9:00.

“They’re struggling a little bit. They’ve got some decent athletes. We’re going to trying to get a few more people some playing time who haven’t played much. At the same time, we still have to execute,” said Jordan when asked for a scouting report on Delaware State.  Although Delaware State is winless in three games this season, the Aggies will not be taking them lightly.

“We’ve been watching some film on them, and we just know that every team we play is going to be good competition, and that we just have to bring it.  We have to be ourselves, work within our system, and give everybody a good game,” said Battle.

The Aggies will conclude their double-header later this evening against the 0-3 Delaware State Hornets, with the match set to begin at 7 P.M.