By Javier Cortez
The Prospector
Playing their first match in 13 days, the UTEP women’s volleyball team took on their archrival New Mexico State in the Battle of I-10 at Memorial Gym, the Aggies defeated the Miners 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 27-25).
The first set was indicative of what the whole match would be— a match of runs. No matter how many points were strung together, both teams were going to respond. With the first set deadlocked at 10-10, NMSU went on an 8-2 run, but the Miners responded with an 8-2 run of their own.
After a great run to get back in the set, the Aggies would close the set out with a 3-0 run to win 25-22.
In the second set NMSU got off to a quick start, but the Miners responded with a 5-0 run to cut the Aggie lead to three. After playing catch-up in the first half of the set, the Miners tied the set at 16-16. Once again the Aggies stood strong and closed the set out 25-23.
Coming out of the 10-minute intermission the Miners took control of the set, at one point leading by six points. The sloppy start for the Aggies nearly cost them the set, in total NMSU made committed an astounding 12 services errors.
Nevertheless the Aggies would go on a run to put themselves back in the set. With a narrow lead the Miners were poised to take the third set, but they we’re unable to convert two set points.
“I’m not sure what it was but I feel like we lost momentum,” said Lindsey Larson, sophomore setter. “We had a couple of really good plays that got everybody hyped up, they just got one point on us and it just killed our vibe.”
NMSU closed the match out 27-25, despite the Aggies sloppy play they finished sets better then the Miners did. The Aggies found a way to convert more side outs and commit fewer errors then the Miners in the latter stages of the match.
“When times when we needed to finish we didn’t pull through when we needed to,” said Talia Jones, junior outside hitter. “At the end of the game when we could have just closed it out we had a couple of chances but we just passed on them.”
Like most matches this season the Miners were not able to finish points, the inability to finish points when they needed to was their downfall. The Miners attack percentage was an abysmal .053 for the match.
“We barely broke zero,” said head coach Holly Watts, referring to the Miners attack percentage. “We need to find some terminators to terminate the rally.”
The Miners now fall to 6-22 on the season. The will play their last match of the season against Texas Christian University tomorrow at Memorial Gym at 1 p.m.
Javier Cortez may be reached at [email protected].
