Lobos find emotional spark in home win over UNLV

When UNLV got even, the UNM Lobos got mad.

As things turned out, a little emotion served the University of New Mexico volleyball team well Wednesday night at Johnson Center. The Lobos won the big points in a pivotal third set and never looked back in a 3-1 victory over the Rebels. The set scores were 25-14, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-10.

It was an impressive performance by UNM (8-7, 2-1) against a UNLV squad that came in 11-3 overall and 2-0 in Mountain West play. The momentum went back and forth through the first three sets until the Lobos seized it for good at an opportune time.

After the Rebels scored backto-back points to tie the third set at 23, New Mexico simply took over. Lauren Twitty hammered down two of her team-best 15 kills to secure the set, and Victoria Spragg dominated the net as UNM controlled the fourth set to put the match away.

“When it got to 23-23 (in set three),” Spragg said, “we decided as a team, ‘It’s not gonna happen.’ We were not going to let this match get away.”

Spragg had two kills, two solo blocks and a pair of block assists in the final set as UNM kept the Rebels on their heels throughout. The Lobos even managed to neutralize UNLV’s hard-hitting Mariena Hayden, who had a match-high 18 kills but just four in the final set. Hayden also entered the match with 57 aces but did not have one Wednesday.

“She is a great player,” Lobo coach Jeff Nelson said. “We knew we couldn’t stop her, but we had to slow her down and we did. That was really a key to the match.”

UNM got strong performances from several players. Libero Mercedes Pacheco had a match-high 17 digs, Spragg collected nine kills with a .692 attack percentage, and freshman setters Jaclyn Inclan and Sabrina Bianco combined for 45 assists. Inclan was particularly good in set three, getting the Lobos’ middle attack ignited after the Rebels controlled set two.

“I’ve had kind of a hard time connecting with our middles, but we’ve worked really hard on that,” Inclan said. “I felt like we needed to pick up the pace in that third set, and the middles helped get us going.”

Twitty also came up big at key moments, effectively handling several of Hayden’s rocket serves. She hit .333 for the match and had nine digs.

For the second week in a row, UNM had to overcome a shaky second set. UNLV consistently burned the Lobos with middle attacks by Kate Brennan (11 kills).

“I actually think it was nerves,” Inclan said. “We’ve been away a lot. We had to get our nerves taken care of and make our crowd an advantage.”