Freshman Sparks Lobos’ 5-Set Upset
The University of New Mexico volleyball team knows you don’t climb the Mountain in one match.
But Thursday night’s improbable 3-2 (10-25, 18-25, 25-11, 25-20, 15-9) victory over perennial Mountain West favorite Colorado State in the league opener for both schools sure had the Lobos in quite the triumphant mood.
“This is the best team in the league, and the fact that we could do this is amazing,” UNM head coach Jeff Nelson said. “I’m really proud of them.”
It was just the third win over CSU since 1997 and improves the Lobos to 13-2 overall.
But the joy for Thursday’s come-frombehind win was born more from the fight the injury-riddled Lobos showed.
Season-ending knee injuries have already cost the Lobos two star hitters, the roster is down to 10 players and practices have been limited to the bare minimum in an effort to keep healthy and fresh.
“We’re cutting back on things to keep our players fresh and they had to battle,” Nelson said. “We’re not going to roll over anybody this year with 10 people. We’re going to have to battle every night.”
Nobody epitomized that battle more than 5-foot-10 freshman outside hitter Alijah Gunsaulus, who played hurt herself.
Gunsaulus, who has been nursing a pulled muscle in her abdomen, had just two kills in the first two games — both dominant Rams wins . In the first game, after CSU jumped out to a 5-0 lead, they never let the Lobos get closer than five, closing out on an 11-2 run.
Set 2 wasn’t much better, but then a halftime speech by Nelson changed the perspective of Gunsaulus and her teammates.
“Our coach told us we had nothing to lose, which is so true,” Gunsaulus said. “Going into this conference, Colorado State is supposed to be the top team. So he just told us to have fun, play our game and see what happens.”
Gunsaulus had three kills in the Set 3 win, six more in Set 4 and tacked on three in the final set to help clinch the victory. Seemingly all her points (a match-high 14 to go along with 13 digs) came from the left thanks to Colorado State’s great middle blocking duo of Megan Plourde and Brieon Paige, who had the Lobos’ number all night.
The Rams (7-5, 0-1) were led by 13 kills from Plourde, none of which came in the deciding game.
NMSU 3, LA. TECH 1: In Las Cruces, Meredith Hays had 17 kills and 10 digs as the Aggies won 23-25, 26-24, 25-12, 25-21. NMSU is 9-3, 3-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. Tech is 3-11, 0-2.