Nov. 10, 2007
SAN DIEGO - On a night in which six seniors were involved in their final home match for San Diego State, New Mexico defeated the Aztecs in three games (30-24, 30-18, 30-28) Saturday evening in Peterson Gym.
The loss was the third in a row and eighth in the last nine outings for SDSU, which fell to 12-13 overall and 4-10 in the Mountain West Conference. New Mexico, meanwhile, ended a three-game slide while improving to 16-11 (7-8 MWC).
The Aztecs, who tallied only 30 kills over the three games, were led by eight kills from senior Sydney De Turk, who also collected a pair of blocks. Freshman Lauren Salisbury and senior Lindsey Mahan tallied five kills apiece and also contributed three and five blocks respectively.
SDSU senior setter Kristen Castillo finished with a team-high 14 assists with senior Aime Cordeiro compiling 20 digs.
Six players made their final appearance for the Red and Black during the evening. In addition to De Turk, Mahan, Castillo and Cordeiro, that group also included Iva Gosnjak and Kelley Wahlin.
New Mexico's Jeanne Fairchild led all players with 15 kills while teammate Anna Lehne had 10. Kerri Beck also had a match-high seven blocks for the Lobos.
The Aztecs started quickly in the opening game, taking a four-point lead at 10-6 and maintained it as the teams traded the next eight points. From there, New Mexico slowly closed the gap and eventually grabbed the lead at 16-15, building that advantage to win the contest by six points. Fairchild led all players with five kills as the Lobos tallied 17 to just 10 for SDSU. The Aztecs, who hit .029 for the game, were led by three kills from De Turk.
Game two saw the visitors jump out to a 5-0 lead before SDSU fought back to tie it at 7-7. With the score knotted at 10-all, UNM ran off four straight points to take the lead for good. Fairchild, Lehne and Beck had four kills apiece for the Lobos, who hit .333 for the contest. The Aztecs were held to 11 kills led by Salisbury's three.
In the third game, New Mexico scored the first two points of the contest and led the entire way. UNM held a 29-22 advantage late in the contest before San Diego State scored six straight to pull within a point. However, an SDSU attack error gave the Lobos the game as the match. Fairchild again led the visitors with six kills while De Turk and Kelsey Manasco had three each for the Aztecs.
San Diego State will conclude its 2007 regular season with a trip to the state of Utah next weekend, beginning with a match at Brigham Young on Friday, Nov. 16, at 7:00 p.m. (MST).