Oct. 1, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - San Diego State was unable to overcome New Mexico's superior play as it fell to the Lobos in three sets (25-19, 25-16, 25-20) Thursday evening at the Johnson Center in Albuquerque. The Aztecs, who have played 11 of their first 14 matches away from home, saw their record fall to 6-8 overall and 1-3 in the Mountain West Conference. With the victory, New Mexico improved to 10-5 (1-3 MWC).
Junior Lauren Salisbury led SDSU with 11 kills while hitting .308 as she was the lone Aztec to finish the evening in double figures. Freshman outside hitter Andrea Hannasch continued her solid play with eight kills and six blocks as she recorded a .333 attack percentage over the three sets.
Paije Pearson contributed four blocks while freshman libero Kristi Jackels maintained her conference leading dig average with 14 in the match.
UNM's Taylor Hadfield led all players with a dozen kills while teammate Ashley Rhoades chipped in with 11. The Lobos hit .297 for the match compared to .126 for the Aztecs, who also had a nine service errors that contributed to the final result.
In the opening set, the teams were tied at 2-2 before New Mexico took the lead with a pair of points and did not relinquish the lead the rest of the way. Both teams finished the contest with 14 kills, but SDSU had four more attack errors than UNM along with two more service errors to account for the six-point difference at the end.
The second set was close early with the home side holding a two-point advantage at 10-8. The Lobos then went on to score eight of the next 11 points to grab an 18-11 lead. UNM hit .469 for the set and finished with 19 kills to just nine for the visitors.
Set number three was the closest of the match as the teams stayed close, eventually playing to a 17-all tie. At that point, the Lobos scored five consecutive points on a San Diego State service error and two Aztec attack errors along with kills by Lisa Meeter and Rhoades. SDSU could not recover, eventually falling on a final kill by Hadfield.
San Diego State will now travel to Fort Worth, Texas, where it will continue MWC action with a match against TCU on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. (CT) in the Horned Frogs' University Recreation Center.