Sept. 24, 2015
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - After battling through a tough pre-conference slate of matches, San Diego State got its 2015 Mountain West season off to a perfect start with a three-set victory against New Mexico Thursday evening at the Johnson Center in Albuquerque.
With the win the Aztecs improved to 4-9 overall (1-0 MW) while the Lobos saw their record drop to 7-6 (0-1 MW).
Redshirt freshman Deja Harris led SDSU with 15 kills as she ended the evening one shy of her season high in that category. She hit a career-best .700 over the three sets with only one hitting error on 20 attacks and also led all players with seven blocks including four solo efforts.
Freshman Alexandra Psoma contributed seven kills to the winning cause with sophomore Alexis Cage chipping in with seven.
Setter Hailey Jones ended the evening with 23 assists, seven digs and a service ace while fellow setter Lauren Utchen had nine assists, a kills, six digs and an ace. Libero Devyn Pritchard led all players with 10 digs.
The opening set saw New Mexico on top over the first half of the contest as it settled into a 14-11 lead. SDSU, however, scored the next five points behind the serving of Dani Bolden to go up 16-14. After the Lobos fought back to tie the score at 16-all, the teams traded the ensuing four points to make it 18-18 before the Aztecs scored four in a row to take control of the set at 22-18. The Lobos would only get to within two the rest of the way as the visitors grabbed a three-point set victory.
Set number two was more of the same as UNM enjoyed a three-point advantage late in the contest at 18-15. SDSU rallied to tie the game at 18-18, and after each side won a pair of points the Aztecs took two straight to go up 22-20. The Lobos would not go quietly, but after they tied the it at 22-all, San Diego State got back-to-back kills from Psoma plus one from Emma Fuzie to claim the set victory take a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set, the score was even at 3-3 when SDSU ran off four straight points to take the lead for good at 7-4. New Mexico kept it close and trailed by just one at 16-15 before the Aztecs went on to score 10 of the final 12 points to pull away for the eight-point set win. Harris and Baylee Little led SDSU with four kills each in the set with the former also recording four blocks in the contest.
San Diego state will now move on to Colorado Springs for a Mountain West match against Air Force on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 2:00 p.m. (MT) on Falcon Court.