Miners Remain Undeterred as Initial Firework Attack Proves Ineffective – Top

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – In the first-ever conference matchup between NM State and UTEP, the Aggies fell in four sets. The team struggled to get enough offensive production from their usual contributors, and lost three straight sets after taking the first. NM State fell to 11-5 overall and are 4-1 in Conference USA. UTEP improves to 11-5 and are now 3-2 in the conference, setting up a clash for third place on Wednesday.

 

Set-by-set: NM State loses 1-3 (25-12, 14-25, 23-25, 20-25)

 

The first set was one of the Aggies’ best all season, winning 25-12. Mari Sharp continued her streak of impressive offensive play, earning five kills and an ace in the first frame alone. Sharp later went on to collect 13 kills in the match, a new season high. The senior was set up all night, swinging 36 times, her second-most in a match this season.

 

The next three all went UTEP’s way, with the second in decisive fashion. The second set has been very indicative of success this season. Including tonight, the winner of all 16 Aggie matches has won the second set in 2023. NM State is 11-0 when winning the set, and 0-5 when losing it. A 25-14 defeat in the frame marked the latest chapter of the trend. 

 

The third set showed significant promise for the Aggies. Ashley Herman had her most productive set of the night, collecting a pair of kills and the team’s lone block solo on the night. Herman has brought more production recently, including Tuesday when she picked up a team-high four blocks and finished with eight kills. For the seventh straight match, Herman had at least six kills. Prior to that streak, the sophomore only had eight kills all season, and just 15 on her career. 

 

Another second-year Aggie bringing a spark in the set was Alexandria Connatser. Back-to-back kills from Connatser brought the set to its closest margin: a 24-23 UTEP lead. The kills forced a UTEP timeout, where former Aggie assistant Ben Wallis made the right adjustments. The Miners earned a kill on the next point, and closed out any hopes the Aggies had of a late comeback in the third. 

 

The Miners got out to a large lead in the fourth that proved to be just too much to come back from. Kaya Weaver was instrumental for UTEP in the set, nabbing four kills, three blocks, and a service ace. Two of Weaver’s blocks came on consecutive points, putting UTEP out front 23-14. A 4-0 run signaled a possible comeback, but UTEP earned their final two points on the two things that bothered the Aggies all day: attack errors and Kaya Weaver. An attack error brought things to match point, before Weaver earned her 12th kill of the night to close out the match. 

 

The Aggies had their worst offensive night of the season. The team had a collective hitting percentage of .090; their first time below .160 all season. Their 30 attacking errors are the second-most this season, only behind a five-set match against Middle Tennessee (33), which had 49 more points (218) than Tuesday’s match (169). 

 

Head Coach Mike Jordan, on the loss to UTEP: “Look, our service pressure went away. They (UTEP) scored at will in the middle of the floor. We have to get that figured out before tomorrow. They made smarter decisions out-of-system. We hit the ball down into the block too much. We’ve got to fix that. It was a winnable match, but we can’t get the performances we got from some people and expect to beat a good team.”

Up Next

The second match of the series will be played Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 5:00 PM MT. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+ and available to follow on StatBroadcast. Those links can be found at nmstatesports.com

 

For complete coverage of NM State Volleyball, follow us on Twitter (@NMStateVBall), Instagram (@NMStateVBall) and like us on Facebook (NM State Volleyball). You can also follow along with Aggie Volleyball via NMStateSports.com.

 

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