LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KTSM) – UTEP volleyball grabbed a four-set win (12-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-20) over Battle of I-10 rival New Mexico State in the first ever meeting between the two programs as Conference USA foes at the Pan American Center on Wednesday.
New Mexico State dominated the first set. The Aggies took a 25-12 win over the Miners.
UTEP bounced back after that and went onto win the next three sets to grab the victory and hand New Mexico State its first loss in Conference USA in this season.
“It was really fun, I think we competed a lot. We did a lot of good things that we’ve been practicing on and I think we got a lot better today.” UTEP middle blocker Danika Washington said post-game.
“We were in it tonight, but the hard part about this one is that we got to turn around tomorrow and get out minds back in it,” UTEP volleyball head coach Ben Wallis said. “New Mexico State plays really good at home and they can come back and get us if we come out sleeping.”
UTEP was led by Kaya Weaver (12), Danika Washington (8), and Sakria Lacour (7) in the kills department during Wednesday’s match. Alyssa Sianez put together quite the performance on the defense, tallying up 16 digs. As a team, UTEP out blocked New Mexico State 15-6 on the night.
New Mexico State was led by Mari Sharp (13) and Ashley Herman (8) in kills on Wednesday. Just like UTEP (.185%), NMSU struggled hitting the ball for an efficient percentage. NMSU’s hit percentage was .090% when the night ended as the Aggies had 41 kills on 122 attack attempts as a team.
UTEP grabbed a historic first CUSA win over New Mexico State on Wednesday but round two between the Miners and Aggies is right around the corner.
UTEP (11-5, 3-2 CUSA) and New Mexico State (11-5, 4-1 CUSA) will go head-to-head again on Wednesday at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Match is set to begin at 5:00 p.m. MT.
