New Mexico State 3, Fresno State 0
The New Mexico State volleyball team opened up Western Athletic Conference play with a 3-0 (30-14, 30-18, 30-25) win over Fresno State at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 13.
Sophormore Krista Altermatt (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) returned to her home state and just dominated as she set a new career high for herself in kills with 21 and hitting percentage finishing the night with a .594 hitting percentage. Head coach Mike Jordan was please with how the Aggies attacked as a team, hitting .386 on the night.
Game one saw Altermatt come out swinging as she batted down nine kills and hit .750 on twelve attacks. When the score the Aggies led 15-9 when junior Lindsey Yon (San Antonio, Texas) came up with a kill, followed by two consecutive kills from Altermatt before NMSU added three more points to take a 21-9 lead. With the Aggies hitting .553 in the game, they eventually won 30-14.
Yon led the way in game two with five kills while she added an ace to lead the Aggies to a 30-18 victory. Yon finished the night with 14 kills and 17 digs. Oguh also had an ace during a point in the match when NMSU scored nine straight points to take a 19-10 lead. Krystal Torres (Las Cruces, Mayfield HS) and Brynja Rodgers (Iowa City, Iowa) also had an ace each four a total of four Aggies aces in the game.
The Aggies had a 10-3 lead, but it seemed like the Aggies became relaxed and Fresno State got back into the game and got within three points after a Fresno State kill, but senior Anna Callis (Corpus Christi, Texas) slammed down a dominate kill to give NMSU some momentum. Just when it looked like NMSU was going to put the match away, Fresno State got to within one at 25-24, but Altermatt put down kill No. 21 to be tied for fourth in kills in a three game match. The Aggies finally pulled away to win the final game 30-25.
Utah State 3, Boise State 0
Amanda Nielson recorded a match-high 17 kills to lead Utah State's volleyball team to a three-game sweep against Boise State (30-26, 30-16, 30-21) in both teams Western Athletic Conference opener here Thursday night.
Utah State improved to 4-6 on the season and 1-0 in league play with the win, while Boise State falls to 3-6 overall and 0-1 in the WAC with the loss. USU is now 4-1 against BSU since joining the WAC.
Nielson, a senior opposite side hitter from West Valley City, Utah (Granger HS) hit .282 (17-6-39) in the match to go along with seven digs, six blocks and four service aces, while freshman libero Christine Morrill (Neola, Utah/Union HS) had a season-high 19 digs.
Boise State was led by Arlee Tamietti who had nine kills and eight digs.
Nevada 3, Louisiana Tech 1
The University of Nevada(4-4, 1-0 WAC) volleyball team opened Western Athletic Conference play Thursday night with a 3-1 victory over Louisiana Tech(5-8, 0-1 WAC) at the Virginia Street Gym. The Wolf Pack improved to a perfect 8-0 in WAC openers since joining the conference and are now 9-0 versus the Lady Techsters. With the victory the Pack evened their overall record to 4-4 and stand at 1-0 in conference play. LTU dropped to 5-8 on the season and 0-1 in WAC action.
Nevada scored the first three points of the match but the Lady Techsters rallied to tie the game at 4-4. The last tie of game one was at 7-7 before LTU scored the next two points and never trailed the rest of the way to win 30-26. Offensively LTU hit .355 and Nevada .229 in the first game.
Ericson led the Pack with a match-high 21 kills and hit .292. Senior Karly Sipherd and sophomore Jorgan Staker had 11 kills each. Setter Ashley Miller posted her fifth consecutive double-double with a match-high 46 assists and added 13 digs. Entering the match with 999 assists Miller became just the eighth setter in school history to record 1,000 assists in a career. Her 1,045 assists ranks eighth in school history. For the seventh consecutive match Hernandez led the team in digs thi time with a match-high 17.
Shannon Phillips topped the Lady Techsters with 13 kills on the night. Setter Jillann Walker dished out 40 assists in the match while libero Brittney Nakamura had 13 digs.
Nevada hit .250 and held LTU to a .178 attack percentage on the night. Both teams had four blocks in the match. Freshman Lindsay Baldwin led the Pack with three and three players had two each for LTU. Sipherd had two blocks on the night with one being solo to giver her 39 career solo blocks which moved her into a for 10th on the schools all-time list.