HONOLULU, Hawai’i ? New
Mexico State
pulled off its biggest victory in program history by sweeping No. 6 Hawai’i,
25-22, 26-24 and 25-21, at the Stan Sheriff Center Sunday to pull the Aggies
into a tie for first place in the Western Athletic Conference. It was the first
time the Aggies have defeated a Top 10 team in school history.
NMSU (11-7, 6-1 WAC) handed UH (13-3, 6-1) just
its second WAC home defeat in the 12 years they have been in the league and
they did it in front of a crowd of 6,619. The Aggies held Hawai’i to a .023 hitting percentage. UH
came into the match ranked in the Top 10 nationally in hitting percentage and
Sunday was its lowest for the program in the rally-scoring era (since 2001).
NMSU was led by Lindsey
Yon, who registered a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Amber Simpson
had a team-high 11 kills and five block assists. Krystal Torres had 18 digs on
the night.
Jamie
Houston led Hawai?i with 11 kills, six digs and four
blocks, while Dani Mafua had 26 assists and nine digs.
The Rainbow Wahine opened a 7-3 lead to start
the first set, forcing an early time out by head coach Mike Jordan. The
Aggies responded, scoring four of the next five points to pull it back to 8-7. New Mexico State took its first lead at 14-13 and
later extended the lead to 20-15 on a 5-0 run. NMSU kept the lead at 22-17
before a fierce four-point UH run cut it back to 22-21. After a Simpson
kill, Amber Kaufman teamed up with Jamie Houston for another Hawai'i block, cutting
it back to 23-22. But the Aggies scored the final two points to take the first
set, 25-22.
Hawai`i jumped ahead 8-1 at the
start of the second set and would take its lead to 10-2. But NMSU battled back,
scoring six of the next eight points to cut it to 12-8. A three-point run on
the serve of Kanani Herring pushed it back to 15-8. NMSU pulled to within two
points on a couple occasions before UH got its first set point at 24-21. But
that was when the Aggies responded. A Woods kill got NMSU the serve,
before two blocks tied it at 24-24. Simpson then served an ace before a UH
attack error ended the second set, 26-24.
The third set started out tight as the teams
traded side outs from 4-4 to 10-10. A 6-1 NMSU run broke the Aggies through at
16-11, with New Mexico
State eventually pushing
its lead to 21-13. Hawai`i
showed some fight, scoring eight of the next 11 points. But the Aggies wouldn’t
be denied, as Woods put away a kill to end the match with a 25-21 third-set
victory.