San Jose, Calif.—The San José State volleyball team needed five sets to defeat New Mexico, 3-2, Thursday afternoon inside Spartan Gym.
Haylee Nelson led all hitters with 23 kills and hit .312 for the match (23-8-48). She recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 10 digs. Latahevai Lousi had her fifth double-double of the year with 16 kills and 14 digs. Allyson Alden hit .556 for the match with 10 kills on 18 attempts and no errors.
Mia Schafer had 44 assists and 12 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Sarah Smevog led the team with 17 digs and added eight assists and two service aces. Nelson and Lousi each had four aces to lead the team.
Set 1 – The two teams battled back and forth for much of the set. After the media timeout, SJSU tied the set at 15-15 and took the lead for good at 16-15 on a Ryann Thomison kill. SJSU won the set 25-21.
Set 2 – The Spartans fell behind 4-0, but scored six consecutive points behind the serving of Lousi to take a 6-5 lead. New Mexico then used a 10-4 run to take a 15-10 lead before the media timeout. SJSU used a 7-0 run behind Schafer's serving to tie then take the lead in the set at 17-15. The Lobos tied the set at 24-24 before Lousi recorded a kill and service ace to give SJSU a 26-24 win.
Set 3 – New Mexico used a 4-0 early in the set to take a 9-5 lead and maintained the lead in the 25-16 win.
Set 4 – San José State jumped out to the early 5-1 lead on a Thomison kill and maintained the lead for much of the season. New Mexico took the lead at 19-18, and the Spartans got within one at 24-23 on a Nelson kill before the Lobos put the ball away to win 25-23 and force a fifth set.
Set 5 – Nelson recorded three consecutive service aces to break the set open for the Spartans at 9-6, and the team won the set 15-7 and the match 3-2. Whitney Barnes came off the bench and scored three of the final five points for the Spartans.
San José State improves to 5-8 on the season and hosts San Diego State this Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the team's final home match of the spring season.
San Jose State 3, New Mexico 2 (25-21, 26-24, 16-25, 23-25, 15-7).
Kills – UNM – Kaitlynn Biassou 22; SJSU – Haylee Nelson 23.
Records – New Mexico 3-8; San José State 5-8.
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