Following a much needed win on Thursday night, the volleyball team returned to the Spectrum on Saturday and lost to New Mexico State in three sets. USU’s record is now 13-12 overall and 4-8 in conference play while NMSU moves to 9-3 in the conference and 14-8 overall.

“We needed to find a way to dig and touch some balls, but we couldn’t for the first two games,” head coach Grayson DuBose said. “In the third, we started to get on some good tendencies but by then it was too little too late.”

The first set saw USU jump out to an early lead before, up with a score of 10-7, three straight attack errors from Liz McArthur, followed by a NMSU service ace and a powerful kill by NMSU’s star outside hitter, Kayleigh Giddens. New Mexico State took the lead 12-10. With USU down 23-19, the Aggies went on a 5-0 run and had match point six times before NMSU took the first set 31-29. The New Mags had a .167 (19-10-54) hitting percentage in the first set, compared to USU’s .091 (13-8-55).

Utah State hit a dismal .028 (9-8-36) percentage in the second set while New Mexico State hit a .333 (16-3-39). After the tough first-set loss the Aggies were never able to get in a groove during the second set, losing 16-25.

In the third set, New Mexico State was held close until at 8-8 the New Mags went on a 4-1 run to lead 9-12. NMSU went on to win the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.

USU hit a .043 (12-11-46) percentage while NMSU hit a .235 (12-4-34). USU finished the match with a hitting percentage of .058 (35-27-137) while New Mexico hit a .236 (47-17-127). The Aggies’ two more service aces than New Mexico and four fewer service errors were irrelevant as USU had 10 more attack errors and five fewer team blocks.

Junior middle blocker Danielle Taylor led the Ags with eight kills and only one hitting error.

– c.h.j@aggiemail.usu.edu



, Taylor’s eight kills came with one error on 17 attempts for a .412 hitting percentage, while McArthur’s came with 11 errors on 44 attempts for a -.068 hitting percentage. Junior setter Chelsea Fowles had five kills and 11 digs, hitting a .556 (5-0-9), while sophomore opposite side hitter Emily Kortsen had four kills on 23 attempts with five errors for a -.043 hitting percentage.

New Mexico’s ability to shut down the Aggies outside attack proved successful while their own outside attack wiped out USU, Giddens had 17 kills and four errors on 45 attempts for a .289 hitting percentage. New Mexico didn’t have any players with negative hitting percentages while USU had five of their 10 players in the negative.

The Aggies head off for a long road trip to play San Jose Sate on Thursday and nationally ranked Hawai’i on Sunday, Nov. 8. After their trip to Hawai’i the team takes an eight day break before once again facing Hawai’i and then Nevada for their final two home matches of the season on Nov. 16 and 19 respectively.