Fighting back: UNM volleyball tops UNLV in five-set Mountain West tournament thriller

Ken Sickenger, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·3 min read

Nov. 22—Wednesday night's Mountain West tournament opener couldn't have started much worse for the University of New Mexico volleyball team.

The ending was just about perfect.

Uxue Guereca fired in 21 kills including the clincher as the sixth-seeded Lobos rallied to beat host No. 3 seed UNLV in a five-set thriller at Cox Pavilion. The set scores were 24-26, 25-19, 23-25, 25-14, 15-12.

The victory, UNM's first in conference-tournament play under fifth-year coach Jon Newman-Gonchar, sends the Lobos to a Thanksgiving Day semifinal matchup against No. 2 seed Colorado State at 5 p.m. MST. Top seed Utah State will face No. 5 Fresno State in the other semifinal.

"This team's got some fight in it," Newman-Gonchar said in a postgame phone interview. "We challenged them and asked them if they could peak today, not play perfect, but play their best volleyball of the season. For my money, that's exactly what they did."

Guereca came up big for UNM (19-11) with 15 digs and a pair of service aces to go with her 21 kills. She also got plenty of help from her friends as the Lobos needed a team effort to overcome Isabel Martin's 25-kill performance for the Rebels (19-12).

"We were prepared for this," Guereca said in a postgame Mountain West Network interview. "We talked about playing five sets, prepared for five sets and just found a way. After five years in this program and never getting past the first round, this is huge for this program, very exciting for this team."

Athina Dimitriadis had a big offensive night for UNM with 14 kills and a .464 attack percentage. Kaitlynn Biassou celebrated her birthday with 10 kills and three aces, while Kali Wolf chipped in six kills, 11 digs and four aces. Lobo setter Melissa Walden had 41 assists and sparked a key 7-0 run from the service line in set four.

Things did not go according to plan early for the Lobos, who came in having dropped four of their past five matches while UNLV was riding a five-match winning streak. UNM led most of the way in set one and had three set points at 24-21 only to watch the Rebels steal the set with five straight points.

It was a tough pill to swallow for UNM, which had struggled to finish close sets in recent weeks. But this time the Lobos had an answer.

An ace by Walden sparked a 4-0 run to give UNM an 18-14 lead in set two, and the Lobos finished it out to even the match. UNLV then broke a late 22-22 deadlock to win set three and push the Lobos to the brink of elimination.

But UNM dominated the fourth set, building a 19-9 lead after six straight Walden service points to force a fifth set. Then, tied at 12, the Lobos scored three straight to secure the win, capped by a Guereca rocket that touched off a UNM celebration.

"Our players stayed so calm in that chaos," Newman-Gonchar said, "and so many people stepped up. I'm proud of them and now we're looking forward to playing CSU on Thanksgiving. No place we'd rather be."