Hard Four-Set Loss for Cougs

ALBUQUERQUE -- After being flawless in the last five matches, the BYU women’s volleyball team (8-13, 3-4 MWC) fell to New Mexico (12-8, 4-3 MWC) in four Thursday night.

“It hurts to take a loss, but we just made too many errors tonight,” BYU head coach Shay Goulding said. "We need to refocus and get back on top of our game for Saturday."

Three Cougars in double-digit kills wasn’t enough to come out with a win. Senior Stephanie Snow led with 12, while true freshman Jennifer Hamson had 11 and junior Christie Carpenter posted 10. Senior setter Kiana Rogers distributed the ball 43 times while sophomore Kendalyn Hartsock anchored the back row with 16 digs.

Nicole Warner and Snow each had three total blocks.

Two Lobo attack errors found the Cougars on top 2-0 to start out set one, maintaining the lead until 12-11 when New Mexico had two-straight kills. After calling a timeout, the Cougars were more in the hole after four-straight UNM points. After another Cougar timeout, Carpenter laid down a kill to stop the run and start a 6-1 Cougar run to knot the score at 18. With back-and-forth play to end the first set, BYU scored its last two points to win the match 25-23 off of Lobo errors.

In set two the Cougars started on their heels, unable to catch up, falling 25-20 to knot the match at one set apiece.

The Cougars got out to a 3-1 start in set three, maintaining the lead until two kills by Lisa Meeter and a kill by Taylor Hadfield tied up the score at 17. The score knotted at 18, 19 and 20, the Cougars fell in the last five points 25-23 to give the lead to the Lobos at 2-sets-to-1.

On their heels again the Cougars kept up with the Lobos until seven-all, but then a 6-0 Lobo run put the Cougars behind for the rest of set four, losing the set 25-18, and match, 3-1.

Up next for the Cougars will be TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday.