Aggies win quarter-final match at WAC Tournament – Volleyball News
The No.3 seeded New Mexico State women’s volleyball team faced off against 6th-seeded Spartans of San Jose State in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Monday, November 21. The crucial match was held at the
Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Aggies worked out a 3-0 (25-11, 28-26, 25-13) victory over Spartans and qualified for the next stage of the tournament.
It was the 12th appearance for the San Jose team at the WAC Volleyball Tournament. San Jose State entered the competition with a two-match winning streak after defeating Texas Tech and Louisiana Tech in the team’s final two home matches of the year but failed
to beat the Aggies. The winning team is now scheduled to take on No. 2 seed Idaho in the next match on Tuesday, Nov. 22. The final match of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be played on Wednesday, November 23.
NME’s freshman outside hitter Meredith Hays gathered all the attention in the match. She attacked from different angles and recorded a match-high 14 kills. Equally talented, senior Kelsey Brennan dished out 10 kills with a hitting percentage of .467. Senior
Jennah DeVries guided the offense of NME with 35 assists and was one dig short of a double-double in the match. Kelsi Phillips did a great job as the libero of the team. She posted a match-high 17 digs and emerged as the only player in the match with double-digit
kill figures. Overall, the NME squad outclassed the opponent with .371 to .190 and out-blocked them with 7-3 record.
New Mexico State opened the match on strong footing and contributed early points. They picked up a 6-1 lead and forced Spartans to call a timeout. The San Jose team struggled to shorten the gap of points but Aggies gave them no chance to do so. Quick rallies
of NME resulted in wide gap of scores. Finally, the Aggies claimed the first set by posting 25-11.
Spartans’ performance improved in the second set. They worked on their flaws and devised a new plan. Meanwhile, Aggies got caught up in a few attack errors that helped SJSU to take the lead in the game. However, Aggies fought back and tied the score at 16-all.
The centre court turned into a battlefield as both sides played with best of their tactics. Score soared up with close gap but final victory graced Aggies as scored the set points at 28-26.
Third set started out in the same fashion but gradually Aggies got control. Aggies went on a scoring rallies in third set and claimed the match by capturing a win at 25-13.
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