Sept. 24, 2005
Box Score
Reno, Nev. - The University of Nevada(7-5, 2-0 WAC) won a five-game thriller downing New Mexico State University(6-3, 0-2 WAC) in a Western Athletic Conference match at the Virginia Street Gym in Reno, Nev. Saturday night. The Wolf Pack won by scores of 33-31, 27-30, 30-18, 31-33, and 15-11 in the deciding fifth game to improve to 2-0 in WAC play and 7-5 overall. The win was the sixth in a row for the Pack. NMSU has now dropped its first two WAC matches leaving them at 0-2 and 6-3 on the season. In all the five game match was tied 48 times and there were 18 lead changes.
After splitting the first four games a deciding fifth game would be needed to determine a winner. NMSU's opening serve went into the net and the Pack led 1-0 and never trailed in taking the deciding fifth game 15-11. Sophomore Teal Ericson ended the match with her 19th kill of the night on an assist by setter Ashley Miller. Both teams struggled in game five with the Pack hitting just .125 but the Aggies hit .000.
Game one was tied 13 times and there were seven lead changes before the Pack prevailed 33-31. Both teams had opportunities to serve for the win but with the game tied at 31-31, an Aggie service error put Nevada on top 32-31 and that was followed by an attack error that gave the victory to the Wolf Pack. NMSU out hit Nevada .235 to .190 in the first game.
Nevada led game two early by as many as seven points but the Aggies rallied to win 30-27 and even the match at one game apiece. The game was tied at 26-26 but NMSU outscored the Pack 4-1 down the stretch to win the game. The Aggies again out hit the Pack .278 to .163.
After the break the Pack made it look easy taking game three 30-18. Nevada put together a 4-0 run to break an 11-11 tie and cruised to the victory. The win gave the Wolf Pack a two games to one advantage. Nevada hit an outstanding .519 while the Aggies hit .219.
The fourth game was tightest of them all as there were 18 ties and three lead changes. With the game tied a 31-31 a Nevada service error and an attack error gave NMSU the game 33-31 which evened the match at two games apiece. Game four ended the same way as the first game only this time the Wolf Pack players made the mistakes resulting in the loss setting up the deciding fifth game which the Pack won 15-11. Nevada had its best hitting game of the night in game four at .541 while NMSU also posted their best attack percentage of the match at .432.
Salaia Salave`a posted a match high 24 kills and hit .383 to lead the Pack to victory. Ericson, and Carly Sorensen finished with 19, and 18 kills respectively. Miller dished out a career and match high 63 assists. Libero Christine Harms had a match high 18 digs, and Lindsay Holda finished with 12.
Four Aggies finished the night with double figures in kills led by Tanya Allen's 22. Alice Borden(17), Kim Oguh(14), and Amber Simpson(11) also had double digit kill nights. Setter Jackie Choi tallied 56 assists and libero Jordan Bostic had 17 digs to lead NMSU.
Both teams hit well in the match with the Wolf Pack winning that battle .309 to .258. Nevada also won the blocking battle 15-11. Karly Sipherd had a match high eight blocks, all being block assists.
Nevada takes to the road next week for two road WAC matches at Idaho, Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. and at Boise State on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
|
