LAS CRUCES, N.M. – New Mexico State volleyball travels to Edinburg, Texas, for the first conference match of the season. NM State takes on UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday, Sept. 23, at 11 a.m. (MT). Fans can tune into the match on the WAC Digital Network.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS
Following the Wildcat Classic, Tatyana Battle and Ariadnne Sierra were named to the all-tournament team. Battle hit .230 with 28 kills and 28 digs and Sierra posted 54 digs while also recording 15 assists. Battle and Sierra previously received all-tournament honors for their performances at the Borderland Invitational. Battle hit .395 with 34 kills and only four errors and Sierra tallied 50 digs including her 1,000th career dig.
Jordan Abalos and Kassandra Tohm earned all-tournament honors at the Golden Dome Invitational. Abalos recorded a double-double in two of the three matches. She tallied 38 digs and 43 kills during the tournament. Tohm posted 40 kills and hit .240 at the invitational.
STUNNING SIERRA
Sierra jumped to eighth in the NM State record books for career digs. She tallied 1.094 digs, so far, in her career as an Aggie. The senior libero tied the program record for digs in a four-set match earlier this season when she posted 32 against Notre Dame. She also broke the program record for digs in a match when she recorded 36 in NM State's final match of the 2016 season.
WHERE IN THE WAC
New Mexico State ranks first in the Western Athletic Conference in opponent hitting percentage (.136), assists per set (12.91), and kills per set (13.65). Sierra posts 5.22 digs per set which ranks second in the conference. For individual blocks per set, Brielle Sterns averages 1.06 and Lia Mosher averages 0.93 for second and fifth in the league, respectively.
Nationally, NM State is 12th in opponent hitting percentage, 27th in digs per set (17.28) and 33rd in team attacks per set (37.70). The Aggies also rank 50th in assists per set, 57th in kills per set (13.65), and 66th in blocks per set (2.39).
LAST TIME OUT
In the first midweek match of the season, New Mexico State defeated UTEP in straight sets in the Battle of I-10. NM State defeated the Miners at the Pan American Center 25-19, 25-19, 25-18 to complete the sweep.
NM State recorded 41 kills, 10 blocks and 47 digs in the match. Sasha-Lee Thomas led the Aggies with 12 kills and six blocks. Battle and Tohm hit nine kills each. Briana Ainsworth posted 21 assists and Sierra tallied a team-high 13 digs.
KNOW YOUR FOE: UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY
UT Rio Grande Valley come into the match with a 6-7 record. The Vaqueros have won three-straight matches, with two of the three victories coming in straight sets. Prior to the 2017 season, two players for UTRGV were named to the WAC Preseason Team. Ragni Steen Knudsen and Bojana Mitrovic earned the honors with Mitrovic earning the Preseason Player of the Year accolade.
Mitrovic enters the match as the reigning WAC Player of the Week. She averages 3.09 kills while hitting .276 and recording 3.18 digs and 0.36 blocks per set, leading UTRGV to a 3-0 week. Dubravka Vukoja averages 9.14 assists per set to lead the team. Alexandra Ecker posts a team-high 40 blocks for the season, averaging 0.89 blocks per set.
COMING UP
Following the match with UTRGV, NM State returns home to host conference opponents Chicago State and UMKC. The Aggies face off against on the Cougars on Thursday, Sept. 28 and the Roos on Saturday, Sept. 30.
