LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Every year, head coach Mike Jordan expects to win, with 16 of his last 18 teams winning 20 or more matches. To what extent, however, was up for debate prior to the 2019 season.

Before the 19-match winning streak, the 27-4 record and the perfect run through the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, there were questions about how far this team could go.

"We weren't sure if Cat Kelly could handle a full-time outside hitter role," Jordan said. "Krysten Garrison was going to have to set for the first time, Lia Mosher was coming back from injury and we weren't sure how she was going to fit into everything. We wanted to move Megan Hart around and have her play more right side which she had never really done before and we were unsettled at the libero. Savannah Davison was going to have to stay on the floor in a six rotation role, just a ton of questions. At the end of the spring, I felt like we had progressed and I liked our skill level to a certain extent."

Even after winning its first 15 sets of the season including emphatic sweeps over UNM and Auburn, questions lingered when NM State lost three matches in mid-September. However, there was reason for optimism as the Aggies approached conference play.

"I was really impressed with Ashley Anselmo and her progress offensively," Jordan said. "We thought our schedule would be a little better when we put it together but a couple of teams got decimated by transfers, unfortunately. But I was pretty happy with what I was seeing and I felt like if we kept making adjustments and progressing we were going to be a pretty good team."

NM State swept Alabama State in Tucson on Sept. 21, kicking off a streak that wouldn't see the Aggies lose until Dec. 4. New Mexico State ran through the WAC, dropping only 10 sets and going to five sets only once, on Oct. 28, against California Baptist, on its way to a perfect 16-0 conference record.

"If you had asked us in July or August if running the table in conference play was a possibility, I would have said maybe, but the chances are slim," Jordan said of his team's run. "You judge every team on its own merits and this team was really good at competing when games were close. We could play a terrible match or a terrible set but then turn around and play a great one."

As if that weren't enough, the Aggies put the exclamation mark on their season with a dominant run through the WAC Tournament that saw them sweep GCU and Utah Valley for their second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

It wasn't always easy, but NM State rose to the occasion every time, whether it was clawing back from a 2-0 deficit at home against California Baptist to keep its perfect conference record alive or Kelly hitting 15 kills on 28 attempts with an injured hamstring in the WAC Championship match.

"With a lot of teams, when they start playing terrible, they keep playing terrible," Jordan added. "This team wasn't like that, they got their act together and committed themselves to playing better and they usually did. So this team really has had a special place for me."

A number of Aggies also had monster individual seasons highlighted by redshirt senior Megan Hart. She claimed her second-straight WAC tournament MVP award and was named WAC Player of the Year. To top it off, she was named AVCA All-Region for the Midwest and an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American.

Hart led the Aggies with a .378 hitting percentage and finished second behind Davison in kills (2.80). For her career, the Kelowna, B.C., Canada, native is sixth in program history for blocks (395), sixth in block assists (345) and is the Crimson and White's all-time leader in hitting percentage (.359).

"You never expect to win all the awards, I just wanted to compete and help my team and help them to get better," Hart said of her senior season.

Helping Hart anchor one of the nation's top defenses was junior middle blocker Julianna Salanoa who landed on the First-Team All-WAC after ranking 21^st nationally in total blocks (150) and 16^th in blocks per set (1.39). With Hart and Salanoa in the middle and Anselmo on the right, NM State ranked seventh nationally in blocks per set (2.89) and second nationally in opponent hitting percentage (.121).

The Aggie offense had firepower too, led by the right arm of high-flying redshirt sophomore and First-Team All-WAC honoree Savannah Davison. The native of Toronto hit .234 from the left while averaging a team-high 3.56 kills per set. It was a stark improvement for Davison who hit just .169 a season ago. She cut her errors down from 199 in 2018 to 151 and even improved her kill total while taking fewer swings. 

"I think I made better choices to better the team," Davison said. "I remember [Tatyana Battle] dominating on the left because she would get a lot of balls that were out of system that would get points or at least put pressure on the defense and just me watching her, I learned to be better out of system."

Standing at 5-10, some would call Davison undersized, and they'd be right. But Davison and the 5-8 Kelly were the primary arms on an offense that led the WAC in hitting percentage (.262) and kills (13.61).

"They are the two smallest outsides we've ever had but they are two of the better jumpers we've ever had and they both have really good arms," Jordan said of Davison and Kelly. "What Savannah did was not a surprise, we felt like she was putting in the work. Last year was great for her and Cat in that they got learning experience on the court without having to carry a major load. I was really impressed with a lot of the matches that they had."

It wasn't just the stars that carried NM State, though, as many players were called on as service subs or defensive specialists late in close matches. Fifteen different Aggies played in 20 or more sets with 12 playing in 40 or more.

"One thing about this year's team was how many people contributed," Jordan said. "We have a ton of people on our roster and we used a ton of them and some of them came through in really clutch situations. We've got all these liberos competing for time and it was pretty common for one or two of them to come off the bench late in a match with the score tied and have to come in and preform. When you talk about the true team wins, we had a lot of those and I'm really proud of that."

As New Mexico State now looks to its future, questions linger. How will it replace an All-American? Who will play the right side with Anselmo's departure? Who will slot into libero with Analyssa Acosta graduating? NM State will return arguably the best middle, Salanoa, and outside, Davison, in the conference, however, and will add two more big arms to the roster in recruits Marianna Sharp and Victoria Barrett.

"I think that this core group returning is solid and still has a lot of room for improvement," Jordan stated. "We're excited about Marianna and Victoria as they're both elite athletes cut from a similar mold to Cat and Savannah. They're not really tall but they fly and they've got arm speed."

The Aggies will look to win their third-straight WAC title next season and, with a solid group returning and talented newcomers, expectations will be high next year in Las Cruces.