Match Twenty-Six
NM State (18-7, 9-4 WAC) vs. UTEP (19-6, 8-4 C-USA)
Wednesday, Nov. 10 | 6:00 p.m. | Pan American Center | Las Cruces, N.M.
NM State Match Notes |  Tickets | Live Stats | Watch

THE FIRST SERVE

• Coming off a three-match winning streak, the Aggies will look to even the season series with I-10 rival UTEP at home on Wednesday.

• First serve inside the Pan American Center is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. MT and ESPN+ will stream each and every second of the action. 

SERIES HISTORY

Overall vs. UTEP | 66-23-1 (.739)

In Las Cruces, N.M. | 34-9-1 (.784)

In El Paso, Texas | 27-13 (.675)

At neutral sites | 5-1 (.833)

Streak | UTEP won 1

Last five matches | 4-1 (.800)

Last 10 matches | 9-1 (.900)

In three-set matches | 33-5 (.868)

In four-set matches | 11-8 (.579)

In five-set matches | 7-6 (.538)

Jordan vs. UTEP | 30-8 (.789)

Wallis vs. NM State | 1-0 (1.000)

Last meeting | at UTEP 3, NM State 2 (Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021)

WAC ATTACK

• A new-look Western Athletic Conference is making its debut season in the 2021-22 season, and the Aggies are hoping to continue their dominance in the league.

• Now in his 24th season in charge at NM State, head coach Mike Jordan has been nothing short of masterful in league action throughout his tenure. The Aggies' bench boss owns an impressive 285-68 (.807) mark in regular-season WAC showdowns as well as a 30-12 (.714) record in WAC Tournament bouts.

• NM State has been especially effective in racking up all manner of WAC hardware through the last seven seasons. In that span, the Aggies are 87-11 (.888) against league opposition in regular-season tilts and have claimed five regular-season WAC crowns as well as a trio of WAC Tournament titles.

• Since joining the WAC in 2005, NM State has secured seven regular-season titles. All told, Jordan has claimed 11 conference titles since his run in Las Cruces began in 1998.

LAST TIME OUT | at NM State 3, Utah Valley 1 | Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021

• The Aggies earned their 18th overall win and ninth win in WAC play to move into a tie for first place in the WAC's West Division.

• NM State looked dominant once again as they dropped just one set to one of the top squads in the WAC.

• Katie Birtcil led the way for the Aggies, finishing with 19 kills, 14 digs and four blocks for her sixth double-double of the season

• Carly Aigner Sweesey eclipsed 50-plus assists for the second time this season, posting 54 in the win

• Cat Kelly added 115 kills on .393 hitting while Mari Sharp registerd twelve terminations on .400 hitting.

ABOUT THE AGGIES

• Thanks to their four-set win over Utah Valley Saturday night, the Aggies moved into a tie for first-place in the WAC with Grand Canyon.

• The Aggies lead the WAC in no fewer than five statistical categories includ- ing assists per set (12.60), kills per set (13.67), attack percentage (.259), total assists (1,197) and total kills (1,299).

• Senior middle blocker Lia Mosher continues to lead the WAC while ranking among the top players in the nation in terms of attack percentage. The Rui- doso, N.M., product is hitting .419 which ranks 12th among all NCAA Division I volleyball players.

• The hard-hitting tandem of Katie Birtcil and Shaney Lipscomb give the Aggies two of the top ten arms in the WAC. Birtcil's 3.49 kills per set rank eighth among all league players while Lipscomb's figure of 2.91 is the tenth-best in the league.

• With 13 more digs Thursday night, libero Darian Markham pushed her digs per set average to 4.39 which ranks sixth among all WAC players.

• Carly Aigner-Swesey added 54 assists to her season total on Saturday, giving her an average of 10.75 assists per set in WAC play to rank second against WAC opponents.

SCOUTING UTEP

• The Miners are coming off a two-match homestand in which they swept North Texas and avoided dropping a single set.

•UTEP enters the second bout with NM State led by its top attacker in Serena Patterson. Patterson totaled 12 kills against the Aggies on Sept. 5, 2021, while Ema Uskokovic paced the Miners with 16 kills in the first meeting.

• Kennedy Howard is UTEP's top swing eliminator as she averages just under one block per set.

• The Miners will look to secure the season sweep of the Aggies for the first time since 2001.

COMING UP NEXT

• The Aggies continue their stretch of home matches before playing host to the WAC Tournament. NM State sees Chicago State this Saturday for a chance to secure the West Division WAC regular season title.

AGGIE ACCOLADES

• Heading into the season, the Aggies ranked 14th among NCAA Division I programs with a .749 winning percentage from 2016-20. Counting matches played this season, NM State holds a .786 winning percentage since 2016 with an overall record of 118-32. 

• NM State picked up its first win against a Big 10 opponent since Sept. 20, 1986, with a five-set win over Northwestern in the Pan Am on March 3, 2021.  

• Alana Embry picked up the first two double-doubles of her career against Northwestern (19 assists, 12 digs) and UTEP (22 assists, 15 digs).

• Senior setter Carly Aigner-Swesey now has five double-doubles on the year after notching 15 assists and 10 digs against Western Carolina at the Colonel Challenge.  

• Kalli Schoening was unstoppable against Western Carolina, as she recorded a career-high seven blocks against the Catamounts. 

• Libero Darian Markham was named WAC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, Sept. 13, after averaging 4.89 digs per set at the Colonel Challenge.

• Cat Kelly posted her first double-double of the season in the Aggies' 3-0 win over South Florida on Sept. 17, 2021. Kelly registered 10 kills and an equal number of digs in NM State's victory. 

• After not being able to play a non-conference schedule in the spring 2021 season, the Aggies did so this season. Through non-conference play, NM State has posted a 9-3 record - the exact same mark as they did in 2019 en route to a 16-0 WAC record, the league's regular-season title and the WAC Tournament title. 

• Katie Birtcil's 24 kills in the Aggies' 3-1 win at Utah Valley on Sept. 23, 2021, represented the second-highest total by a WAC player in a four-set match this season. Additionally, those 24 kills rank as the 19th-most by an NCAA Division I player in a four-set match this season. For her efforts, Birtcil was named the WAC's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, Sept. 27.