EL PASO, Texas – The New Mexico State volleyball team hit .357 and swept Grand Canyon, 27-25, 26-24, 25-19, at UTEP's Memorial Gym on Saturday afternoon for its 26^th WAC win in-a-row. Senior setter Natalie Mikels crossed the 2,000 assist threshold and cracked NM State's career top-10 for service aces in the match. With the win, NM State head coach Mike Jordan picked up his 499^th win.
 
"We faced a good team," said head coach Mike Jordan. "We're not at home, we would benefit from our home crowd but now you have to generate your own energy which teaches you a lot about your team. It's hard, it's difficult, but we're 6-0 and I'm proud of my team."
 
Mikels got the Aggies (6-0, 6-0 WAC) going with a service ace, her 120^th, but the Lopes bounced back to lead 12-7 midway through the set. The Lopes kept their lead and found themselves on set point, 24-23, after a kill from Kaira Moss. Then, Savannah Davison and Lia Mosher hit back-to-back kills to put NM State in front, 25-24. After a GCU kill tied it, Cat Kelly roped a kill and an attack error from Grand Canyon sealed set one, 27-25 for NM State. Davison went off in the set, recording 10 of the Aggies' 19 kills.
 
The two sides went back-and-forth to open set two and were tied 24-24 late in the set. Then, Mosher got a kill from the middle and Savannah Davison served up an ace to close out set two, 26-24. Katie Birtcil finished with five kills in the set while Davison, Shaney Lipscomb and Mosher each added four.
 
Grand Canyon then came out strong to open set three and took a 17-13 lead. However, Victoria Barrett came up with a kill and NM State recorded three-straight blocks to start a 9-0 Aggie run that saw them take a 22-17 lead. From there, NM State closed out the set with a GCU service error providing the final point for NM State to compete the sweep with a 25-19 set three win. The NM State block came up huge in the set, especially the duo of Lipscomb and Lindsay Blakey. As a team, the Aggies recorded seven total blocks with Blakey notching five block assists and Lipscomb four.
 
NM State's offense was on fire, hitting 53 kills on 115 attempts. Davison recorded her second-straight double-double with a season-high 18 kills to go with 11 digs. The redshirt junior hit .368 with 18 kills to lead the Aggies. Darian Markham recorded another big game, besting her career-high with 17 digs. NM State's defense held GCU's Yenny Murillo, the WAC's kills leader to nine kills on just .094 hitting.
 
The Aggies will now take their win streak on the road to Riverside, Calif., for two showdowns with California Baptist on Monday, Feb. 22, at 6 p.m. (MT) and Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m. Both matches are set to stream live on the WAC Digital Network.