LAS CRUCES, N.M. – NM State Volleyball wrapped up its weekend action on Saturday against UTEP. The Aggies fell at the hands of its I-10 rival, doing so in three sets for the second consecutive night. The home team threatened to come back in set three, but ultimately fell short, dropping to 11-8 overall with a 4-2 CUSA mark. The Miners improved to 16-2 and 6-0 in league play.
 
Set-by-set: NM State loses 0-3 (12-25, 21-25, 24-26) 
 
FIRST SET
In similar fashion to Friday's affair, the visitors came out hot early. After building a convincing 12-5 lead, UTEP posted back-to-back errors, courtesy of a Kate Sinclair solo block. After a Jacqueline Corcoran kill, UTEP ripped off a 7-0 run that forced Mike Jordan's second timeout and ripped away all Aggie momentum. Tess Fuqua kept the fight alive with a pair of kills, but the visitors ran away with a 25-12 set victory, only needing six kills to do so. 
 
SECOND SET
A lightning-fast 8-1 advantage for Ben Wallis' bunch opened the frame before the Aggies showed life. Maggie Lightheart poured in her side's only ace of the day while Sinclair and Jaelynn Kohli each notched two kills amid a 6-1 burst that cut the deficit to 10-8. The margin held before NM State opened up its largest run of the affair. Mia Fox and Lightheart led the charge for what ended as a 7-0 Crimson & White spurt to pull ahead 19-17. Unfortunately for the home faithful, the Miners responded by taking eight of the final 10 rallies, prevailing 25-21.
 
THIRD SET
For the third consecutive stanza, NM State jumped ahead first, but its advantage was short-lived. A kill and a solo block from Kohli highlighted a 4-0 Aggie burst to keep a 7-5 edge. The visitors eventually knotted things up at 9-9 before the teams traded the ensuing 10 points. After 13 all, UTEP swung back ahead by four, holding that margin until 20-16. Kohli's third solo block of the evening came alongside two more Lightheart kills in a 6-1 Aggie push that ended with their final lead of 22-21. Down by two just three rallies later, Lightheart and Kohli paired up yet again on consecutive points, extending the final frame. The comeback effort was futile, though, as UTEP clinched victory shortly after at 26-24. 
 
NUMBERS OF NOTE

• The Aggies dropped to 68-29-1 all-time against the Miners.
• After a .400 hitting percentage from UTEP on Friday, the Aggies held the Miners to a .202 mark on Saturday.
• Tess Fuqua returned to the starting lineup for the first time after going down with an injury two weeks ago. The redshirt sophomore racked up a team-high 10 digs in addition to eight kills.
• Jaelynn Kohli tallied three solo blocks in the match, tripling her previous career total.
• Maggie Lightheart led the team in kills for the seventh time on the season, racking up 12 in three sets.
• With just one ace, the Aggies set a season low, doing so after notching only two on Friday. 

• The sweep was the fourth suffered by NM State this season and its second in CUSA play.

 
FROM THE FLOOR
Head Coach Mike Jordan, on what the team needs to improve: "It's pretty simple, but we have to stop making errors. We made a ton of them. They're [UTEP] too good of a team to just give that many points to. We did a better job of blocking and defending, but offensively we were almost anemic at times. We were scoring points for the wrong team."
 
UP NEXT
NM State returns to action next weekend for a two-part series at Missouri State. The Aggies look to get back in the winning column against the Bears, one of CUSA's two new members. Steven McRoberts' group entered the season with the ninth-most wins in NCAA history (1,287), but is off to a bumpy 6-11 start in 2025. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ and available to follow via nmstatesports.com/stats.
 
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