EL PASO – UTEP's (17-13, 10-4 Conference USA) comeback attempt fell short as New Mexico State (16-12, 7-7 Wetsern Athletics Conference) secured a tight five-set win 3-2 (21-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-21, 12-15) Wednesday afternoon in Memorial Gym. 

Four Miners hit double-digit kills with Torrance Lovesee and Alianza Darley leading the squad with 11 kills each. Mattie Gantt (22) and Hande Yetis (20) combined to put up 42 assists and Hula Crisostomo had a team-high 14 digs. 

UTEP's all-around performance held the statistical advantage in kills (55-50), hitting percentage (.222 - .197), blocks (10-7) and service aces (11-8) 

"I knew it was going to be a five-set grinder," head coach Ben Wallis said. "I knew it was going to be tough. And my team did, too. They (NMSU) executed in the fifth set when they needed to; just like what happened to us all year for long stretches with this team." 

SET ONE | NMSU kicked off the opening set with a 7-1 lead pressuring UTEP to take an early timeout. The Aggies continued to stay in front, 16-10, forcing the Miners to sidebar. After the break, a kill by Darley and two NMSU errors closed the gap by five, but the Aggies slid into the red zone on a 4-0 run, 22-13. UTEP's 7-1 scoring run was a little too late as a service error by the Miners handed the Aggies the set win, 25-21. 

SET TWO | The second set consisted of 14 tied scores and seven lead changes. With the Miners down by three, they produced a 10-2 scoring run with an NMSU timeout in the midst to lead 15-10. The Aggies responded with five of their own to even the set at 15 and both teams exchanged single points until NMSU regained the lead, 22-20. UTEP tied the set at 23 but a kill and a UTEP error secured the second set win for the Aggies, 25-23. 
    
 
SET THREE | UTEP took charge in the third set jumping to a 7-3 lead. The Aggies closed the deficit down to one from back-to-back kills, but the Miners extended their lead 14-9 off a 5-1 run. The Miners were first to put 20 points on the board and continued to feed off NMSU errors and a kill by Patterson to prevent an Aggie sweep, 25-17. 

SET FOUR | The Miners and Aggies put on another thrilling performance in the fourth set. With NMSU up by two, UTEP drove a 4-0 run consisting of two aces by Pustahija to regain the lead, 9-7. The Aggies moved back on top, and the Miners held on settling the score at 111, 12 and 13 to kick start another scoring run to lead, 16-13. NMSU turned the set around and leveled the score at 19, 20 and 21, but the Miners blasted three straight kills and an ace to even the match at two apiece, 25-21. 

 
SET FIVE | Sitting at two sets each, the Aggies got the jumped on the Miners in the fifth leading 7-4, before UTEP took its first timeout. NMSU stretched the lead by five, 12-7. The Miners closed in on NMSU at 12-13, but a kill and block by the Aggies locked in the match win, 15-12. 

Final Thoughts from Coach Wallis 

"We went back there and whacked the ball out all over the place from the service line and that's what cost us. We are a good serving team and we're able to push people around when we're back there doing the right things. But that cost us today. And you can't look at a box score and outscore and out-block and out-serve your opponent by whacking a bunch of balls in the net and out of bounds and into antennas. NMSU is a good enough team and big enough and physical enough. When you give them easy points, you don't make them pass serve receive, they're going to find a way to beat you. And I challenged my young group that there's going to be a need for some of these young people to step up with the discipline on how they're going to make this team be better and more efficient in practice at not giving points to the other teams so easily. We were high error all year, a lot of that was because of our youth, but it came back to bite us in this rivalry match. We've played four times and we've played 20 sets of volleyball against New Mexico State, and they earned their victory today and they deserved it. We found ways to falter. We passed it poorly, we served it poorly, even though we out aced them. And that cost us an opportunity to win a match when we should have. We've got a long way to go. I mean, we've got a lot of talent, but for us to get where we need to be the young players on this roster and the people that we will be bringing in the recruiting class are going to need to make sure they fill some of the emotional and leadership roles that are voided by Serena Patterson, who should probably go down here in this program as one of the best players to ever, to ever put on the UTEP volleyball jersey. I'm going to miss her, and Hula (Crisostomo) and Tori (Price)and I wish them well in the next step in their career." 

   
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