Photo Credit: Milo Wilson
Owls volleyball fell to New Mexico State 3-0 on Saturday afternoon to split the two match series at home at the Convocation Center.
Despite the score, the Owls were within reach of a win the entire match, losing the second and third set by only two points.
“When we got up 18-13 there in set two and then made a run of bad plays and hesitation plays, that’s where that moment in that match hurt us,” Owls coach Keith Schunzel said. “You’re up five points late like that, you got to finish that set through.”
Junior outside hitter Manu Johnsen totaled a game leading 13 kills, while redshirt sophomore middle blocker Olivia Burrage and junior outside/right-side hitter Maggie Butkovich contributed six kills each.
Johnsen also tied a game high three blocks for the Owls with freshman middle blocker Ava Garner. Burrage also contributed two blocks to help the Owls outpace the Aggies in total blocks for the game, 8-3.
Freshman setter Kaeley Walz had a game leading 18 assists for the Owls, with redshirt sophomore Kourtney Brown also contributing 12 assists.
Junior defensive specialist Leah Freeman and junior outside hitter Caroline Chastang each totaled double-digit digs for the Owls with 15 and 10, respectively. Johnsen also contributed seven kills for the Owls, capping off a strong overall game in multiple categories.
Despite the outcome of this game, this series will go down in Owls Athletics history. On Friday night, Owls volleyball beat the Aggies in a five set game, which was the first win for any Owls sports team as the newest member of Conference USA.
“I thought a lot about our alums, I thought a lot about all the people that have poured into our program,” Schunzel said. “I’m really proud of what we’ve built, so in a selfish way, I’m really glad volleyball was the team to win the first Conference USA game. I think we’ve been one of the, if not the, bellwethers of this department for the last decade – for us to have that in the record books and for it to be volleyball, that’s pretty special.”
The Owls now see themselves with a 4-9 record as they will see exclusively C-USA opponents for the rest of the season. This stretch will start with a road trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky as the Owls face Western Kentucky for a two game series on Oct. 4 and 5.
“The focus for us since we checked in, in August, has just been growth,” Schunzel said. “We have seven new players and we lost almost an entire starting lineup, so for us, it’s (about) are we continuing to grow – we’re going to go in fighting our brains out and thinking we’re going to go in and win both, but the main thing is (that) I want to see us keep growing and we took definite steps forward this weekend and that was cool.”
