LAS VEGAS, N.M. --- The New Mexico Highlands volleyball team sent their three seniors out in style in the team's season finale – in big part due to the seniors – as the Cowgirls bounced back from dropping the first set against CSU-Pueblo and took the next three for a 3-1 (16-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-16) victory Friday night at Wilson Complex.
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NMHU seniors
Tiffany Matchett (16),
Julie Staffler (12) and
Cynthia Norris (6) combined for 34 of the team's 49 kills in the match – fitting for a trio that leads the team in kills per set.
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After dropping the first set, the Cowgirls (9-17 overall, 7-11 RMAC) jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set thanks to an ace and kill from Matchett, a kill from Staffler and a pair of CSU-Pueblo (5-22, 3-15) errors. The NMHU advantage was 10-5 before a kill from Johnson, a ThunderWolves error and a Norris kill pushed the lead to 13-5. CSU-Pueblo got as close as three points at 20-17, but NMHU ended the set on a 5-1 run capped by a Matchett kill to make the final 25-18 and even the match 1-1.
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The third set was even at 10-10 before kills by Matchett,
Bayley Willis and
Camryn Nelson and a
Trinity Saiz kill gave the Cowgirls a 14-10 advantage. The lead grew to 18-11 after back-to-back kills from Matchett as NMHU held on for a 25-21 win.
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The fourth set was tied 6-6 before a 6-0 run capped by a kill from Norris pushed the Cowgirl advantage to 12-6. The ThunderWolves wouldn't get closer than five the rest of the game as – fittingly – kills by seniors Staffler and Norris closed out the set 25-16 and the match.
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Matchett led the team with 16 kills (and a .417 hitting percentage thanks to just one error on 36 attempts) to go along with a team-high 22 digs and three aces. Staffler had 12 kills to go along with two blocks, Johnson had seven kills, Norris had six and
Bayley Willis finished with five kills and three blocks.
Celina Naranjo had a team-best 25 assists while
Samantha Sjogren added 18. Saiz finished with 17 digs while
Taley Ferrari had a team-best five blocks.
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