DURANGO, Colo. --- The New Mexico Highlands volleyball team rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth-and-deciding set against Fort Lewis – and like the first two games had a set point – but couldn't close it out as the Cowgirls fell 3-2 (26-24, 26-24, 21-25, 18-25, 16-14) Friday night on the road at Whalen Gymnasium.
In the first two sets the Cowgirls (5-11 overall, 3-5 RMAC) had set point at 24-23 only to drop three consecutive points to fall 26-24 in each set to fall behind the Skyhawks (2-9, 2-5) 2-0.
But NMHU didn't go away as they jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the third game – capped by a block by
Tiffany Matchett and
Stacy Johnson. The Skyhawks came back to tie the match 20-20, but the Cowgirls scored five of the next six points – punctuated by a
Camryn Nelson kill – to take the third game 25-21.
In the fourth game, NMHU turned a 6-6 tie into a 14-7 lead that was capped by kills from Johnson and Matchett to build a significant lead on Fort Lewis. The Skyhawks wouldn't get closer than five points the rest of the game as a Matchett kill from
Celina Naranjo clinched the game 25-18 and forced a fifth set.
The Cowgirls came out in the deciding game slow, falling behind 5-1 before a 5-1 NMHU run highlighted by Nelson,
Julie Staffler and
Cynthia Norris kills to tie the fifth game at 6-6. The game was tied 10-10 when the Cowgirls went on a 3-0 run with two kills from Matchett and another from Nelson to take a 13-10 lead.
Fort Lewis rallied, however, and tied the game 13-13 before a kill by Norris made it 14-13 to give the Cowgirls match point. But the Skyhawks got a kill from Haley Christiansen to tie it at 14 and back-to-back NMHU attack errors gave Fort Lewis the game 16-14 and the match.
Matchett paced the Cowgirls as she finished 27 kills and 20 digs to go along with an ace and three blocks. Norris finished with 15 kills while
Julie Staffler had 14 kills and a block.
Celina Naranjo and
Samantha Sjogren had 32 assists apiece with Sjogren adding two aces while
Elena Rivera had a team-high 35 digs and two aces.
The Cowgirls continue RMAC play 7 p.m. Saturday when they take on Adams State in Alamosa, Colorado.
