by Sun-news reports,
(Palo Alto, CA) – New Mexico State’s 19-match win streak ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 8 Stanford beat the Aggies 25-20, 25-13, 25-17 on Thursday to advance to a second-round match against Loyola Marymount after Loyola’s four-set victory over Colorado State.
“This was a fun team to coach,” Aggies coach Mike Jordan said. “I think we were underrated all year long nationally. I’m just disappointed that the NCAA does not seed the volleyball tournament like they do the basketball tournament. If you were to seed the volleyball tournament No. 1 through No. 64, I think this team could win a couple matches. It’s one of my better teams and I’m proud of them.”
The Aggies finished the season 28-6 after going 14-0 in Western Athletic Conference play and winning the regular season and tournament championship.
“Stanford has a high skill level and they are a veteran team,” Jordan said. “I knew it would be tough to stop them and our only hope would be to side out with them and we were able to do it in the first and third sets but we couldn’t stop them.”
Gwen Murphy led the Aggies with nine kills, Andrea Tauai had seven kills and Bradley Nash (Navajo Nation) had six kills. NMSU hit .133 for the match with 31 kills, season low marks for the Aggies.
Stanford hit .415 led by Merete Lutz and Hayley Hodson who each finished with 13 kills. Brittany Howard added 12 kills.
Murphy kills tied the third set at 10-10 and 11-11. After a Sasha-Lee Thomas kill made it 12-12 and a Stanford service error made it 13-13, Stanford finished the match on a 12-4 run.
Stanford outscored NMSU 10-2 to end the first set after four Aggies service aces kept the first set close.
“I was happy with our serving for the most part,” Jordan said. “But at one point in the second set we missed three of five serves but for the most part, the serve and pass game was pretty competitive.”
