Silver City, NM- Head Coach Jim Callender posts his 700th win of his career last Saturday when the Western New Mexico University volleyball team earned themselves a win against New Mexico Highlands. It was a thriller of a game that went back-and-fourth, but WNMU was able to pull it out with a win 3-2 (22-25, 25-20, 26-24, 23-25, 15-12).
WNMU (19-7, 14-4 RMAC) came out strong on their Senior Day by jumping to an early lead in the first set 11-6. This lead would not last long as the Cowgirls (7-21, 3-15 RMAC) would take the next six of seven points tying the set 12-12 and would later take the lead at 14-13 after a serving ace. Neither teams could find a comfortable lead, until finally NMHU broke open the set scoring three points in row that gave them the lead 23-20. A kill from WNMU’s own Leeta Grap cut the deficit to 23-22, but two kills in row from the Cowgirls gave them the set 25-23.
The second set started off the same as the first as Western New Mexico University took a 12-9 lead and kept things rolling. With momentum on the Mustangs side, they would go on a streak scoring six of seven points that made the score 18-12. Later in the set, Shannon Rich and Sheila Menezes for the WNMU increased their lead to 24-19 and would take the set 25-20 thanks to another Rich kill.
The third set started off closer than the other two set, when NMHU claimed a 14-10 lead after a WNMU attack error. An attack error for the Cowgirls made a tie set 15-15 but Mustang’s Taimane Passi came through with a kill giving them the lead 17-16. However, New Mexico Highlands would not go away easily as they took back the lead 22-21 after a Western New Mexico error. But the Mustang’s came together when Rich earned herself two kills in a row and gave them back the lead 24-23. WNMU would pull away and win the set 26-24 with a Grap and Passi block.
A kill coming from Grap gave the Mustangs a 10-6 lead in the fourth set but would soon vanish when the Cowgirls scored four points in a row tie the game 10-10. WNMU kept NMHU on their heels when Grap came through with another kill that gave them a lead 18-14. The game seemed to be over when the Mustangs took a lead 22-17 but out of nowhere, the Cowgirls ignited some fire by scoring the next eight of nine points which they would go on to win the set 25-23.
NMHU’s momentum rolled into the fifth set when they took an early 5-3 lead. WNMU would answer back with a kill from Rich and Taryn Schriner that tied the set 7-7 and increased their lead to 11-9 after a Highland error and anther kill from Rich. Just when the Cowgirls tied the game at 11-11, the Mustangs strung together to score the next four of five points and to win the set 15-12 after a final kill from Grap.
Through five sets, WNMU hit a percentage of .198 (67-30-187) while NMHU came in close to a .195 percentage (65-29-185).
For the Mustangs, Grap and Rich led the team in kills with a total of 36, while Melanie Hughes assisted with 25 and Chyler Imai with 35.
The Western New Mexico University volleyball team earned themselves the fifth seed in the conference tournament and will have to travel to Denver Colorado to take on fourth seed Regis University this Tuesday beginning at 7 p.m.
