Aggies bounce hosting Miners; advance to second straight CUSA Championship match versus Western Kentucky.
Source: NMSU Athletics
By Matthew Knope
Photo By Matthew Knope for NMSU: Courtesy
EL PASO, TEXAS – The greatest Battle of I-10 volleyball match of all-time was played on Saturday in Memorial Gym. The Aggies and Miners clashed for the 96th occasion of the rivalry, but the first in postseason play. UTEP was not only the higher seed, but the hosts of the Conference USA Championship as the Miners welcomed NM State for the third time this season. After two disappointing outings in the regular season, the Crimson & White prevailed in a thrilling five-set comeback.
Mari Sharp was sensational once again, posting 20 kills to lead both sides in the match. Starr Williams wasn’t far behind with 18 efficient kills of her own in addition to two blocks. Darian Markham led the way from the back row once again with 19 digs, pacing both sides.
The victory sealed the Aggies’ place in the conference championship match for the second straight season. As was the case in 2023, top-seeded Western Kentucky awaits on Sunday with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line. A victory would clinch a berth in the Round of 64 for the first time since 2019.
Set-by-set: NM State wins 3-2 (22-25, 25-16, 17-25, 25-21, 15-12)
FIRST SET
Similarly to both regular-season matchups, the Miners struck first. The home crowd propelled UTEP to a quick four-point lead which swelled to 15-9 after an ace. Two more aces grew the margin to eight points before Starr Williams racked up two kills and a block during a 6-0 run that gave the Aggies life. The run would fall just short, however, as UTEP took the opening frame by a score of 25-22, due in large part to five NM State service errors.
SECOND SET
Makayla Martinez opened the second frame with her 30th ace of the season, before Kacia Brown followed suit with an ace to cap off a 4-0 run that put her side in front 10-4. In short order, Starr Williams would land kills on back-to-back points before Mari Sharpdid the exact same immediately after. NM State racked up 17 total kills in the frame and UTEP failed to cut the margin within eight points for the remainder of the second set. The Aggies knotted up the affair at one set apiece with a score of 25-16.
THIRD SET
A 7-1 lead for the Miners forced Mike Jordan into an early timeout in set three. Later, Danika Washington’s kill sealed a 5-1 burst that forced the Aggies’ second stoppage of the stanza. NM State had failed to muster a run of at least three points before the 22-12 mark, before a 4-0 run highlighted by two Bella Castro aces appeared to show signs of life. The run proved to be too little and too late, as the Miners took a two sets to one advantage by a score of 25-17.
FOURTH SET
UTEP appeared poised to end the match, before Maggie Lightheart’s electric solo block extended her side’s advantage to 6-4. Later, four Aggies scored in a five-point stretch, including another ace from Kacia Brown. A 26-rally stretch ensued in which each team claimed 13 points, while the Aggie lead fluctuated between three and zero. UTEP failed to take the lead, however, as Mari Sharp landed three straight kills to end the frame. NM State took the stanza by a score of 25-21, queuing a monumental, winner-take-all fifth set.
FIFTH SET
The two sides remained deadlocked as they traded each of the first 14 points. Sharp remained productive as she landed a kill for three of the Aggies’ first four points. Eventually, she broke the trend of exchanging points with a fourth kill to take an 8-7 lead at the break. A Starr Williams kill and Rilen Garcia ace put the visitors in front 12-9, but UTEP responded with two straight points that forced Mike Jordan into a timeout. UTEP’s first serve after the break was in the net, drawing the Aggies just two points away from victory. Rilen Garcia assisted Kacia Brown for each of NM State’s final two points as the visitors piled onto the court to celebrate a dramatic, five-set, 15-12 comeback victory.
NUMBERS OF NOTE
• Mari Sharp recorded her second straight 20-plus kill performance of the tournament, finishing with 20 kills and 10 digs.
• The fifth-year Aggie racked up her team-best seventh double-double in the win, and her second in the past three matches.
• Sharp entered the weekend with a career-high mark of 19 kills (also versus UTEP), and has already amassed 43 in just two matches.
• Starr Williams wowed with 18 kills on a .441 hitting percentage to go with two blocks.
• Yasso Amin tallied 12 kills on a .333 hitting percentage for her third straight double-digit kill total.
• The Cairo, Egypt native has now surpassed 10 or more kills in three straight matches (and four of five), tallying 63 kills since Senior Day on Nov. 9.
• 63 NM State kills were the fifth most by the program this season, and the most the team posted versus the Miners in 2024.
• After a remarkable 25-dig quarterfinal, Darian Markham paced the Aggies once again with 19 digs in the victory.
• This season, Markham finished with 46 digs in three matches against UTEP.
• With a second-set ace, Makayla Martinez became the first Aggie to reach 30 this season.
• The true freshman now has an ace in 11 of her last 12 matches, tallying 22 over that span (0.52 per set)
• NM State recorded seven service aces; tied for its fifth-best mark all season.
• Each of the team’s six best showings from the service line have come in the month of November.
• NM State improved to 7-11 away from the Pan American Center in 2024, winning its third in a row.
• Mike Jordan‘s squad is now 19-1 this season when posting a higher team hitting percentage than its opponent.
• Jordan secured his 14th season with at least two victories in the conference tournament.
• Tomorrow, the legendary 27th-year head coach will vie for his eighth conference tournament title.
FROM THE FLOOR
Head Coach Mike Jordan, on bouncing back after the first set: “We’ve been better about going for it, bringing the heat and we pretty much kept that mentality throughout the match. We started slow, like in the third set we did the same thing, but we got ourselves out of it. I’m just really proud that the team went for it and did what they were supposed to do. Good effort.”
Head Coach Mike Jordan, on the matchup with WKU: “Travis [Hudson] and I go a long way back. In 2002, they beat us in five sets, then we [NM State] won our first conference championship in 2003 in Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt and went back-to-back. Travis and I are still coaching our same teams, and now here we are a couple years in a row. It’s really interesting to see the same program in the championship all these years later, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Senior middle blocker Nicole Briggs, on the win: “It feels great. We were so excited, I mean, how we played against [UTEP] last time wasn’t great, but we wanted redemption, and we wanted it in their home gym too.
UP NEXT
NM State will take on (1) Western Kentucky tomorrow at 12:00 PM in Memorial Gym for a guaranteed spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Hilltoppers cruised by fourth-seeded Kennesaw State in their semifinal matchup immediately before the Aggies’ match. NM State will look to avenge last season’s loss to WKU in the same round and advance to its first NCAA Round of 64 since 2019. Sunday’s title match will be streamed live on ESPN+ and available to follow via nmstatestats.com.
SCOUTING THE HILLTOPPERS
Travis Hudson is in his 30th year at the helm, holding a 116-57 record in his time at Western Kentucky. On Monday, Conference USA honored him as 2024 Coach of the Year after another flawless regular season in league play. This season, the Hilltoppers have won 27 of 33 matches, including 23 in a row. With a record of 18-0, WKU claimed the league’s regular-season crown, extending its regular-season CUSA winning streak to 92 matches. Since Oct. 19, 2018, Hudson’s squad has only fallen once to any CUSA opponent; a five-set defeat at the hands of the second-seeded Rice Owls in the 2022 CUSA Championship match.
Earlier this week, WKU earned 10 All-CUSA awards, including Player of the Year Kaylee Cox. The outside hitter ranks inside CUSA’s top eight in hitting percentage (.318), kills per set (3.65), aces per set (0.42) and points per set (4.56). On Saturday, Cox tallied 10 kills, seven digs and an ace as her side coasted over Kennesaw State in three sets. In last year’s title match, the Flower Mound, Texas native posted 13 kills, 17 digs and four blocks as WKU earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in three sets over NM State.
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