Senior Day Highlighted by 10th Straight Home Victory

NM State finishes 2024 home slate with four-set victory over Jax State.

Source: NMSU Athletics
Story and Photo By Matthew Knope for NMSU: Courtesy

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The NM State Volleyball program wrapped up its 2024 home slate on Saturday, taking a four-set victory over Jax State. The Aggies recognized eight graduating seniors in a post-match ceremony as they solidified and celebrated a perfect 8-0 CUSA record at home. Yasso Amin led the way with 11 kills while Darian Markham made history, becoming the first Aggie to surpass 2,000 career digs.

NM State (16-12, 10-6) moved back into a tie for third place in the Conference USA standings, widening its gap ahead of Sam Houston (8-8) as the Bearkats fell in straight sets to Western Kentucky. Both squads have clinched a spot in the eight-team CUSA Championship with just two matches left in the regular season. Kennesaw State dipped to 10-6 alongside the Aggies as the Owls suffered a four-set home defeat at the hands Middle Tennessee.

Set-by-set: NM State wins 3-1 (25-11, 27-29, 25-18, 25-21)

FIRST SET
Rilen Garcia’s third ace of the weekend quickly set up a similar start to Friday’s affair as NM State pulled ahead 5-1. At that points, Darian Markham had already amassed four digs, becoming the first Aggie to ever 2,000 for her career. Jax State would never pull closer than a 1-1 tie, while three separate Aggies put up a service ace in a dominant set. The visitors called for time down 12-5, but the margin would only swell after the stoppage, growing to as large as 14. In the opening frame, the trio of Williams, Amin and Briggs combined for 11 kills without an error on 15 swings for a hitting percentage of .733. The frame concluded with a 5-1 Aggie run to win by the same score as each of the first two games on Friday; 25-11.

SECOND SET
Jax State built a small lead off an ace at 6-5, marking its first advantage of the weekend. For the set, there were 20 ties and nine lead changes, while 46 of 56 rallies began with a tie or one-point margin. Five different Aggies contributed at least three kills, but Jax State ultimately took the frame by a score of 29-27 in what was the longest set at the Pan American Center this season.

THIRD SET
Starr Williams reached another level in the third frame, nailing five kills and no errors on eight attempts. All five of her kills came courtesy of Nellie Reese, who also finished the frame with two aces, becoming one of three Aggies with multiple aces in the win. Makayla Martinez joined in with aces on back-to-back points, prompting a timeout from Derek Schroeder as the Aggies led 19-15. Yasso Amin notched a pair of kills in short order before Williams wrapped up the set with a boom, sending her side to the final frame behind a 25-18 win. Darian Markham was exceptional from the back row as always, racking up eight of her 20 digs.

FOURTH SET
Yasso Amin found her groove in the 45^th and final set of the season from the Pan American Center. The Egypt native landed more than half of her kills on the day in set four, with five coming just 24 rallies apart. Reese, Garcia and Markham each traded three assists while the unit exchanged five leads with 11 ties mixed in. A Jax State kill appeared to bring the visitors within one late, before a successful challenge from Mike Jordan reversed the score to 20-17. The Aggies accumulated their next four points via Jax State attack errors, before Amin ended the affair with a kill to close out senior day at 25-21.

NUMBERS OF NOTE
•    Darian Markham became the first Aggie to ever amass 2,000 digs in her career, doing so with four in the first five points of the match.
•    Yasso Amin led the way with 15 kills, tallying her 13^th double-digit total of the campaign.
•    NM State finished 12-2 in the Pan American Center in 2024, with a perfect 8-0 mark in CUSA play.
•    In league action, NM State won 24 of 26 sets played at home. Over the season, just eight of 45 sets went to visiting squads.
•    For the first time since the series finale versus Sam Houston on Oct. 12, the Aggies played a match that went at least four sets. Before Saturday, NM State had played in seven straight sweeps, winning five.
•    After Jax State failed to tie or take the lead in the series opener, the two sides exchanged 36 ties and 16 lead changes on Saturday.
•    Eight days ago, NM State’s season-best ace total was seven. In its last three contests, that mark has been surpassed (nine, nine, eight).
•    Over the Aggies’ final six home matches, they combined for a team hitting percentage of .309.
•    During those six battles, their opponents combined to hit just .044.
•    The last time NM State held an opponent to zero service aces was when Seattle came up empty twice in the 2021 season.
•    NM State hit .460 as a team in the match, easily surpassing its previous 2024-best mark of .396 versus Texas Southern.
•    NM State is now 16-2 when posting a team hitting percentage of .200 or higher.

FROM THE FLOOR
Head Coach Mike Jordan, on the win: “We knew Jax State was a better team than they showed yesterday. We knew it would be a tougher match today. They played better, pushed us more and I think it was good that we had to face some tough sets. Especially at this time of year, I think it’s good for you to face some adversity. I was happy with the floor defense. I think the blocking took a step back from yesterday, as well as the service pressure. Those are things we’ll address in practice. I think Yasso [Amin] and Starr [Williams] stepped up offensively today.”

Fifth year outside hitter Mari Sharp, on what the team means to her: “I won’t remember how many times I lost or how many times I won. I’m not going to dwell on what I did bad or what I did well. I’m going to remember the girls by my side on this team for the rest of my life, because they made me into the person I am. They’ve helped me through every situation I’ve been in; when I was worried or whatever was wrong. I knew that there were a bunch of girls here that loved me and cared about me. That’s what kept me going through every single year, every single practice and every single game. I’ll never forget that, and I’ll never forget them.”

Head Coach Mike Jordan, on the 2024 squad and it’s perfect home CUSA record: “This is a class that has a lot of talent. At times, that talent has shown itself. It’s easy to see. They play well at home. Sometimes, that home energy really helps. That’s probably part of the reason we have that home success, because of the energy and the fans. The key to championship teams is providing that energy yourself, especially when you’re on the road and when you’re down. At the end of the day, you get judged here by getting to the NCAA Tournament. This group hasn’t done that yet, and that’s why I mentioned it after the match. There’s a goal here, and hopefully they’re hungry for it. I think we’re certainly capable of doing it. You just have to play well three days in a row. We’ve done it before, and this group can certainly do it.”

UP NEXT
NM State will wrap up its 2024 regular season on the road, trekking to Middle Tennessee next weekend. The Blue Raiders stand tied for fifth place at 8-8 in CUSA play. The action will begin on Friday, Nov. 15^th at 5:00 PM MT from Alumni Memorial Gymnasium. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ and available to follow via nmstatestats.com.

For complete coverage of NM State Volleyball, follow us on Twitter (@NMStateVBall), Instagram (@NMStateVBall) and like us on Facebook (NM State Volleyball). You can also follow along with Aggie Volleyball via NMStateSports.com.

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Levi Gwaltney

Levi Gwaltney is the Editor In Chief of Las Cruces Digest. The Editor makes editorial and posting decisions regarding content published on this site. In most cases, the Editor makes little if any contribution to content published, and takes no credit for the content of republished posts. If available, the source or author of posts is provided at the top of the article.