Series Opener Goes to Blue Raiders

Aggies fall in straight sets to open final series of 2024 regular season.

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

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The final series of NM State Volleyball’s regular-season schedule got off to a rocky start on Friday. The Aggies visited Middle Tennessee for the opener of a two-match stint from Alumni Memorial Gymnasium in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Behind 17 kills and five digs from Adri Rhoda, the Blue Raiders took the match in straight sets as the road struggles continued for the Crimson & White.

NM State (16-13, 10-7) remained tied for third place in the Conference USA standings, alongside Kennesaw State (10-7) after the Owls fell at UTEP. Sam Houston suffered a straight-set defeat at FIU, falling to sixth place (8-9) behind MTSU (9-8).

Set-by-set: NM State loses 0-3 (23-25, 18-25, 17-25)

FIRST SET
A 4-0 run gave the Aggies a 5-1 lead early, before MTSU immediately responded with four straight points of its own. The two sides appeared ready for a long match, exchanging 15 ties and five lead changes. Adri Rhoda notched nine kills in the first set as her side racked up 19 en route to a .342 team mark. Despite hitting .414 as a unit in the opening frame, the Aggies fell by a score of 25-23.

SECOND SET
By the media timeout of the second set, Mari Sharp had already tallied 11 hyper-efficient kills, establishing herself as the first option for the visitors on the night. Meanwhile, MTSU hit .500 as a unit in frame two, landing 16 kills with just one error on 30 swings. For the visitors, six errors proved costly as MTSU did not trail for the entire frame. The home team took a 2-0 lead by a score of 25-18 due to back-to-back Aggie attack errors.

THIRD SET
The final frame was slightly more competitive, but after a 3-2 advantage, NM State failed to pull ahead for the final 35 rallies of the match. Makayla Martinez followed up a Blue Raider error with an ace that brought the Aggies within one point midway through the set. However, the effort would prove fruitless as MTSU reeled off a 6-2 run that forced a timeout from Head Coach Mike Jordan. Maggie Lightheart’s 35^th kill of the season brought her side back within two at 15-17, but the Crimson & White would fail to hold that margin. Freshman setter Andi Spies dropped in two of her six kills in the final stretches before an Aggie net violation ended the match at 25-17.

NUMBERS OF NOTE
•    NM State fell to 4-11 away from the Pan American Center this year. However, with a 2-1 neutral mark, the Aggies now stand at 2-10 in true road contests in 2024.
•    The Aggies are now 0-8 when dropping each of the first two sets of a match this season, including six sweeps.
•    Mia Fox recorded her most action in several weeks, swinging twice for as many kills.
•    Makayla Martinez recorded an ace in the second set, swelling her team-best mark to 23.
•    The true freshman now has an ace in eight of last nine matches, tallying 15 over that span (0.54 per set)
•    NM State has now played in eight sweeps in its past nine matches, with the other going four sets. Its last five set match came on Sept. 17 at Kennesaw State.
•    Rilen Garcia surpassed 1,000 career assists in the win, hitting the mark with her ninth assist of the night in the second set.
•    NM State is now 16-3 when posting a team hitting percentage of .200 or higher, suffering its first in such contests loss since Nov. 2 at Western Kentucky.
•    The Aggies set a season low with just one block. The last time the Aggies put up one or fewer was on Sept. 15, 2023 at Arizona.

FROM THE FLOOR
Head Coach Mike Jordan, on the loss: “Our block was late to the party. They [MTSU] dominated our block. It was an embarrassing effort up front by our tall people.”

UP NEXT
The Aggies and Blue Raiders will each wrap up their 2024 regular season tomorrow, Nov. 16. The Saturday action will begin at 12:00 PM MT as NM State looks to earn a series split from Alumni Memorial Gymnasium. The crucial series finale 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

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