Aggies clinch No. 3 seed for next week’s CUSA Championship in El Paso.
Source: NMSU Athletics
Story and Photo By Matthew Knope for NMSU: Courtesy
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The 2024 regular season came to a thrilling conclusion for NM State Volleyball on Saturday. The Aggies played their 30th match on the campaign in a road contest against Middle Tennessee as both sides jockeyed for positioning in next weekend’s Conference USA Championship. The match was an intense battle for nearly three hours and three sets were decided by two points and the final two went past regulation. NM State came out on top in a five-set battle behind 26 kills from Starr Williams and a 17-kill, seven-block, three-ace performance from Kacia Brown.
NM State (17-13, 11-7) finished in sole possession of third place in the Conference USA standings, after Kennesaw State (10-8) suffered a four-set loss at UTEP.
Set-by-set: NM State wins 3-2 (25-23, 21-25, 25-17, 29-31, 17-15)
FIRST SET
Kacia Brown kicked off the match with a kill and a block in a solid Aggie eight point stretch that gave her side an early 6-3 lead. Shortly after, Starr Williams made her presence felt with two kills as part of a 4-0 run that forced a Blue Raider timeout. Williams landed yet another kill alongside a Makayla Martinez ace that grew the visitors’ lead to seven points; its largest of the set at 16-9. MTSU battled back with a 5-0 burst followed by another stretch of four wins in five rallies as they drew within two points. Williams racked up eight efficient kills on just 17 swings, leading the Aggie attack. The outside hitter was supplemented by Kacia Brown’s three blocks and three kills on as many swings from the middle as the Aggies tallied 17 kills on a .235 clip. The visitors claimed their first set of the weekend by a score of 25-23.
SECOND SET
The home team roared out to a better start in set two, forcing a timeout from Mike Jordan with 10-5 on the scoreboard. The Crimson & White showed life when Kacia Brown and Makayla Martinez each recorded an ace as part of a 6-3 run that pulled them within two at 21-23. Unfortnately for the visitors, a service and attack error from closed out the set, with MTSU prevailing 25-23.
THIRD SET
Kacia Brown and Nellie Reese each posted aces in the first 10 points of the frame, but the two sides remained deadlocked at 10 points apeiece. NM State reeled off a 4-0 run kickstarted by a Nicole Briggs kill and an ace from Nellie Reese. Brown racked up three more kills including two consecutively to cap off a 6-0 Aggie burst that put the set out of reach at 22-13. Back-to-back Blue Raider aces seemed to breathe life into the squad celebrating Senior Day, but their second service error of the frame gave the Aggies a 2-1 lead by a score of 25-17. Mari Sharp joined Brown atop the team-lead with five kills in the set in addition to assisting each other on the lone block in the frame.
FOURTH SET
Saturday’s fourth stanza was the longest of the season for the Aggies, as 60 rallies were played. Two more Makayla Martinezservice aces put her side in front 9-3 as NM State appeared poised to close out the match. However, MTSU picked up six points in a seven-rally stretch that included two Aggie attack errors and a team reception error as the home side held cut the deficit to one. Shortly after, three straight Blue Raider points tied the set at 17 points apiece and prompted a timeout from NM State. With the two teams trading blows, the fourth frame entered extra time. While Martinez recorded her career-best fifth ace and Mari Sharp landed a kill twice after the 24-point mark, the Aggies wasted six match points. MTSU forced a decisive fifth set on back-to-back kills from Adri Rhoda at 31-29.
FIFTH SET
Kacia Brown quickly found three kills in tandem with Rilen Garcia’s first ace of the match as NM State pulled ahead 9-3 and burned both of Chuck Crawford’s timeouts. After trailing 13-9, MTSU ripped off five of the next six rallies and tied the match at 14 all. As the fifth set extended past its normal 15-point duration, Brown gave the Aggies match point before MTSU knotted up the set for the third time in the set and 28th time overall. Yasso Amin ended the affair for good with kills on consecutive points, claiming a 17-15 victory.
NUMBERS OF NOTE
• Starr Williams set her career high with 26 kills on Saturday, surpassing her previous high of 23 versus Saint Louis last season. The redshirt senior’s previous best this season was 17, which she matched by the media timeout of the third set.
• Makayla Martinez finished the match with five aces, setting a career high and improving her team-high mark to 28 this season.
• The true freshman now has an ace in nine of her last 10 matches, tallying 20 over that span (0.61 per set)
• Kacia Brown recorded a season high and tied her career best with 17 kills, surpassing her previous 2024 best of 12 versus LA Tech on Oct. 4.
• The redshirt senior also racked up seven blocks (tied season high), three aces and four digs in the win.
• NM State improved to 5-11 away from the Pan American Center in 2024. The win marked the Aggies’ third victory in true road contests this season.
• NM State is now 8-1 when posting a team hitting percentage of .300 or higher.
FROM THE FLOOR
Head Coach Mike Jordan, on the win: “I wish we had played this way last night. It was a good effort today on defense compared to last night when our tall people didn’t show up. Hopefully, they’ll learn the lesson that you have to give your best all the time, not just when you feel like it. We choked away the fourth set and almost did again in the fifth. We have to make plays late. Our upperclassmen have to be accountable and out-play the athletes across from them. Today, a couple of them did that.”
Redshirt junior outside hitter Starr Williams, on the win: “We really wanted to go out of the regular season with a bang. I just kept remembering that I have a job to do and I want to do as much as I can for the girls beside me. We all emphasize playing for each other and being in the moment, so I just focus on one point at a time. We spread the offense more today with our middles, which kept me open more, too. It was nice to get a win like this before the conference tournament to know we’re capable of doing what needs to be done to win.”
Redshirt senior middle blocker Kacia Brown, on the win: “Yesterday we only had one block as a team and we knew that needed to change today. We made sure we were a little faster watching routes and doing our jobs defensively. We really wanted this match, so we needed to show we can win in crunch time. We hadn’t won a fifth set this year until today. In the huddles, we were just all trying to share what we were seeing to share as much information as possible, which was important to keep everyone involved and get the win.”
UP NEXT
NM State will return to the Borderlands as the postseason begins. The Aggies have clinched the No. 3 seed in the Conference USA Championship, thus setting them up for a first-round battle against sixth-seeded Sam Houston. The tournament will be hosted by UTEP in Memorial Gym, with all the action streamed live on ESPN+ and available to follow via nmstatestats.com.
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