WNMU dropped their first match against an RMAC West team Friday. Mesa State edged past the Mustangs, 3-0 (26-24, 25-23, 25-20). WNMU is now 6-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play.

Mesa State improves to 8-6 overall and 3-3 in the RMAC.

The Mustangs were forced to set the majority of their passes to the outside hitters. Angelina Pulu (Long Beach, CA, Robert A. Millikan High School) and Natali Murdock (Phoenix, AZ, Pinnacle High School) combined for 81 of the team's 135 attack attempts. Pulu led all hitters with 17 kills. Murdock finished with 12.

Three Mustangs posted double figure digs with Kassie Kagawa (Hilo, HI, Waiakea High School) leading the way (16). Alyssa Meihack (Fallon, NV, Churchill County High School) followed with 14 digs. She also handed out 31 assists.

WNMU kept things close in the first set but only led by two points once. Despite hitting .302 as a team, the Mustangs' two-point lead wasn't enough to hold off the Mavericks. Mesa took the first set, 26-24.

In the second set, WNMU jumped ahead 18-14 after back-to-back Maverick hitting errors. That was the last hitting error; however, Mesa would commit the remainder of the set. The Mustangs, on the other hand, ended the match with back-to-back errors.

It looked good for WNMU in the third set until Mesa's Haleigh Higgins went back to the service line. With the Mustangs ahead by one, 19-18, Higgins served seven consecutive points to jump ahead by five. WNMU finally got the ball back with one point to go, but a costly service error ended the match in favor of the Mavericks.

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