SILVER CITY, N.M. – The final week of the regular season is here and the Western New Mexico University volleyball team will enjoy the three matches this week inside Drag's Court. Cross-state rival Eastern New Mexico University will be the first team in this Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
WNMU is 16-12 overall and 8-9 in the Lone Star Conference. The Lady Mustangs have already clinched a spot in the conference tournament next week that will take place at top-seed Angelo State. WNMU will likely be the seventh seed, but have a shot to move as high as fifth depending on results this week. They could move to sixth depending on what West Texas A&M does as the Lady Buffs are just one match ahead.
WNMU fell in a pair of four-set matches on the road despite hitting .217, forcing 51 attack errors. The Lady Mustangs also held an 18-14 edge on blocks. Outside of top performances from junior
Heather Verrill (Barstow, CA/Barstow ), freshman
Cristal Carrizoza (Phoenix, AZ/North) and senior
Shannon Rich (Folsom, CA/Folsom), junior
Kelli McGhiey (Pearl City, HI/Sacred Hearts Academy ) added 17 kills and junior
Ashley Mataele (Laie, HI/Kahuku) collected 42 digs.
Verrill tallied 17 kills with a high of 10 coming in the first match against the Lions. She hit .333 in that match with just two errors. Verrill added three blocks and accounted for 11.5 points. She averaged 2.12 kills and 2.38 blocks per set.
Carrizoza paced the offense with 38 assists, along with a kill and five digs. She came on strong in the second match of the week with 26 assists against the Pioneers. Carrizoza averaged 4.75 assists per set.
Rich sent back 12 blocks, with one coming solo. She also added 11 kills, hit .250, a service ace, two digs and accounted for 18.5 points. She tallied six blocks in both matches, with her solo block coming against the Pioneers. In that same match she came away with 10.5 points. For the week Rich averaged 1.38 kills, 1.50 blocks and 2.31 points per set.
Eastern New Mexico is 16-11 overall and 11-6 in the conference, they split this past weekend defeating Texas Woman's in four, before falling in straight sets to Texas A&M-Commerce. The Greyhounds are hitting .207 as a team while opponents are at .201.
Lauren Frye is one of the top offensive threats, not only for Eastern New Mexico, but in the conference with 468 kills and is hitting .330. Brooklyn Biel adds 319 kills and Courtney Lawson with 229. Alexis Aguirre sets the offense with 675 assists, while on defense, Lawson has 724 digs and Biel has 53 blocks.
The Greyhounds have won six of their last seven matches and they defeated the Lady Mustangs earlier this year, 3-1, back on Sep. 28.
Live video and stats will be available for the match. Following there meeting with Eastern New Mexico, the Lady Mustangs will host Tarleton State on Friday and then Angelo State on Saturday, both matches will start at 5 p.m.
