New Mexico State volleyball finishes historic regular season
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (BVM) — It’s been a season unlike any other for the New Mexico State women’s volleyball team.
Due to the state’s Covid-19 guidelines this past winter, the Aggies weren’t allowed to practice in Las Cruces until Jan. 19, and they didn’t play their first actual home match at the Pan American Center until March 15. And all the while, the Aggies had to battle through the uneasiness and general fatigue that comes with playing a shortened season amid an exhausting pandemic.
But despite all of that, New Mexico State still managed to make a little history. After a straight-set sweep of Chicago State on Tuesday, the Aggies finished the regular season 15-1 with the best winning percentage in program history at .938. They head into next week’s WAC Tournament as the No. 1 seed and the favorite to claim their third straight conference tourney title and a third straight NCAA Tournament berth.
“All in all we’re in a pretty good place,” NMSU head coach Mike Jordan said Wednesday during the Aggies coaches show. “If we can get some rest and prepare I think we’ve got a good shot in the tournament.”
Aside from one five-set loss at Utah Valley on March 8, which ended a 34-match winning streak against WAC opponents, NMSU has been mostly dominant this season. The Aggies are ranked No. 2 in the nation in kills per set (15.16), with five different players having racked up 120 kills or more, including WAC Preseason Player of the Year Savannah Davison, who leads the team with 175. NMSU leads the country in assists per set (14.02) with senior setter Natalie Mikels and junior setter Carly Aigner-Swesey combining for 671 assists in 16 matches.
Championship vibes ✌️
📽️: Derek Floodman#AggieUp pic.twitter.com/4BKSpSZCaM
— NM State Volleyball (@NMStateVBall) March 17, 2021
The Aggies clinched their second straight WAC regular-season title on March 16 against Tarleton St. It’s the fifth regular-season title in six years for NMSU, which will try to reach the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time under 23-year head coach Mike Jordan, who reached the 500-win milestone for his career in February.
The Aggies were originally set to host next week’s WAC Tournament before the conference announced last month that the postseason tourney would be moved to the home of the Utah Valley Wolverines. The top-seeded, two-time defending tourney champion Aggies have a bye into Friday’s semifinals where they will await the winner of the first-round match between UT Rio Grand Valley and Chicago State.
“We just go game by game and we’ll treat it really as best we can like a regular-season conference match,” Jordan said. “Everybody knows what’s on the line. What I’ll probably say to them is, ‘We’ve got two left, it’s time, we’ve worked hard we’ve trained well, let’s go do our thing and finish this.’”
