ALBUQUERQUE—The Arizona State Volleyball team (1-1) dropped its first true road match of the season on Friday night, falling to UNM Tournament host New Mexico (2-0), 23-25, 25-21, 27-29, 20-25, at the Johnson Center.
Up next, the Sun Devils will round out competition at the UNM Tournament, taking on Abilene Christian on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT. Live stats will be available for the match HERE.
"I think the staff has to be better," Mussie said. "We have to give our kids better information and I think we have to be better locating the ball. Walking away from this, I think the most glaring thing is our unforced errors, including 11 service errors. You can't do that when you play good teams and New Mexico is definitely a very good team. They're going to give a lot of people problems in the Mountain West and I wish them luck."
Junior Oluoma Okaro, senior Cassidy Pickrell, and sophomore Lexi MacLean each picked up 12 kills, MacLean doing so in just two and a half of the four sets.
"Lexi was impressive tonight," Mussie said. "She has been the kid that works her tail off, because she's always battling some adversity. For her to come in and hit .321 against a very, very good, physical team, was absolutely fabulous. She knows she has to be better from the service line, but that doesn't for a second take away from her ability to take big swings in tough situations."
For the second time in as many matches, sophomore setter Kylie Pickrell set a new career high in assists, recording 43 in the match against the Lobos.
Junior libero Halle Harker had 17 digs on the night, bringing her career total to 978. She aims to be the 19th Sun Devil in program history to surpass the 1000-dig mark.
Match Notes
Kills: Okaro (12), C. Pickrell (12), MacLean (12)
Attack Pct: MacLean (.321; 12K, 3E, 28TA)
Assists: K. Pickrell (43)*
*Career high
Digs: Harker (17)
Service Aces: K. Pickrell (3)
Blocks: Koonts (5BA)
Up next, the Sun Devils will round out competition at the UNM Tournament, taking on Abilene Christian on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT. Live stats will be available for the match HERE.
"I think the staff has to be better," Mussie said. "We have to give our kids better information and I think we have to be better locating the ball. Walking away from this, I think the most glaring thing is our unforced errors, including 11 service errors. You can't do that when you play good teams and New Mexico is definitely a very good team. They're going to give a lot of people problems in the Mountain West and I wish them luck."
Junior Oluoma Okaro, senior Cassidy Pickrell, and sophomore Lexi MacLean each picked up 12 kills, MacLean doing so in just two and a half of the four sets.
"Lexi was impressive tonight," Mussie said. "She has been the kid that works her tail off, because she's always battling some adversity. For her to come in and hit .321 against a very, very good, physical team, was absolutely fabulous. She knows she has to be better from the service line, but that doesn't for a second take away from her ability to take big swings in tough situations."
For the second time in as many matches, sophomore setter Kylie Pickrell set a new career high in assists, recording 43 in the match against the Lobos.
Junior libero Halle Harker had 17 digs on the night, bringing her career total to 978. She aims to be the 19th Sun Devil in program history to surpass the 1000-dig mark.
Match Notes
Kills: Okaro (12), C. Pickrell (12), MacLean (12)
Attack Pct: MacLean (.321; 12K, 3E, 28TA)
Assists: K. Pickrell (43)*
*Career high
Digs: Harker (17)
Service Aces: K. Pickrell (3)
Blocks: Koonts (5BA)