The Aggie volleyball team used a dominating performance by Kayleigh Giddens who finished with a match-high 20 kills to cruise to their 17th consecutive victory over the Spartans and improve to 3-1 in the WAC and 9-9 overall. The Aggies easily won the first two sets 25-13 and 25-14 and held off the Spartans 25-20 in the third set for the sweep.

The Aggies trailed early in set one 5-3 but turned on the afterburners tying the set at 7-7 and winning seven of the next six of the next seven points to take a 13-8 lead. After a Kayleigh Giddens attack was blocked by San Jose State's Sarah McAtee and Alex Akana to cut the Aggies' lead to 15-10, New Mexico State would go on a 7-0 run fueled by Kayleigh Giddens and Whitney Woods behind tough serving by setter Jennah DeVries.

Giddens would record two kills and a solo block while Woods would get a kill and a block along with freshman middle blocker Desiree Scott. DeVries' strong service was highlighted with a service ace during the run. The Aggies would finish off the set winning 25-13 when SJSU's Caitlin Andre committed a service error.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie volleyball team played even with visiting Arizona through the first two sets before running out of steam and falling in four sets 25-20, 23-25, 16-25, 17-25. The Aggies were led by a team high 16 kills from outside hitter Kayleigh Giddens. The Aggies held Arizona outside hitter Tiffany Owens to a .280 hitting percentage as Owens finished with 20 kills on 50 swings with six attack errors.

Arizona jumped out to a 3-1 lead on the Aggies but the Aggies would hang tough with the Cats and claimed their first lead of the set at 11-10. With the set tied 11-11, the Aggies would get kills by Whitney Woods and Amanda Tonga along with an attack error by Arizona's Cursty Jackson to jump to a three point lead at 14-11. The Aggies would extend their lead to four at 18-14 after a kill by Kelsey Brennan. The Aggies would still lead by four at 22-18 after another kill by Kelsey Brennan and would close out the set at 25-20 on an attack error by Arizona's Whitney Dosty.

The second set saw Arizona again jump out to a 3-1 lead early. The Aggies would trail by three points at 12-9 after a service ace by Courtney Karst. The Aggies would trim the Arizona lead to one at 13-12 on an attack error by Arizona's Paige Webber and would tie the set at 15-15 on a kill by Kayleigh Giddens. Arizona would go on a 5-1 run to take a 20-16 lead in the set forcing an Aggie timeout. Out of the timeout Arizona's Cursty Jackson would get a kill putting the Aggies down 21-16 and forcing another timeout by the Aggies. The Aggies would respond and trim the Arizona lead to just one at 22-21 on three consecutive kills from Desiree Scott, Amanda Tonga and Kayleigh Giddens. A kill from Tiffany Owens would give Arizona a 23-21 lead but the Aggies would respond with a kill by Whitney Woods to cut the lead back to one at 23-22. After a service error by Rocio Gutierrez gave the Wildcats a 24-22 lead, Amanda Tonga and Kelsey Brennan combined to block a Whitney Dosty attack cutting the lead back to one at 24-23. However, the Wildcats would close the set out on a kill from Tiffany Owens to take the set 25-23 tying the match at one set apiece.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie volleyball was swept 3-0 by the visiting No. 6 Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine on Wednesday night in the Pan American Center. The Aggies played close with the Wahine in the first set before Hawai'i pulled away winning the first set 25-16. The Wahine would win the next two sets by identical scores of 25-14. Hawai'i sophomore middle blocker Brittany Hewitt dominated the Aggies finishing with 11 kills on 12 swings hitting .917 breaking the Hawai'i school record for hitting percentage of .867. Hewitt also caused problems for the Aggie blockers as she finished with five block assists as the Aggies were outblocked 7-0. "Give Hawai'i all the credit in the world, they're doing what they need to do. Just 10 attack errors in three games, we didn't block a dang ball the whole time." said head coach Mike Jordan after the match.

The Aggies started off strong against the Wahine as they lead early 5-4 after a kill by freshman outside hitter Amanda Tonga. The two teams would trade the lead back and forth with Hawai'i holding a slim 11-0 lead after a kill by Whitney Woods. The Wahine would go ahead 15-12 on a service error by freshman Rocio Gutierrez but the Aggies would pull to within two at 15-13 on a kill by Kayleigh Giddens. The Wahine took a four point lead at 18-14 on a kill from Kanani Danielson but the Aggies would respond by cutting the lead to two points at 18-16 on a kill by Whitney Woods and an attack error from Kanani Danielson. However, the Wahine would buckle down and score the set's final seven points to take a 25-16 set victory.

"We played really well in the beginning of games for the most part except for game three and were point for point for a little while and then they'd go on a run and we'd cave in," said Coach Jordan.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State volleyball continues its winning ways with Louisiana Tech by sweeping the Techsters at the Pan American Center, Saturday, Sept. 25.

NM State started strong in the first set scoring five consecutive points bringing the Aggies to a 13-6 lead. The Aggies continued their lead with senior outside hitter Kayleigh Giddens posting three consecutive kills for the Aggies totaling 10 for the set.

The Aggies ended the first set 25-18 with the kill by Giddens.

NM State started slow in the second set trailing LA Tech 8-4.  The Aggies took that as a challenge gaining momentum and catching up to the visitors 10-10 with junior middle hitter Michelle Kuester driving that momentum with the kill pushing the Aggies ahead 14-12.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie volleyball team ended their six match losing streak defeating Louisiana Tech 3-0 on Thursday night. The Aggies have won 12 straight matches against the Lady Techsters and start off WAC play with a victory for the fifth consecutive season.

Kayleigh Giddens finished with a match-high 24 kills on 42 attacks with just four hitting errors hitting .476 for the match. Junior middle blocker Kelsey Brennan returned to action after missing the last match with an ankle injury and finished with eight kills.

The Aggies and Lady Techsters battled closely in the first set with the Aggies leading 14-11 midway through. Louisiana Tech took a three point lead at 20-17 but the Aggies would rally to take the set 25-23.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Starting three freshmen against a veteran Arizona team on Saturday afternoon, the Aggies would come up short falling in three sets to the host Wildcats, 25-18, 25-19 and 26-24. The Aggies would battle closely with the Wildcats in the first two sets before Arizona would pull away in the later stages of each set. The Aggies led by two points at 23-21 in set three but could not overcome the Wildcats. "We had three freshmen out there, sometimes four against a good Pac-10 team, that's difficult right now but there was definitely some competition," said head coach Mike Jordan after the match.

The Aggie defense had no answer for Arizona's Tiffany Owens who finished the match with a match-high 22 kills on 30 swings with just one attack error and an astounding .700 hitting percentage on the left side. She added 12 digs and a service ace. "We didn't play very good defense in the first game, it was close for a long time but we didn't capitalize on some defensive opportunities," said Coach Jordan.

The Aggies' freshman middle blocker Desire Scott, playing in place of injured junior Kelsey Brennan, finished with nine kills on 11 swings and committed no hitting errors for an .818 hitting percentage.

It was the sixth loss in a row for the Aggies, their longest losing steak since losing six in a row in the 1999 season, head coach Mike Jordan's second season at the helm.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie volleyball team was swept on Friday night by Texas State 3-0 as the Aggies lost set one in extra points 26-24 then lost set two by an identical score of 26-24 before falling in set three 25-20. It's the second time the Aggies have been swept this season both times coming in the second match of a tournament.

Kayleigh Giddens led all players with 23 kills on 40 swings and committed just six attack errors hitting .425 on the match and the Aggies hit .311 for the match and the Aggies struggled at the service line both receiving serve and serving as the Bobcats would record 10 service aces and the Aggies would commit 12 service errors.

The Aggies fell behind early 6-3 in the first set but rallied to tie the set 7-7 after back-to-back service aces by Rocio Gutierrez. A service ace by Ellen Miks gave the Aggies a 9-8 lead, however, the Bobcats would score four straight points to go ahead 12-9 and forcing the Aggies to call a timeout.

Out of the timeout Aggie setter Jennah DeVries recorded a solo block against Texas State's Mo Middleton to trim the deficit to 12-10. The Aggies would fall behind by four points at 17-13 as a Whitney Woods attack would get blocked back by Preslie Alexander and Ashlee Hilbun. Texas State would extend their lead to five points at 19-14 forcing another Aggie timeout. Kayleigh Giddens would come alive after the timeout scoring four of the next five Aggie points to draw the Aggies even with the Bobcats at 19-19.   Continue Reading This Post >>