New Mexico
No. 14 Jackets bounce back for wins over New Mexico State and Coastal Carolina
Jack here, this is not me doing the recap, but instead is our newest staff writer, my dear friend and partner in crime during our Technique days, Will Fuss. Fuss is a Tech BSIE graduate in the class of 2023 who worked as the Sports Staff Writer (Fall ‘20), Sports Editor (Spring ‘21-Fall’22), and Paper Boy (Spring ‘23) for the Technique while in school. They have covered every Tech varsity sport and have been a Tech fan for 23 years and grew up in the Atlanta area. Fuss will have his byline properly listed once we get his account sorted out!
Following a tough loss to a talented UCLA squad, Georgia Tech Volleyball handled business against their remaining GT Invitational foes by dispatching New Mexico State in four sets and a dominant sweep over Coastal Carolina. The Jackets move to 2-1 on the season and hold onto a No. 19 ranking as UCLA sneaks into the top 25.
Head coach Michelle Collier moved one win shy of 200 on the weekend, and will become the second Jacket volleyball skipper to reach the threshold. O’Keefe Gymnasium continues to fill up for every home tilt, as the sellout streak hit 30 games against the Aggies on Sunday afternoon.
Tech played efficient games to dispatch New Mexico State and Coastal Carolina, hitting .367 against the Aggies and completing the sweep against the Chanticleers by an average score of 25-18. Larissa Mendes totaled 31 kills, including 23 against New Mexico State (her career high), and Tamara Otene and Bianca Bertolino recorded double-doubles on Sunday and Monday respectively.
Sunday, September 1: 3-1 Win over New Mexico State
The Jackets dominated three of four sets against the Aggies, winning sets one, two, and four by scores of 25-13, 25-12, and 25-11. New Mexico state took the third set 25-21 on a hyper efficient .500 hitting percentage that included 10 kills by Starr Williams alone and only two attacking errors.
Tech played a shallow bench, with only nine players seeing action and the starters playing every point in the fourth set. Mendes and DeAndra Pierce each had eight-plus kills on a .500 or greater hitting percentage, including a career-high 23 kills by Mendes.
Otene had the game’s only double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs, while Bertolino’s nine kills and 16 digs left her just shy of the double-double mark. Luanna Emiliano recorded 43 assists, Sofia Velez had 16 digs, and Liv Mogridge had an efficient eight kills along with three of the team’s 10 blocks.
Monday, September 2: 3-0 Win over Coastal Carolina
Tech rounded out the weekend with a sweep over Coastal Carolina, holding the visitors to a .055 hitting percentage on the day. The Institute squeezed out a close first set win, 25-23, before more comfortable results of 25-12 and 25-19 for the win.
Only one Chanticleer, Jalyn Stout, had more than two kills with a positive hitting percentage, as her nine kills and two aces paced the visitors. Velez and Otene had 15 and 12 digs respectively as the Jackets benefited from clean receptions and 33 combined attacking and service errors by the Chanticleers.
Bertolino paced the Jackets offensively with 10 kills and added 11 digs for her second double-double of the year. Mogridge and Pierce both tallied at least five kills without an error, and Pierce had a game-high five blocks.
Takeaways
Bounce back: After dropping a close opener against a good UCLA team, Tech used the day off to reset and soundly defeat their remaining weekend slate. The sweep of Coastal Carolina was a strong finish to the weekend, but the team may have played even better against the Aggies besides the dropped third set.
Short leash: While the first two sets against New Mexico State were 25-13 wins, the third set loss spurred Collier into cutting out the bench entirely. Her trust paid off with a 25-11 final set win, but the Jackets will need more reliability from the reserves against the nation’s top teams.
Next Up
Tech travels to Provo to face Lipscomb and BYU on September 6 and 7. BYU is ranked No. 14 after a 3-0 start, and will be the Jackets’ first big road test. Each match will get underway at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Grant’s Thursday Evening Forecast
Showers and thunderstorms will continue in eastern New Mexico tonight into Friday. Breezy winds will bring an elevated fire danger in the western half of the state.
Thunderstorms are firing up Thursday afternoon along and east of New Mexico’s central mountain chain while gusty south winds over 30 mph are driving an elevated fire danger across western parts of the state. Storms will continue spreading across eastern New Mexico through this evening, bringing locally heavy rainfall, lightning, small hail, and gusty winds. The winds will weaken later tonight, but showers and thunderstorms will keep going across eastern New Mexico overnight into early Friday morning.
A few spotty storms will redevelop Friday afternoon across eastern New Mexico, with a couple near the Texas state line capable of turning strong to severe. At the same time, breezy southwest winds will ramp back up across western New Mexico, with gusts over 35 mph creating another round of elevated fire danger. Storms will push east out of New Mexico Friday evening while winds gradually ease overnight.
Quieter and drier weather takes over this weekend. Temperatures Saturday afternoon will cool a few degrees but still stay near average for late May. Breezy afternoon winds will continue Saturday before lighter winds and warmer temperatures return Sunday.
Moisture will start building back into eastern New Mexico Monday, bringing a slight chance for thunderstorms near the Texas state line. Monday will also be the hottest day of the warming trend statewide. More moisture spreads into the eastern half of the state Tuesday, increasing storm chances along and east of the Rio Grande Valley by afternoon. Even deeper moisture arrives statewide by Wednesday and Thursday, fueling more widespread showers and thunderstorms through the middle of next week.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Skies are partly to mostly clear with most similar or slightly milder than yesterday. Winds are a little breezy occasionally with the highest humidity values mostly from out east and to the north.
Air temperatures in the north are mostly starting off in the 30s to the low 50s. Elsewhere to the south, air temperatures are mostly ranging from around the high 30s to the low 60s.
Many areas from eastern New Mexico to the Pecos River Valley area will range from the high 60s to the 80s from north to south from high to low elevation. The northern higher elevations will mostly range from the high 40s to near 60°, while the northern valley floors to western and central areas will mostly range from the high 70s to the low 90s.
Southerly upper-level winds, in combination to the low-level moisture still lingering around the northern high elevations to out east, will lead to few thunderstorms capable of producing brief bouts of heavy rain, small hail, some lightning, & gusty conditions.
Ridging in the jet stream will then allow for clearer conditions, drier air, and for temperatures to rebound for the remainder of the week. However, slightly more thunderstorms will form for some eastern and mountainous areas late in the week, resulting in outflow-southeasterly winds to occasionally pick up.
Even hotter air returns late this weekend into early next week before thunderstorms are more likely to form next week.
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