RUSTON – The Louisiana Tech defense forced New Mexico State into 23 errors, but that was not enough as the Aggies came away with a three-set victory (25-23, 25-18, 25-19) Friday night inside the Pan American Center.
 
Louisiana Tech (6-10, 0-3) got off to a slow start to the match and couldn't find an open hole in the New Mexico State (8-7, 2-1) defense. The Aggies got a 12-4 lead that forced the Bulldogs to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, Tech's defense started to step up and forced the home team into six errors, resulting in a 9-1 run for the Bulldogs to tie it up at 13 apiece. From then on, the teams were evenly matched, with the Aggies gaining an advantage on two 2-point runs to take the first set.
 
The second set continued to be a battle, with both offenses starting to pick up the hitting. The Bulldogs struck first and maintained a slight lead after a Jailen Hurley kill. However, two Tech errors followed by two kills by the Aggies gave them the lead at 9-6. A block by Rori Gray and Gabrielle Hairston cut the lead back down to 11-9, but that would be the closest the Bulldogs could get. Two points by NM State out of the media timeout put the Aggies back ahead by seven before the teams traded points to end the set.
 
Like the first set, New Mexico State jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead. The Bulldogs would not give up and gradually claw their way back into the set behind the offense of Hurley, Carla Esquer, Grace Luevanos, and Gray. With the score at 21-18, NM State would take four of the final five points for the win.
 
Gray led the Bulldogs with eight kills, followed by Bonifacio with six. Riley Steubing had a match-high 14 digs and Lauren Albrecht finished with 17 assists.
 
New Mexico State had four players in double-digit kills, led by Mari Sharp with 14. Nellie Reese and Rilen Garcia had 25 and 20 assists, respectively.
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Amber McCray
 
"New Mexico State is a really good team with offensive weapons in all six positions, so we knew tonight was going to be a huge challenge and come down to how well we could put pressure on them serving and blocking . We missed some opportunities set 1 that could have given us the upper hand while a few of their primary hitters were struggling, but unfortunately we didn't capitalize on their errors and let them get their offense back on track as the match went on. I'm proud of our passing crew for the way they handled NMSU's really tough servers and for keeping us in system most of the match. I'm also proud of our freshman Rori Gray leading us in kills with eight, while hitting a .538. There were several bright spots for us to build on and several more areas for us to clean up as we get another chance at this team tomorrow."
 
NOTABLES

• Rori Gray finished with a .538 hitting clip, marking the fifth time hitting over .400 with 10 or more attempts, the first time since September 6 against Little Rock.
• Grace Krohn's three assists gave her 100 on the season, making her the third Bulldog with over 100 assists.
• Eight different Bulldogs finished with at least one kill in the match.
• Tech dropped to 1-21 all-time against New Mexico State.

 
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State will finish the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
 
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