The Aggie volleyball team opened up the 2010 home schedule with an easy 3-0 sweep of visiting Cal State-Bakersfield on Wednesday night. The Aggies never trailed in the match and were never threatened in any of the sets as they won handily 25-13 in set one, 25-14 in set two and 25-11 in set three. Kelsey Brennan and Kayleigh Giddens overpowered the Roadrunner defense as Brennan hit .727 on the evening with nine kills on 11 swings with just one hitting error.

Giddens had a match-high 11 kills on 25 swings with just three attack errors to finish with a .308 hitting percentage. "We definitely took good swings, quality of swing in transition was really important for us," said head coach Mike Jordan. "Those long rallies, you want the level of play to stay high and not break down and we did a pretty good job of that."

The first serve of the night was a harbinger of things to come as Aggie junior setter Jennah DeVries served up an ace to start the match. It was all downhill from there for the Roadrunners as the Aggies would jump to a quick 3-0 lead. The Aggies gave Bakersfield three of the next four points as they would be called in the net twice followed by a service error by Kayleigh Giddens cutting the Aggies' lead to 4-3. However, the Aggies would quickly distance themselves from the Roadrunners reeling off five consecutive points including kills by Desiree Scott, Kelsey Brennan, a service ace from Ellen Miks and a double block by Rocio Gutierrez and Kelsey Brennan.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The New Mexico State volleyball team picked up its first sweep of the season as they defeated Florida A&M 3-0 in the final match of the FSU Invite. The Aggies won the first set 25-15, the second set 25-17 and the third set 25-20 to improve to 2-1 on the season. Kayleigh Giddens led the team with 19 kills and posted a .536 hitting percentage for the match. The Aggies, who struggled on serve receive against No. 15 Florida State, were much better against Florida A&M. " I think the thing I was most pleased with was the way we passed serve receive," said head coach Mike Jordan. "We got challenged again at the service line today, not quite as tough Florida State's serves but we responded well." He added, "We passed the ball real well and made Jennah's job easy."

The Aggies won the first two sets handily and never trailed at any point during the two set victories. Florida A&M challenged the Aggies in the third set but the Aggies rose to the occasion. Coach Jordan told his team in the locker room after the match "You have to be patient and have to keep competing when teams rise to the challenge and make it tight."

Aggies freshman Desiree Scott got the first kill of the match for the Aggies as they took an early 1-0 lead. After an attack error by Scott tied the match at 1-1, the Aggies would go on a 5-0 run to push their lead to 6-1 and forcing a Rattler timeout. Coming out of the timeout the Rattlers would stop the Aggie run with a kill from Katherine Huanec, however, back to back attack errors by Huanec gave the Aggies an 8-2 lead. The Aggies would extend the lead to 11-4 on another kill by Desiree Scott prompting another Florida A&M timeout. After the timeout, the Rattlers would cut the Aggies' lead to five points at 11-6, however, the Aggies would respond with a 7-1 run to push their lead to a commanding 11 points at 18-7. During the run five different Aggies would record kills and sophomore Ellen Miks would record a service ace.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Playing in their second match of the day at the FSU Invite the New Mexico State Aggie volleyball team lost 3-1 to tournament host No. 15 Florida State. The Aggies lost the first set 25-16 but rallied to win set two 28-26 before losing sets three and four 25-16 and 25-10 respectively. Kayleigh Giddens finished with a team-high 14 kills with seven attack errors for a .219 hitting percentage. She also added nine digs. Florida State's Visnja Djurdjevic led all players with 17 kills on 33 swings with just two attack errors and recorded 12 digs.

For the second consecutive match the Aggies dropped the first set, losing 25-16 as they gave up a pair of big runs to the Seminoles. The Aggies struggled with their passing serve receive. "They just put a ton of pressure on us and we just passed it bad for the majority of the match," said head coach Mike Jordan. The two teams traded the lead early as the Aggies held a 2-1 advantage before the Seminoles answered to take a 4-2 lead. The Aggies would score three in a row behind a kill by Whitney Woods and a pair of attack errors by the Seminoles to take a 5-4 lead. With the set tied 6-6, Florida State would go on a 7-0 run to grab a 13-6 lead. The Aggies responded with three points in a row to cut the lead to 13-9, however, Florida State would answer back with an 8-2 run to take a 21-11 lead. The Aggies would once again run off three points in a row to cut the Seminoles' lead to 21-14 but the lead would prove to be too much for the Aggies to overcome as Florida State would close out the set 25-16.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The New Mexico State volleyball team kicked off the 2010 season with a 3-1 victory over defending Sun Belt Conference champion Florida International at the FSU Invitational on Friday afternoon behind a match high 18 kills from Kayleigh Giddens. The Aggies dropped the first set 25-20 before rallying to win set two 26-24, set three 25-22 and set four 25-23. "We were a little nervous but the good news is we got good leadership out of our four All-WAC kids and they stepped up and made a lot of plays," said head coach Mike Jordan. "Once we started to relax we had some really good moments." With the victory the Aggies improve to 1-0 on the young season while FIU drops to 0-1.

The first set saw both teams battle back and forth trading points early on. New Mexico State held a 12-9 lead after kill by senior right-side attacker Whitney Woods, however, FIU would win three of the next four points to tie the set at 13 points apiece. The Aggies would once again take the lead at 17-15 after a kill by Kayleigh Giddens. The Panthers would respond winning seven of the next eight points to take a 22-18 lead prompting Aggie head coach Mike Jordan to call a timeout. The Aggies would score a point out of the timeout to cut FIU's lead to 22-19, however, a kill by FIU's Jessica Gehrke put FIU up 23-19. The set would end on an attack error by Aggie freshman Rocio Gutierrez giving FIU the first set 25-20. The Aggies hit just .029 in the first set with 13 kills but 12 attack errors while FIU hit .231 getting just seven kills but committing just one attack error.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State volleyball team swept the Alumni in the Annual Alumni Match at the Pan American Center, Saturday, Aug. 21.

Led by senior outside hitter Kayleigh Giddens, who posted 20 kills, the Aggies were able to pull away from the Alums to get the sweep. Head coach Mike Jordan was pleas with the challenge the alumni presented and got a feel of where his team stands.

"I was pleased with a lot of things we did tonight and alumni played great, hitting very few errors, which put a lot of pressure on us," Jordan said. "The veterans played well and did a good job of leading when the games were close. We got a lot of young players on the team, but they did well for us tonight."  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie volleyball ventured to Fort Collins, Colo. looking for a statement victory. The Aggies left Fort Collins with exactly that. After falling to No. 3 Hawai'i in three in the WAC Tournament championship finals on Wednesday night, the Aggies rebounded for an impressive 3-1 victory over No. 23 Colorado State to give themselves a much needed marquee victory and a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies recorded 19 kills in set one but attack eight errors allowed Colorado State to take the first set 25-21. The Aggies jumped out to a 24-14 set two lead but had to hold off a furious CSU rally as the Rams closed to within one at 24-23. The Aggies took set two 25-23 after CSU committed an attack error on the Aggies' 9th match point.  Continue Reading This Post >>