Volleyball News

HONOLULU, HI - The New Mexico State volleyball team placed five players on the all-Western Athletic Conference team while head coach Mike Jordan was named WAC Coach of the year as the WAC office announced the 2008 all-WAC teams, Wednesday, Nov. 19 in Honolulu, Hawai'i.

Seniors Amber Simpson (Quincy, Ill.), Krystal Torres (Las Cruces, N.M.,) and Lindsey Yon (San Antonio, Texas) join junior Krista Altermatt on the first team, while freshman Jennah DeVries (Denver, Colo.) earned a spot on the all-freshman team. Head coach Mike Jordan says this proves that his team and his support staff have worked hard all season and continue to do so.

"I'm really proud of them and they have all worked hard so they are very deserving," Jordan said. "They represent NMSU and our conference very well," Jordan said.

The WAC league offices announced today that Chris Williams is the WAC Special Teams Player of the Week and Krystal Torres is the Volleyball Player of the Week.

Chris Williams returned two kicks for 126 yard, one for a touchdown touchdown in the Aggies’ game at Fresno State. This season Chris has also returned a punt for a touchdown and his kickoff return for a touchdown is the second of his career, the other coming against Cal in 2005. This is Chris' third career POTW honor.

For Krystal Torres this is her first career POTW honor. Against Utah State Torres led all players with 11 digs to go along with four assists and one service ace. In the win over the Spartans, she finished with a match-high 16 digs, while adding three assists and an ace. She averaged 4.50 digs and 1.17 assists per set last week.

DENVER, CO - New Mexico State outside hitter Lindsay Yon has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for Oct. 13-19. This is the second WAC Player of the Week honor of the season for Yon and the third of her career.

Yon led the Aggies to two consecutive home victories, averaging 4.64 points, 3.86 kills, 2.71 digs and 0.57 service aces per set. In a 3-1 win over Boise State, she posted her seventh double-double of the year with 15 kills and 15 digs. In a dominating sweep over then third-place Idaho, she tallied 12 kills, four digs and two service aces.

The Aggies are in action on Wednesday night against I-10 rival UTEP in El Paso. The first serve is set for 7:00 p.m.

Written By: Tony Reyes, For NMSU Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State women's volleyball team has strong ties to the community. The Aggies have a strong tradition which was built because of local talent which includes three players from Las Cruces. Senior libero Krystal Torres along with sophomore outside hitter Alex Steinmetz and sophomore middle hitter Angel Tirado, represent all three different Las Cruces high schools.

Head coach Mike Jordan said he does not recruit local athlete because of where they are from but athletes that he believes helps the Aggies no matter where they grew up. Although, Jordan does acknowledge that having the local girls on the team definitely helps the fan base.

"I get emails and letters all the time telling me how great it is that we have local players that are representing the community," Jordan said. "We are a state school, so we want to have girls from New Mexico on the team."

Written By: WAC Media Relations

DENVER, CO - New Mexico State outside hitter Lindsey Yon has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for Sept. 29 - Oct. 5. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor of the season for Yon and the second of her career.

The San Antonio, Texas native averaged 6.92 points, 5.83 kills, 2.83 digs and 1.00 blocks per set while hitting .382 as she led the Aggies to a pair of road sweeps last week. The senior posted a match-high 15 kills on .407 hitting with nine digs and four blocks at San Jose State. She then had a match-high 20 kills and eight digs in a sweep of Utah State. Yon is now averaging 3.98 kills, which ranks third in the conference.

Next up for the Aggies is a rematch with #7 Hawai'i in Honolulu on Sunday.

Written By: Janessa Maxilom, NMSU Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Like pieces of a puzzle junior middle hitters Erin Birmingham and Erin Lynn have transferred to New Mexico State University to better fit their needs, and by doing so they have added their talent and abilities to our Aggies.

NMSU is proud to welcome Birmingham and Lynn to the Aggies volleyball team this season. The two talented young ladies eagerly transferred to NMSU to play for a program they both consider to be ideal.

Birmingham hails from Riverside, Mo., and attended Park Hill South High School. She was named the 2005 Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year and was also a finalist for the 2005 Wendy's High School Heisman Award.

"I love volleyball. I like the challenges and its fast pace." Birmingham said. "I like the experiences such as traveling and competing for my school."

Written by: NMSU Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The nationally ranked New Mexico State volleyball team invites all Aggie fans to come out and honor the first ever Aggie Volleyball Legends that will be inducted during the match versus No. 3 Texas at the Pan American Center, Saturday, Sept. 6 at 7:00 p.m.

The first inductees include Alane Pierce-Stutzman, who played from 1983-86, Vanessa White-Johnson, who played from 1988-91, and Maria Roth, who played from 1991-95. Head coach Mike Jordan now has a tradition of winning and knows that these student-athletes are a few of the ones who got that tradition going.

"I'm happy for the three women chosen to be inducted, they are all very deserving," Jordan said. “They represent a different period in NMSU volleyball am I'm excited that we're recognizing the contributions of some very deserving women."

The Aggie volleyball team kicked of the 2008/2009 NMSU athletic campaign last night with a 4-0 exhibition win over the Aggie Alumni. Felix Chavez of the Las Cruces Sun-News has a story on freshman setter Jenah DeVries as well as a recap of the match. Our volleyball correspondent/fanatic Mel will have more from the match either later today or early tomorrow.

Aggie track and field head coach Orin Richburg's Olympic relay teams redeemed themselves in the 4x400 relay with both the men's and women's teams bringing home gold medals and the men's team setting a new Olympic record. Congratulations to Coach Richburg and the athletes.

Finally before we get into today's links, the editor of the Abilene Reporter News has a fascinating proposal for a new 12-team football conference. He calls it a fantasy and we tend to agree with him but from a geographical standpoint it makes a ton of sense (which is also a big reason why it will never happen). He proposes a 12-team league split into two divisions. In the West he would have TCU, Tulsa, SMU, UTEP, New Mexico and New Mexico State and in the east would be Baylor, North Texas, Houston, Rice, Tulane and Louisiana Tech. A very entertaining read and we learned something as well. Apparently BYU was considered for the Big 12 (take that UTEP fans).

On to today's links...

Written by: NMSU Athletic Dept.

Also See: '08 Volleyball Schedule

DENVER, CO - After the New Mexico State volleyball team reached the Western Athletic Conference finals in 2007, it was selected to finish second in the 2008 WAC Coaches Poll, which was released Monday, July 28.

The Aggies received 57 total points and one first-place vote, as Hawai'i received all of the other first-place votes with a total of 64 points as it will try to take home its 13th straight regular-season title.

NMSU finished the 2007 season with a 26-6 record, a second-place WAC finish and made it to the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season. Head coach Mike Jordan knows what Hawai'i brings every year in the WAC and looks forward to playing them again.

Written by: NMSU Athletic Dept.

View the 2008 Volleyball Schedule

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State volleyball coach Mike Jordan announced the 2008 schedule for his team, which will include many nationally ranked teams. The Aggies will face the likes of Stanford, who lost in the 2007 national championship match, and Texas, who made it to the regional finals in the 2007 NCAA tournament and finished the season ranked No. 6 in the country.

"I think it's as tough of a non-conference schedule as there is in the country," head coach Mike Jordan said. "We'll be playing lots of perinial NCAA tournament teams and possible NCAA tournament winners in Stanford and Texas."