Blue Raiders Fall to New Mexico State 3-1

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Middle Tennessee volleyball (10-9, 4-2 SBC) dropped its first Sun Belt Conference road match with a 3-1 (12-30, 25-30, 30-24, 14-30) loss to New Mexico State (17-2, 7-0 SBC) Friday in the Pan American Center.

The Blue Raiders struggled early, as the team only registered seven kills in game one and suffered through 10 errors for a negative .94 attack percentage. New Mexico State jumped out of the gate early and quickly built a 12-4 advantage. Dara McLean broke the drought with a kill, but the Aggies were at it again with an 11-4 run that iced the Blue Raiders.

New Mexico State took game two even though the Aggies notched a .000 attack percentage. Middle Tennessee had a chance in the game thanks to three consecutive errors by New Mexico State and kills by Dara McLean and KeKe Deckard to make the score 16-15 in the Aggies favor. The Blue Raiders couldn't pull any closer and found themselves down 2-0 going into the locker room.

Middle Tennessee proved it wouldn't go down without a fight, as the team came out of the locker room swinging in game three. The Blue Raiders took advantage of 11 Aggie errors to win and extend the match.

Game four was all New Mexico State as the Aggies closed the deal on 12 kills and just two errors. The Blue Raiders had 10 kills and 10 errors in game four.

McLean and Deckard each had 12 kills in the match. The loss snaps the Blue Raiders seven-match winning streak and five-match winning streak in the Sun Belt.

Middle Tennessee continues its road swing as the Blue Raiders head to Denver, Colorado. The team takes on the Pioneers on Sunday October 17 at 12 p.m.

Friend of the Blue Raiders? Like us on Facebook and become part of the True Blue army today.