The San Jose State volleyball team stepped up Saturday to beat New Mexico 3-1, despite redshirt junior outside hitter Latahevai Lousi sitting out with a leg injury.
The win puts SJSU at 7-12 on the season despite falling short in the first set 25-21.
SJSU held a lead throughout the majority of the first set, but when the Lobos were down 20-19 they buckled up and responded with three unanswered points to scrape by for the first win.
New Mexico never led the second set, helping the Spartans win the set 25-19.
Spartan freshman outside hitter Makayla Lewis came out firing in the second set with eight kills in just two sets on her way to a monster game.
SJSU didn’t slow down after that taking the third set 25-17 and finished the fourth set in a back-and-forth finish to overcome the Lobos attacking 27-25 to win the match.
Lewis, redshirt senior outside hitter Fernanda Vido and senior setter Kaitlynn Zdroik all had personal season highs in kills, keeping the Lobos on their heels for the majority of the match.
Zdroik’s seven kills were not only her season high, but also her career high in the category while a Spartan.
She stuffed the statsheet with another career high by putting up 46 assists in a game where no other Spartan had more
than five.
“I credit it all to our back row and our off blockers for picking up the tips, making it so I can do my job well,” Zdroik said.
Prior to Saturday’s game Zdroik’s career high in kills was one.
Head coach Jolene Shepardson said she loved seeing an unorthodox scoring position put up points.
“We are always looking for ways to score points and [Zdroik] took advantage of that,” Shepardson said. “She also did an amazing job at distributing our offense making us harder to defend, I’m really proud of her for coming into that role.”
Vido contributed vastly for the Spartans offense and kept her hot streak rolling with her season high in kills.
With Lousi out with an injury, Vido said that the team has had her back in her now-bigger role.
“It feels good, but I’m more happy about the team and how they helped me get back on track because I was struggling in the first two sets, but they really pushed me,” Vido said.
Shepardson was excited to see her outside hitter step up in her new role and has high hopes for what can come from the rest of the season.
“Vido came through for us,” Shepardson said. “She’s on fire now and we are thankful that she’s back into feeling like herself and hitting high and hard. This is a huge success for her, she can lead us to these victories.”
Despite the win, the Spartans will have their work cut out for them going into the next game against Colorado
State Thursday.
The Rams are 18-1 on the season and 8-0 in conference play and have been rolling through the competition with a 17-game winning streak.
Despite the tough matchup, Zdroik said that if everyone does their job, the Spartans can compete with the best.
“We all love each other and we all love playing with each other, but it really is the individual stuff that we need to focus on,” Zdroik said. “Being stronger as an individual helps the team as a whole.”
