ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The University of California San Diego women's volleyball team swept previously unbeaten New Mexico Saturday to close out play at the UNM Classic tournament.

Scores of the match at The Pit, New Mexico's home venue, were 25-21, 25-23, and 25-22. UC San Diego is now 2-7 in its first season playing as an NCAA Division I program in the Big West Conference.

The Lobos dipped to 8-1 with their first loss of the young season.

Over the two-day event at UNM, the Tritons went 2-1. Friday, they defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 3-1, to earn their inaugural Division I victory. Also on Friday, they were swept by Seattle.

Libero Naya Dong and middle Ava McInnes were named to the all-tournament team.

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HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego hit .195 with 40 kills and 15 errors in 128 attack attempts. It was their second-best attack of the season. The Tritons dropped eight aces from the service line, which was a season-high.

Individually, freshman middle blocker Emily McDaniel finished with 11 kills, a .381 hitting percentage, three digs, two blocks, an ace and an assist. Outside Sabire Karacaova, also a true freshman, also had 11 kills to go along with five digs and four aces. Setter Isabela Dobra recorded her third double-double of the season with 37 assists and a team-high 19 digs. McInnes contributed eight kills, nine digs, three aces, and two blocks. Dong and Susanna Limb had 16 and 10 digs, respectively.

On the other side of the net, New Mexico got 11 kills from a pair of players as well in Kaitlynn Biassou and Avital Jaloba. Alena Moldan led all players with 22 digs.

The Lobos hit .157 with 42 kills and 20 errors in 140 swings. 

In set one, a New Mexico serve error gave UC San Diego an 11-10 lead and the Tritons stayed in front the rest of the way. The Lobos did get back to within one point late at 21-20, but the Tritons won four of the next five points to close out the set.

UC San Diego posted its best single-set hitting percentage in that first frame, putting up a .257 with 14 kills and five errors in 35 attempts.

Tied 2-2 in the second set, the Tritons took three-straight points. Two of those came from McInnes on a kill and a block. From that point, they stayed ahead until New Mexico mounted a huge 9-2 run that knotted the score at 22-22. UC San Diego responded by taking three of the next four points to go up 2-0 in the match. All three of those points came on UNM errors, two on the attack and one due to a ball handling error.

The home team came out strong in the third stanza and got out to a 6-2 advantage. UC San Diego answered with a 6-1 run to take its first lead at 8-7. However, down 9-8, the Lobos regained the momentum as they crafted an 8-3 run that put them up 16-12. With the score 21-18 in favor of UNM, UC San Diego exploded with a 6-0 spree that took the score to 24-21 and the contest to match point. During that time, Karacaova contributed a kill and three huge service aces. The Lobos got one point back but then committed another serve error that cemented the victory for the Tritons. 

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QUOTABLE FROM HEAD COACH RICCI LUYTIES
"That was a huge win for our players and their confidence. New Mexico is a good program that has been rolling over other teams. We still have a lot of areas to improve in, but I think we have the talent to make big strides this season."

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TRITON TIDBITS
• It was just the second-ever meeting between the Tritons and Lobos. The win evened the all-time series at 1-1.
• UC San Diego's 15 hitting errors were the fewest in a match this season.
• Sabire Karacaova's 15 points, 11 kills, and four aces were all season-highs for the freshman.
• UC San Diego has totaled 70 digs in each of its last two outings.
• The only UC San Diego hitting percentage this season that topped today's was .286 (63-19-154) against Tarleton State on Sept. 4.

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UP NEXT
UC San Diego stays on the road next week, traveling to San Francisco on Sept. 17 and San Jose State on Sept. 18. Those contests will be the final non-conference tilts for the Tritons before they open their first-ever Big West season on Sept. 24 at UC Santa Barbara.

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.