By Tara Park

The Wolf Pack struggled on the road this weekend, losing to both New Mexico (3-1) on Thursday and Air Force (3-1) on Saturday.

“It was a great opportunity to go in and beat New Mexico,” said Nevada right hitter Madison Morell. “Even though it’s a hard place to win at — they have so many fans — they were struggling.”

The Wolf Pack lost its first set against the Lobos 25-14 but roared back to win the second set at 25-20. Senior Tessa Lea’ea gave the team its first lead of the match with a kill. Although New Mexico came back at one point taking the lead 21-19, Sam Willoughby retaliated with a kill. This spurred a 6-0 tear by Nevada, ending with a solo block from Lea’ea.

With the match tied 1-1, Nevada came out strong in the third set. However, the Lobos came back from losing 15-12 to gain the lead. Consecutive kills from Morell brought the Pack to 22-20, but the Lobos tied the score 22-22.

“It was frustrating because we shouldn’t have given up the lead earlier in the game to let it get to that,” Morell said.

The game went past the usual 25-point ending due to the rule that says a team must win by at least two. The set point (26-24) went to New Mexico after the referee called the ball out on Madison Foley.

“Foley hit it in bounds,” Morell said. “We felt like we got robbed.”

Wolf Pack head coach, Ruth Lawanson didn’t use the questionable call as an excuse for the loss.

“We can’t play that close on the road and allow officials to get involved,” Lawanson said.

Nevada ran out of gas in the fourth set, losing 25-17. Despite the defeat, the team had a number of standout performers. Morell received her second double-double of the season. Both Foley and Lea’ea had a game-high of 13 kills and Willoughby posted a .312 hitting percentage with two service aces for the Pack.

Nevada felt confident going into its match against Air Force, who it lost to earlier in the season (2-3).

“We knew we could win,” Morell said. “As long as we played well, we could take the game from them.”

However, Nevada didn’t play as well as planned. They went into the break down 0-2, losing the first set by seven and the second by five.

“We would play well, then make silly mistakes, give them five points and then never rebound,” Lawanson said.

Frustrated with the way the match was going, Nevada came back in the third set. Willoughby had eight kills in the set and the team won 25-18.

“We struggled in the first two sets with our communication and execution,” Willoughby said. “So the third set, we knew we could win if we went in with the mindset to fix those things.”

Nonetheless, the Falcons cruised during the fourth set, winning with a score of 25-16 to drop Nevada to 5-14 (2-9 Mountain West).

“The next step in this team’s evolution is working to get the lead,” Lawanson said. “They’re still trying to find themselves.”

The Pack finishes its toughest road swing today against the Spartans on the road and then comes home to play Fresno State Saturday in the Virginia Street Gym.

Tara Park can be reached at euribe@sagebrush.unr.edu.