By Madyson Montoya – Staff Writer
San Jose State’s volleyball team (6-7, 1-3 MW) hits the road this week to continue conference play against UNLV (11-5, 2-2 MW) and New Mexico (9-7, 3-1 MW).
The Spartans will face the Rebels for their first match of the week on Thursday. The Rebels are currently tied for fifth place in the Mountain West, whereas the Spartans are tied for eighth.
SJSU beat UNLV in last year’s match, but the Rebels have a longer history of beating the Spartans.
The Spartans are coming off some good momentum after ending their 14-match losing streak against Boise State last Saturday, and will be looking to keep that streak going.
The Lobos are going to be a tough opponent for the Spartans on Saturday as they are tied for second place in the MW.
UNM is coming off a week of wins, but have to face Nevada before SJSU. Nevada is tied with SJSU in conference rankings, so that match should determine how New Mexico will go into its match with SJSU.
The Spartans have only won two matches in the previous 10 meetings, and the last time they beat the Lobos on their home court was back in 1998.
The team has had a rough start, but SJSU is consistently improving in each match.
Senior Luiza Andrade is currently ranked 10th in aces per set and 39th in service aces in the nation.
Redshirt sophomore Latahevai Lousi returned to the court last week, leading the team in kills. Lousi also got a career best of 22 kills.
The Spartans are on their way up, so look out for the improvement being made this week.
The UNLV match is at 6 p.m. in Las Vegas on Thursday. The Spartans will then head to New Mexico to take on the Lobos at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
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