JACKSONVILLE – A career-best four aces by Clarke Adams was not enough for Gamecock volleyball as they suffered a tough loss on Saturday afternoon, falling in straight sets to visiting New Mexico State. The Aggie offense was a different animal in their second match at Pete Mathews Coliseum this weekend, hitting .303 and powering to a big Conference USA win.
 
"I knew they would come out more alert in the front row," head coach Derek Schroeder said. "Their advantage over us is blocking and they made things hard on our hitters. Because of that, we couldn't really find a flow, and when my team's not flowing and we're chopping the ball, it's not always good for us.
 
"To the girls' defense, I was trying to get them to step up and rage against the dying of the light and they did in that third set," Schroeder said. "They settled down the serve receive and started passing the ball to the net. We just couldn't get over the hump at the end."
 
New Mexico State (14-9, 7-5) opened up an early lead at The Pete in Saturday's showdown. A handful of blocks forced nine attack errors by the Gamecocks (5-15, 3-7) in the opening set, leading to an easy 25-13 set victory for the visitors. The second interval was closer after Jax State totaled nine kills, but 13 finishes by the Aggies helped them pull away late in a 25-20 difference. Jacksonville State led for part of the third, but in the end an experienced NMSU squad compiled a late scoring run to clinch the sweep, 25-20. 
 
Along with her four aces, Adams posted four kills and six digs against the Aggies. Kaylee Moseley had a team-best seven kills and added two digs and a block while Maddie Stayer ended up with six kills, six assists, and three blocks. Ellie Garrett finished with 16 assists and seven digs and Brooklyn Schiffli led the team with eight digs. 
 
The Aggies held advantages in hitting percentage (.303 to .054), kills (41 to 29), blocks (11 to 6), assists (37 to 25), and digs (50 to 33). Both teams had four service aces. 
 
"That's a good lesson for us this week," Schroeder said. "Two weeks ago neither I nor the team did a very good job of executing the practice plans and we got smacked around by Liberty because of it. This week we were much more focused, alert, and determined towards what we were trying to accomplish throughout the week, and as a result we had a much better weekend.
 
"I'm really proud of them," Schroeder said. "It was a week where things could have gone bad quickly after the tough stretch we've been on, but they came to fight."
 
Jacksonville State volleyball will travel to Miami, Fla., next weekend for a pair of contests at Florida International. Matches will begin at 5 p.m. CT Friday and noon Saturday. Links to watch Friday's match or follow along with live stats for either pairing will be provided at JaxStateSports.com. In addition, score updates will be posted on Jax State Volleyball's X account (@JaxStateVB).  
 
To stay up-to-date with the Gamecocks, follow their X (@JaxStateVB), Instagram (@JaxStateVB), and Facebook (Jacksonville State Volleyball) accounts.