TULSA, Okla. – The 13-match slate of non-conference bouts comes to an end this weekend for NM State Volleyball. The Aggies wrap up a nine-day, seven-match stretch in the Sooner State with three contests at the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational. NM State is set to take on the hosting Golden Hurricane Friday morning before squaring off against Little Rock in the afternoon. The next day, Oral Roberts and former Liberty head coach Nolan Albrecht will take on the Aggies before they return home and prepare for next weekend's Conference USA opener.
 
WHAT TO KNOW
Who: NM State (7-3) at Tulsa (7-2) / vs. Little Rock (3-6) / vs. Oral Roberts (0-8)
Where: Donald W. Reynolds Center – Tulsa, Okla.
When: Friday, Sept. 19 (10:00 AM MT) and 3:00 PM MT / Saturday, Sept. 20 at 10:00 AM MT
Live Stream: ESPN+ (Tulsa match only) 
Live Statistics: nmstatesports.com/stats
All-Time Record vs. Tulsa: 1-0
Last Meeting: Tulsa 2 at NM State 3 – Sept. 19, 1997
All-Time Record vs. Little Rock: 5-4
Last Meeting: Little Rock 3 at NM State 1 – Sept. 13, 2013
All-Time Record vs. Oral Roberts: 5-2
Last Meeting: Oral Roberts 0 at NM State 3 – Sept. 11, 1992
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Aggies stormed back to take a five-set victory over New Mexico on Wednesday night. The Pan American Center crowd came out in full force to back its beloved Aggies in the Battle of I-25 as Mike Jordan's bunch avenged a loss from the night prior. UNM took a five-set heartbreaker on Tuesday in Albuquerque before the Lobos' rivalry winning streak was snapped at three. 
 
Across the 10 sets played in the midweek series, NM State combined for 23 blocks and 19 aces. While hitting just .169 in the victory, the Aggies earned their second win in a fifth set of 2025, improving to 2-1 in such contests.
 
SERVE AND PROTECT
NM State leads Conference USA in total blocks (83) and aces (78) this season. The Aggies have held six of their 10 opponents to a sub-.200 hitting percentage, doing so at a higher rate than last year's squad (16 of 33 matches). The 2024 unit also posted eight or more blocks in 16 of 33 contests. This fall's team, however, has tallied at least eight rejections in eight of 10 matches thus far.
 
At the service line, NM State has been equally as dominant. The Aggies have averaged 2.00 aces per set, up from last year's 1.30 mark. Eleven aces was the group's high-water mark in 2024, which has already been eclipsed three times this campaign. In this year's season opener against Eastern Washington, Maggie Lightheart led the way with six of her team's 15 aces. Additionally, on Saturday, she tallied seven more as part of a 14-ace night for the home team against New Haven. 
 
NOTHING LIGHTHEARTED ABOUT HER
In the early stages of her junior season, Maggie Lightheart has dominated the competition and established multiple new individual bests. At SIU, the third-year Aggie went for a career-high 17 kills and 21 digs. Twenty-four hours later, she tallied 47 attempts, landing her 18^th kill on the match-winning point and finished with a .319 hitting percentage.
 
The Las Cruces native now leads the team with 116 kills on the season after a 23-kill showing across two matches against UNM. Her 115 digs also rank highest on the team after leading the club in four of her past nine outings. 
 
Additionally, Lightheart paces Conference USA with 27 aces on the young campaign, placing her third across all of NCAA Division I. Wednesday night's five-set thrilling comeback was capped off by two straight aces from the junior. The crowd of more than 1,400 strong erupted as the Las Cruces native clinched her program's first win in the rivalry series since 2019.
 
TESS IS MORE
After a stellar high school career, Tess Fuqua left the City of Crosses to go play for Arizona. Before seeing action, she tore her ACL, missing all of the 2023 season. In the spring of 2024, she suffered the same injury once again, ruling her out for the entirety of that fall as well. The Centennial High School product decided to rehab back home, transferring to NM State ahead of Fall 2024, where she watched from the Aggie bench.
 
This past offseason, Fuqua returned to the floor for her redshirt sophomore campaign. She has started all 10 matches to begin 2025, leading her team in kills five times. Her 19 kills at SIU are the most by any Aggie in a single match this season. The Arizona transfer ranks among the squad's top three in kills (108), kills per set (2.77), digs (94), digs per set (2.41), service aces (14) and aces per set (0.36).
 
GETTING HEALTHY
Jaelynn Kohli and Makayla Martinez both recently missed time due to injury after earning spots in the starting lineup to open the fall campaign. Both Aggies made their return to the floor against UNM, with Kohli doing so on Tuesday after six matches missed. Martinez returned a day later to snap a three-match skid without seeing action. Both started on Wednesday, leading the home team to victory over its only Division I in-state rival.
 
A LONG-AWAITED DEBUT
Jacqueline Corcoran came to NM State from Augusta, Kan., during the summer of 2024. The Circle High School product geared up all offseason and played in the Crimson & White scrimmage before redshirting the rest of the season.
 
Finally, after more than a year of practice and anticipation, the second-year Aggie made her collegiate debut earlier this month. Corcoran entered all three matches at the Saluki Bash, tallying two digs, two receptions and four serves in five sets of action. This past weekend, she notched the first three kills of her career against New Haven.
 
THE FOX SAID WHAT?!
As a freshman, Mia Fox appeared in 15 sets and landed 17 kills, recording a high of four kills in a single match. Across three contests at the UC San Diego Invitational to start this season, the sophomore obliterated her previous records in nearly every category. With six kills against EWU, nine versus Northwestern and 11 at UCSD, the middle blocker set a new personal best in each outing, tallying a total of 26 kills and more than doubling her career mark. Her total led the team on the weekend while she hit a remarkable .548 en route to CUSA's best opening-weekend clip. Defensively, she also added 10 total blocks, setting a new career best twice. 
 
PERSONNEL GROWTH
The 2025 roster stands at an average of 6-foot-0, nearly an entire inch above the final 2024 edition. This fall's squad boasts six Aggies of at least six feet tall that were not active on the 2024 club, including four newcomers. Freshman Jaelynn Kohli and transfer Ezgi Duzgezen each stand at 6-foot-3 in their first year with the program. Kate Sinclair (6-foot-4) and Zoe Ziegler (6-foot-6) would each have been the tallest on last year's team, with the latter coming in as the tallest on record in program history. Peyton Castillo and Tess Fuqua were also both inactive in 2024 as they recovered from injury. 
 
CAN'T GET RID OF 'EM
Over the offseason, several familiar faces returned to the Aggie staff. Twenty-eighth year head coach Mike Jordan brought back longtime assistant Chris Hertel after a season apart in which Hertel was head coach at Radford. Chelsea Rose, a member of the 2010 Aggie squad and former director of player development, also reclaimed a spot on the bench.
 
ENDLESS OPTIONS
With 20 student-athletes, the Aggies boast the largest roster in Conference USA for the second straight season. Additionally, six setters give the Crimson & White the most in the league once again. No other league program entered the season with more than four. 
 
LOCAL PRODUCTS
Seven Aggies hail from the Land of Enchantment, including four from Las Cruces. Rilen Garcia, Maggie Lightheart, Tess Fuqua, Bella Castro, Jazlyn Vasquez, Mia Mendoza and Makayla Martinez all call the Land of Enchantment home. Mendoza (Los Lunas) and Martinez (Albuquerque) each call northern New Mexico home, coming to NM State from Los Lunas High School and Cibola High School, respectively. Jaelynn Kohli also recently graduated from Eastlake High School in El Paso, Texas.
 
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