After losing its first match of the season Sunday to the Oklahoma Sooners, the volleyball team returned to its winning ways by defeating the New Mexico Lobos (8-2, 0-1), but it took all five sets to do so.

The Horned Frogs (10-1, 1-0) started off strong in the first two sets (25-16, 25-22), but lost the next two (18-25, 23-25), forcing a winner-take-all fifth set to 15.

The volleyball team came out in the fifth set with the same intensity it started with, winning the final game 15-7.

“Playing New Mexico is never an easy match – they are a great, great team,” head coach Prentice Lewis said. “It was very nice to have our first meeting with them at home.”

Lewis acknowledged her team’s hot start and how they slowed down in the third and fourth games.

“We played really well in games one and two,” Lewis said. “And then we were just a little off in games three and four, that part was a little disappointing.”

She was proud of her team to come out and get the job done after losing two tough sets.

“We came out 15-7 in the fifth and took care of business,” Lewis said. “That was the important part.”

The coach said New Mexico’s coach, Jeff Nelson, adjusted his team’s lineup after going down 2-0.

“We had no idea of knowing how they were going to rotate,” Lewis said. “We were matched up the way we wanted to be matched up in games one and two, but they were smart and they did what they should. In game three they switched their rotation. Then our match-ups weren’t the same and that is what drew the errors. But we were able to get back in our rotation for games four and five.”

Lewis got a big game from sophomore middle blocker Christy Hudson, who had 17 kills, two service aces and 20 defensive digs.

“We knew they were going to be a really good team,” Hudson said. “I just kind of felt it tonight.”

Hudson knew her team had the ability to finish what they started in the first two sets.

“We just bounced back after the third game loss and the fourth game was really close,” Hudson said. “We were pretty solid in the fifth game because we knew it was our game. When we come out strong we are pretty successful.”

Lewis said the Horned Frogs were pumped in the first two sets because it was her team’s first home game in more than two weeks.

“That is why we were so fired up and did so well in games one and two,” Lewis said.

The volleyball team is now the only team in the Mountain West Conference with an in-conference win and double-digit overall wins.

The Horned Frogs will be in action again Friday against the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.