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- Dama Cox blocks the ball in the game against Northern Colorado University. WSU lost to both Sacramento State University and Southern Utah University this past weekend. WSU’s last home games are this Friday and Saturday.
The Weber State University women’s volleyball team traveled to Sacramento, Calif., to take on the Sacramento State University Hornets on Friday evening. The Wildcats came up short in a tough loss of 0-3.
In the first set, the Hornets were led by Karla Beal, who had a total of 12 kills. The Hornets took the first set with a commanding lead of 25-12.
After regrouping from the first set loss, WSU had a total of eight kills led by sophomore outside hitter Briana Wilms.
Throughout the second set, the Wildcats fought from the beginning to end. With four lead changes and 12 ties in the set, the Wildcats were unable to hold off the Hornets. SSU took the set after going into extra points with a two-point lead of 27-25.
With the help from middle blocker Dama Cox, the team added a total of seven kills in Friday’s match. Also contributing to the Wildcats’ effort was Piper Wahlin, who contributed six kills and eight digs for the team.
In the third set, both teams traded points throughout the set. There were nine lead changes and 17 ties. In the end, SSU came out on top after going into extra points again with a 29-27 win over the Wildcats.
“We fought until the end and gave an effort, but just came up short,” Cox said.
This was the second time this season WSU faced SSU. With the season coming to an end, the Wildcats have a 2-22 overall record.
“Sacramento leads the conference in digs and blocks, we prepared for this, but they were able to rally during the sets,” said Head Coach Tom Peterson. “We still need to keep working hard.
WSU lost to Southern Utah University on Monday night in four sets with scores of 25-17, 25-19, 18-25 and 25-23. This was the seventh meeting between the Wildcats and the Thunderbirds, with the Wildcats taking a 5-1 advantage in previous meetings.
“The biggest mistake we made is we started too late,” Peterson said. “The first two games, we just let them come at us, and we just fought back too late. If we would have started earlier, it would have been a different game.”
In the first set against SUU, WSU had seven kills, seven assists, seven errors, eight digs and no team blocks. Bethany Wray contributed four of the seven kills in the first set. SUU had 12 kills, five errors, 11 assists, 11 digs and one team block. SUU’s Kylie Schofield contributed the high of four kills for the Thunderbirds.
The Wildcats had a positive hitting percentage with .026. The teams changed leads twice as the Wildcats took an early lead and lost it within the final points. SUU also out-blocked WSU in the second set, four to one.
The team had a much better blocking performance in the third set, with four blocks to SUU’s five. By the third set, Wray had upped her kills by 10, having a total of 14.
The fourth set was close for the Wildcats. The team trailed the entire set until they tied. SUU pulled ahead and won the set 25-23.
At the end of the match, SUU had 43 kills, 20 errors, 38 assists, six serving aces, 42 digs and 16 team blocks. WSU had 49 kills, 29 errors, 44 assists, seven serving aces, 36 digs and nine team blocks.
“We are a really strong blocking team, and that was not there tonight either,” Whalin said. “Our blocking usually gets us through these tough games, and it was not there to help at all.”
The Wildcats return to the Swenson Gym this weekend for the final home games of this season against Northern Arizona University and Northern Colorado University.
