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- Left: Weber State University’s Dama Cox and Briana Wilms block a ball in the last home game of the season against Northern Colorado University.
The Weber State University women’s volleyball team played its last games of the season this past weekend in Montana. Although the team received a victory the weekend before, the Wildcats could not pull it together to end the season on a high note.
“This weekend just proved to us that we still have a lot of room to grow,” said junior outside hitter Bethany Wray. “We have a long way to go. Being a consistently good team is something we never figured out, and individually and as a unit, that will be something we strive for.”
The Wildcats lost to the University of Montana three straight sets with scores of 23-25, 22-25 and 20-25. The next night, they traveled to Montana State University and lost in four sets with scores of 21-25, 25-10, 25-17 and 27-25.
“As soon as they put pressure on us, we got timid, and our ball control went down,” said Captain Caitlin Penrod. “We could never regain our composure enough to battle back.”
At U of M, the Wildcats were led by Wray with 17 kills and Piper Whalin and Briana Wilms with six kills each. Michele Arave led the team in digs with 11. Wray also contributed eight digs.
U of M was led by Rachelle Allen with 10 kills and Nicole Barker with 13 digs. Overall, WSU had 40 kills, 22 errors and 38 digs. U of M had 43 kills, 17 errors and 35 digs. This game had 27 ties and 12 lead changes.
Wray led the Wildcats yet again with 12 kills, but this time, shared her high with teammate Dama Cox against MSU. MSU was led by Amy Roberts with 16 kills. Wray contributed 10 digs, securing her fifth double-double of the season and her team-best 19th match in double-figures. MSU came from behind in the fourth set to secure the victory.
“We were a little bit too up and down,” said Head Coach Tom Peterson. “If we would have played consistent, it would have been a different game.”
This concluded the end of Peterson’s first season as a Wildcat, and he said he could not have asked for better people to work with, including the athletes, coaches and fans.
“The team treated me like I was a good coach,” Peterson said. “It has been great working with all the people that I do.”
Just because the 2011 season is over does not mean that this is the end for this group of Wildcats. The team will continue working on getting better and improving for next season.
“This was a building year,” Penrod said “It was a fun season, and it will be nice to move forward and continue building on what we started to build this year with the same group of girls.”
Wray said she agreed that the place the team ended is a good place to end and a great place to start for next season.
“It’s not discouraging,” Wray said. “More than anything, it is a pre-telling of where we can go from here.”
