The historic spring season for the Weber State volleyball team has come to an end. The Wildcats fell to the No.1 team in the nation, the University of Wisconsin Badgers, on April 16, in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
The Badgers swept Weber State 25–17, 25–19 and 25–15. The Wildcats end their season at 19–2.
The day prior, the Wildcats won their first ever NCAA tournament match after defeating the Bowling Green University Falcon in four sets.
“This has been a great experience for not just us as a volleyball program but to raise the standard of what Big Sky volleyball is known as,” Jeremiah Larsen, Wildcats head coach, said. “I think for a long time the Big Sky has been a grossly underrated volleyball conference. I think we’re sometimes overlooked in the west, and now we have the opportunity to compete.”
In the regular season, Weber State went 15–1, 8–0 at home and 7–1 away. Northern Arizona was the only other team that handed WSU a loss this season. The Lumberjacks took the match in four sets, 3–1.
The Wildcats rolled into Omaha, Nebraska, for the NCAA tournament already with new program records under their belt.
For the first time in program history, the Wildcats won the regular season title and the Big Sky Tournament Championship. This was the program’s first ever outright regular-season title.
“This has all been a dream of mine and my teammates since we were little girls to play in the NCAA tournament,” Rylin Adams said. “We’ve been excited and humbled to compete at this level. At the beginning of this season, we weren’t guaranteed games, so we have just taken advantage of every opportunity that we’ve had.”
The Wildcats beat Northern Colorado 3–1 in the championship game. This was a rematch of the 2019 tournament championship where Weber State fell to UNC in five sets.
Weber State had four of their own be named to the Big Sky All-Conference First Team: Dani Nay, Sam Scheiss, Ashlyn Power and Rylin Adams.
Adams was also dubbed as Most Valuable Player in the Big Sky Conference and the AVCA Pacific North All-Region.
Larsen entered into his sixth season with the Wildcats and was awarded the Big Sky Coach of the Year. He is only the third coach in program history to receive this accolade.
Larsen helped the Wildcats to a second-place finish for 2019 and, after their 2020 season was postponed, pushed the Wildcats even further in 2021. WSU entered into the Big Sky tournament with the first-ever No. 1 seed.
