After a tough three loss road trip, Weber State University women’s volleyball returned to Swenson Gym hoping to get back in the win column against a struggling Portland State University team.
“Home sweet home,” Head Coach Jeremiah Larsen said. “We can’t get any better than playing in front of a nice crowd at the Swenson.”
As exciting as the return home was, the Wildcats were even more excited to get back outside hitter Ashley Gneiting after her season nearly ended due to undergoing surgery on her left hand.
“At one point, Ashley was done,” Larsen said. “She hurt herself against Idaho. It was said that her recovery was going to take about 6-7 weeks. And then the doctor said, ‘Go for it.’ So it went from being a dire situation where her career was ended to now playing.”
Larsen said the Wildcats are “a different volleyball team when Ashley Gneiting plays.”
Gneithing’s kill helped clinch the first two sets against Portland, both ending 25–17, to take a 2–0 match lead.
The Vikings would put up a fight in the third set. They took a 24–23 lead off of a Rose Moore attack error, but Moore made up for it with two kills, along with a Marly Pratt service ace, to take the set 26–24, and the match 3–0.
To add to the good feelings, Gneiting said playing “wasn’t painful at all.”
However, those good feelings didn’t last against California State University, Sacramento.
The Hornets beat the Wildcats in California in late September, 3–0, and were riding a four-game winning streak going into Saturday’s game.
From the first set on, Weber State looked off balance. Sac State capitalized on a few dink shots and eight Weber errors, ultimately taking the first set 25–16. Larsen was well aware of the issues his team forced on itself, saying, “It’s hard to grab momentum when you’re shooting yourself in the foot all night long.”
The Wildcats bounced back with a more tightly contested second set, mostly due to their opponent’s 14 errors. They did come within one point, 24–23, of tying the match 1–1. However, the Hornets rattled off three straight points off of an Ashlynn Archer kill and two attack errors by Moore. Weber State ended the set with a .000 hitting percentage.
That would be as close as the Wildcats would get to a win; they were dominated by the Hornets 25–17, giving Sac State their second 3–0 win over Weber State of the season.
“We didn’t come to compete at all,” Larsen said. “Just plain and simple. We didn’t even show up.”
Larsen followed that up by talking about his disappointment with his team, saying, “That’s the problem with this entire team. We make a couple of plays and then we let one thing derail us.”
He would go on to lament his team’s failures against stronger teams.
“It’s like if the other team doesn’t come and compete against us then we’re good. When the other team competes, then we fall apart. It’s about us handling the challenges. We’re incredibly mentally weak,” Larsen said.
