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- Caitlin Penrod sets the ball for her teammate in Tuesday’s game against Boise State University.
‘Three and out’ appears to be the motto for Weber State University volleyball. WSU fell in three quick sets to Boise State University on Tuesday evening. The set scores were 25-21, 25-19 and 25-14.
Head Coach Tom Peterson said that he usually tries to find something good to say about each match, but for the match against BSU, he could not.
“We just did not show up,” Peterson said. “That’s our worst loss to date. I don’t have a whole lot of good stuff to say. It was terrible.”
The first set went down to the wire as WSU held a narrow margin against BSU. WSU never let the score difference reach more than three. They stuck with the Broncos the entire first set.
The teams were evenly matched in total attack attempts, with 29 on each side of the net. BSU had a total of 15 kills and only four errors. WSU had 11 kills and only three errors. Bethany Wray had the high for WSU in the first set with five kills.
The second set was similar to the first. WSU stuck with BSU for the first half of the set. BSU took a 23-17 lead late in the match. WSU couldn’t make up the six-point deficit and lost the set 25-18.
The second set was not as successful for WSU. WSU had only six kills to BSU’s 14. WSU also had six errors, compared to BSU’s four. BSU had 14 digs, and WSU had eight.
The third set did not start out like the previous two. BSU got an early lead of 9-4. The Wildcats did not play as hard as they did the previous two sets.
The match ended with a 25-14 set for BSU. The Wildcats were out-dug, out-killed and out-defended in the third set, which really hurt the outcome of the game.
Wray put up 10 kills for WSU, and freshman Mackenzie Clark put up five. Shelby Earl had seven digs, and Wray and Michele Arave each added four for the Wildcats. At the end of the match, the Wildcats had 13 errors and BSU had eight.
BSU had 44 kills total. Liz Harden put up 18 of them. Amanda Remy had 11 digs for the Broncos.
Captain Shanae Langston said she was frustrated with the ’Cats’ performance against BSU.
“It’s so frustrating to see how far we come and that we don’t put it on the court,” Langston said. “It’s almost as if we are worried about what’s going to happen if we win. It’s frustrating to see our old habits sneak back into our game.”
According to Langston, if the team cannot learn to mesh together, they will not be successful in the future.
“We need to find the ‘we’ over ‘me’ or we are not going to win,” Langston said.
Wray said the team needs to have confidence in their abilities on the court. According to Wray, the team should not have to be subbing in and out the entire game; they need to find a lineup and stick to it.
“We did not have people on the court that wanted to be on the court. There are girls on the floor that don’t think that they should be on the floor. They are waiting to be subbed out. That’s what really affected us tonight.”
WSU will start conference play this weekend, playing Eastern Washington University and Portland State University. Their next home game is Sept. 20 against Utah Valley University.
