Crystal Charriere | The SignpostThe Weber State University Women’s Volleyball Team came up short on Saturday night, losing to Brigham Young University-Hawaii, falling 24-26, 18-25, 25-18, 25-16, 15-8 at Swenson Gym.
The Wildcats were led by junior outside hitter Bethany Wray, who had 17 kills and 10 digs in the loss. It was Wray’s first double-double of the season. WSU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the match, but wasn’t able to close out the match and lost in five sets. This is WSU’s fifth loss of the year.
After a nail-biting first set that saw the Wildcats eke out a 26-24 win, WSU appeared to take firm command of the match with a strong second set.
Hitting .481 and committing just three errors, WSU romped to a 25-18 set victory and 2-0 lead in the match.
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Wildcats started to falter. WSU had 25 attacking errors to match 25 kills, hitting .000 in the final three sets as the Seasiders rallied to claim the win. BYU-Hawaii hit .333 and .316 in commanding fourth- and fifth-set wins.
WSU Head Coach Tom Peterson said that in Saturday’s game the team struggled in the later sets. He also gave a lot of credit to BYU-H for the way that they played.
“Their ball control kept them in the match all the way,” Peterson said. “Then we just imploded and they took over. I was very displeased with a lot of things we did tonight. We played better against Utah and BYU than we did tonight.”
WSU’s blocking took a significant dip over recent efforts as the Wildcats finished with just seven and were outblocked for the first time since their season-opener against the University of Utah.
WSU Team Captain Shanae Langston said that the players need to make sure that they cut down on the mental mistakes during games, and that the team needs to cut down on their individual mistakes in order to improve.
“The biggest thing is to cut down on our errors,” Langston said.
WSU junior Dama Cox also played well in the loss, racking up a career-high 13 kills for the Wildcats, who fell to 0-5 with the loss.
WSU also struggled to serve the ball, committing 12 service errors in the match. Peterson said that it was the little errors that hurt the Wildcats. He said if they can cut down on those mistakes, they will have a much better chance to win.
Shih Ting Chen led the way for BYU-H. She knocked down 15 kills to lead the Seasider attack. Lauren Hagemeyer added 11 kills, Tajana Santiago led the way with 12 digs, Chen added 10 digs and Pula had nine for the Seasiders. Courtney Skaggs put up six blocks and Hagemeyer four in the win.
The Wildcats were hurt by BYU-H’s strong serving game. Stella Chen and Ying Chun Chen each served three aces for BYU-H, and Michelle Chen set for 26 assists. Teuila Nautu put up 14 assists as the Seasiders went with two-setters for much of the match.