Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Utah State
Wildcats fall in five-set thriller
9/7/2011 5:06:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
OGDEN, Utah - So close, yet so painfully far away.
Despite several fantastic individual performances and an incredibly gritty team effort, the Weber State University women's volleyball team came up just short of its first win of the season on Tuesday night against in-state rival Utah State.
The Aggies captured the marathon match by the slimmest of margins, winning 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-13 at Swenson Gym.
"We had a great effort tonight; it was very important to bounce back from our match on Saturday (a five-set home loss to BYU Hawaii)," Weber State coach Tom Peterson said. "Now the key is to balance the kind of effort we had tonight with better execution. I thought we struggled a little bit with our execution at key times."
Junior outside hitter Bethany Wray had a career-high 26 kills, the highest kill total by a Weber State player since November of 2006. Wray also finished with 11 digs, her second consecutive double-double. Wray had 84 total attempts, which is the second-highest total in a single match in Weber State history. Former Wildcat standout Melissa Leonard holds the school record in attempts of 92 against Montana in 1997.
Junior middle blocker Dama Cox matched her career high with 13 kills for the second consecutive match, and also finished with a career-best three service aces.
Junior setter Caitlin Penrod had a career-high 49 assists and 10 digs, marking her first career double-double, while sophomore libero Mikelle Kap had 18 digs and junior defensive specialist Michele Arave added 11 digs.
As a team, Weber State had a season-high 60 kills and 64 digs.
After Utah State captured the first set by seven points, the match played out dead even over the final four sets.
The Wildcats captured the second and fourth sets by two points, while falling in the third and decisive fifth-set by two points.
Utah State was led by Liz McArthur's 25 kills and 13 digs, while Aggies' libero Laurel Bodily had 30 digs.
Next up for Weber State is the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, Neb., which begins on Thursday vs. St. Mary's, Calif., at 3:30 p.m.
