Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
at Air Force
Wildcats pick up win at the Omni Invitational
9/19/2015 11:03:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Weber State's volleyball team competed in the Omni Classic over the weekend and fell to Air Force and Colorado before picking up a win over George Mason.
"It's always nice to get a win," said head coach Jeremiah Larsen. "I am more excited about the way we played. The whole weekend we found some confidence in our abilities and we are making progress in understanding who we are."
On Friday, Weber State took on the Air Force Falcons and fell in five sets. Air Force opened the match with 25-22 and 26-24 victories in the first two sets. The Wildcats didn't bow down and fought to win the next two sets 25-13 and 25-21 forcing the match to go into the final fifth set. The fifth set remained a neck and neck and even went into extra points but the Falcons prevailed and the Wildcats fell 21-19.
In the second match of the Omni Invitational on Friday afternoon the Wildcats fell 3-0 to Colorado. The first set was tied 16-16 when the Wildcats put together a 4-0 run to take a 20-16 lead and kept pushing to own a 24-21 lead at set point. Colorado had two kills and a big time block to claim the first set 27-25. In the second set Weber State had a 7-6 lead but the Buffs went on a 9-0 run and never looked back. The Wildcats couldn't catch them as they went on to finish the set with a 25-16 loss. Colorado carried the momentum into the third set 25-18 claiming the match.
On Saturday Weber State started the first set with a 7-2 lead. George Mason went on a 5-0 run to tie the set and remained neck and neck until Weber State went on a 5-0 run to end the match 25-21. The Wildcats fell behind early in the second set and couldn't catch up as they fell 25-22. Weber State then charged forward claiming the next two sets with 25-14 and 25-16 scores and defeating George Mason 3-1.
"It was a great team effort from everyone," Larsen said.
Freshman Andrea Hale put up a career high kills with 14 against Air Force and had the game high of 34 attacks. Against George Mason several Wildcats put up great numbers. Samantha Staker led the wildcats for a season high of 16 kills and 31 attacks for a .419 percentage. Ciera Borho had 12 kills and 32 attacks and Amanda Varley added 12 kills and 21 attacks for a career high percentage of .524. Taylor Christensen-Kinikini had a season high of 48 assists and Thamires Cavalcanti led the Wildcats with a game high of 20 digs.
"I feel like we are in a good place for the beginning of our conference season," Larsen said.
Weber State will start Big Sky Conference play this week at Montana Wednesday before traveling to Pocatello, Idaho to challenge Idaho State. The first home game of the season will be Oct. 1 against Portland State.
