Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
at Montana
Wildcats take down Montana in Big Sky opener
9/24/2015 5:57:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MISSOULA, Mont – Weber State rallied from an early deficit to post a 3-1 victory over the Montana Grizzlies volleyball team Wednesday night to start Big Sky Conference play with a victory. The Wildcats won 19-25, 25-19, 25-22, 30-28.
"I'm really proud of our kids," head coach Jeremiah Larsen said. "We've been working really hard and getting better every single day. It's been great to see the benefits of that type of mentality and they're starting to gain confidence in what they do."
Montana came up with a .308 hitting percentage in the opening set and steadily pulled away for a 25-19 over the Wildcats. Weber State came out a little flat and committed too many service errors and had just eight kills in the opening set.
In the second set Weber State made a few substitutions and found a groove that worked for them to claim the set 25-19. Â In the third set the Wildcats trailed 15-11 and went on to ace the Grizzles four times but didn't take the lead in the set until 21-20 and then won the set with yet another ace to win the set 25-22.
The Wildcats had trouble finding a footing at the beginning of the fourth set falling behind 16-11 and later at 21-17. The Griz committed a service error followed immediately by a Weber State ace that changed the entire momentum of the game in favor of the Wildcats as they went on to claim the set 30-28.
"We were down in the fourth set and we kept fighting," Larsen said. "We kept our serves strong and maintained the composure on our side of the ball and just played really good volleyball."
Several Wildcats stepped up big and contributed to a great team effort. Junior Ciera Borho led the Wildcats with 18 kills and 50 attacks. Megan Thompson also performed well with a final .846 percentage and two blocks. Freshman Andrea Hale came in ready to play and had 16 kills and 31 attacks for a .387 percentage.
Thamires Cavalcanti led the Wildcats with 14 digs while Taylor Christensen-Kinikini had 43 assists.
 "It was a great team effort all the way around," Larsen said. "We used a lot of different people in a lot of different places and it worked really well for us."
The Wildcats are now 5-7 overall on the season and 1-0 in the Big Sky Conference. This is the first time since 2004 the Wildcats have won a conference opener. The Wildcats will next take on Idaho State in Pocatello, Idaho Saturday at 7 p.m. before taking on Portland State for the first home game of the season Oct. 1.
