Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Sacramento State
Weber State drops home opener to Sac State
9/24/2016 4:25:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
OGDEN — Weber State volleyball team dropped their first match of the season to Sacramento State in four sets Friday night for the first loss on the season.Â
"Tonight was the worst match we've played all season long," said head Coach Jeremiah Larsen. "Hats off to Sac State who played consistent volleyball. We made several uncharacteristic errors that we haven't made before tonight. We always say in our gym, 'we never win, we never lose but we always learn.' Hopefully we learned something about ourselves tonight and we can make sure it never happens again."
The two teams started off the first set with a neck and neck battle and a tie score at 11-11.  Late in the first set the Wildcats had a 21-18 lead and the final two points of the match came from a kill by Amanda Varley and a big block by Megan Thompson and Varley to solidify the Wildcats 25-21 first set victory.
Sac State came out firing in the second set and claimed an early 12-5 lead. The Hornets went on to end the second set on an 8-1 to one run that gave them a 25-14 second set win. The overall match score was tied at one set each going into the break.
The Wildcats came out with a little more fight in them in the third set gaining a little momentum by going on a 6-1 run in the middle of the set. It wasn't enough and WSU couldn't dig themselves out of the point deficit dropping the third set 25-19.
The fourth set was a fight to the finish for both teams. With the scored tied at 13-13 and after rotational errors and confusion the Wildcats went on to score the next five points including a kill from Tanisha Langston and another from Hannah Hill and a pair of big blocks by Andrea Hale and Hill and another by Langston and Hill. In the end the Hornets ended the set with a kill by Kennedy Kurtz giving Sac State the 25-23 fourth set victory and overall 3-1 match victory.
Weber State was led by Andrea Hale who had 10 kills off 26 attacks for a .269 percentage. This was Hale's first time having double figure kills this season. Jesse Hover ended the night with 29 digs. Thamires Cavalcanti added 15 digs. Bailey Irwin had a double double on the night rocking 11 digs and 37 assists.
Megan Thompson had seven blocks on the night including one solo.
Weber State had better defensive stats then Sac State with 83 digs and 26 blocks to Sac State's 78 digs and 14 blocks. The Hornet's had 59 kills and 182 attacks for a .170 percentage on the night and WSU hit 41 kills off 156 attacks for .135 percentage on the night. The Wildcats did have 20 hitting errors to the Hornets 28.
Weber State is now 9-1 overall on the season and 0-1 in Big Sky Conference play. The Wildcats will host Portland State tomorrow night before hitting the road to Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.
