It’s good to be home. The women’s volleyball team can’t deny that. The MAWL club, fans and family made a large, and loud, presence in Tuesday night’s home opener. This is what the team as been longing for ever since their Green and White game back in August and to end the night, the Wolverines swept Weber State University in a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-17) match.
“It was really nice to be able to see some of these girls that were struggling early to be able to have a good match at home,” head coach Sam Atoa said. “And for them to have the confidence that they can play this game.”
UVU tried to find their groove during the first set which ended in a close 25-20 result. The groove was quickly found in the second set which appeared to be a nice combination of kills from Utah Valley along with errors from Weber State.
The Wildcats lost the second set by mostly errors as they only had six kills along with 11 errors. Bailey Farris led Utah Valley with four kills in the second set. Farris also had a service ace along with Erica Nish in the second set.
Atoa expressed his emotions towards Nish’s success Tuesday night after coming back from her knee injury that happened last season and has kept her from most games this season.
“It is so good to be back with my team and being on the court,” said Nish. “I still have some limitations but I am working on getting through it and my team is helping me. It just feels really good. I’m glad we could pull a win together tonight.”
Utah Valley was able to end the match strong in the third set 25-17. McKenna Tait, who led the team with 12 overall kills, had a solo-block to put the team at 23-17. Immediately following Tait’s solo-block, Nish and Lauren Stringham commit a block-assist which provided the match point to setter Brookelyn Hall for a service ace ending the match 3-0.
“We executed at a higher level then we have in the first four matches that we played,” said Atoa. “This match instills in the girls more confidence and belief that we’re okay. If we play this well [on the road] it will put us in a position to do really well.”
The Wolverines record now sits at 2-3 as they head on the road to take on UC Davis in Fresno, Calif.
