Photo courtesy UVU Athletics
HONOLULU, Hawaii—The Utah Valley University volleyball team opened the Hawaii Outrigger Challenge Thursday night by facing 14th-ranked Hawaii. The Wolverines hit a sour note to start off the tournament, falling to the Wahine in the first game of the weekend. Coming into the game fresh off a perfect 3-0 at the Wolverine Invitational, UVU (3-5) was unable to build off its momentum as it fell to UH (4-3) in three sets (25-18, 25-21, 25-8).
The Wolverines started strong in the first set as they battled to a 15-13 score partway through the set. The Wahine pulled away at that point and took a commanding lead that they never relinquished.
The second set was tightly contested as UVU fought its way to a 16-14 score before cutting the deficit to one at 21-20 before UH managed to secure the set.
The Wolverines came out flat in the third set as they fell behind early and never managed to muster a response.
Madison Dennison led the charge for the Wolverines with six blocks and added four kills. Sierra Starley contributed 19 assists. Hawaii relied heavily on All-American Nikki Taylor, who led all players with 12 kills
The 5,449 gathered at the Stan Sheriff Center was the second-largest crowd ever assembled to watch the UVU volleyball team. With the loss the Wolverines are 0-2 on the year against ranked opponents, as they lost to then No. 13 BYU at the BYU Invitational to open the season.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for UVU as it continues tournament play on Friday, Sept. 9 against the 6th-ranked Washington Huskies. The Wolverines will finish up the tournament on Saturday, Sept. 10 facing the Northern Illinois Huskies.
