The volleyball team showed complete dominance in their first match Saturday against the CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners. They won in three straight sets 25-13, 25-20, 25-20.
Freshman McKenna Tait rattled off ten straight serves to finish the match. With the Wolverines down 15-20 she took the game over.
“I consider serving one of my strengths, but its not usually like that,” she said after the game.
“McKenna has been playing very well in practice and I felt like this was a good time to let her go out and get some experience,” commented Coach Sam Atoa after the game.
In the first two sets of the match, he had stuck with Patti Flagg at libero, after the break he changed things up and installed Tait. A move that paid off in the end.
In the first set, UVU displayed their dominance by getting off to an atypically fast start. They built a ten point lead early and never looked back. Scoring on nearly 50% of their attack attempts. The Roadrunners looked out-womaned all over the court.
The second set displayed what appeared to be a less focused group of Wolverines.
“This is such a mental game. It’s hard to explain why things like that happen. Against a team like this, they don’t have the weapons like an Illinois State. Who knows if that’s why the intensity wasn’t there?” Atoa said.
Throughout the match the Wolverines would get a one or two point lead then allow the Roadrunners to stick around by making errors. Eventually they were able to pull away and finish off the set with a five point victory.
The scoring leaders for the Wolverines were Chelsea Heaps and Lindsay Barker, with 12 and eleven points respectively. So far they have been the players filling the holes left from last years team. In both matches this year, these two have led the team in points. Brookelyn Campbell has continued her performance from last year, leading the team in sets and assists.
The Wolverines play again Saturday night against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at seven o’clock.
By staff sportswriter Josh Keil
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