Oct. 30, 2007

OGDEN, Utah - A slow start doomed Utah Valley in four-game (18-30, 23-30, 32-30, 27-30) loss at Weber State on Tuesday night in Ogden.

After struggling through the first two games, the Wolverines (17-9) survived a tight third game and had its chances before falling in the fourth.

"We were nowhere to be found in the first two games...but we found some pride and played a lot better," said head coach Sam Atoa. "We have to hand it to Weber, they played very very well. They were on fire tonight."

Utah Valley was led by 16 kills from Jessica Endres and 22 digs from Allyce Wilson. Camie Manwill had 15 kills and 12 digs for the Wolverines.

Weber State (11-11) had four players reach double figures in both kills and digs led by 18 kills and 22 digs from Micah Lines.

Weber State dominated the opening game, recording a 30-18 win and hitting .359 compared to .000 for the Wolverines.

Game two saw the the Wildcats use a 12-3 run to take a 21-8 lead that, despite a late 11-3 UV run, was too much to overcome.

Utah Valley led for most of game three, until Weber State tied the game at 23 on a Kolbie Murphey kill. From that point there were six more ties before the Wolverines won the game after two straight Wildcat errors.

UV had a 20-17 lead in the fourth game before six straight points gave Weber the lift it needed to close out the match.

The Wolverines are now 1-4 on the season against in-state teams and will host Utah State in their final in-state match on Thursday night at 7pm in the Shurian Family Activity Center.

"Thursday will be a challenge for us but we're fortunate that we'll be at home," said Atoa. "We've done a good job bouncing back and hopefully being at home we can feed off the crowd's enthusiasm."