Oct. 13, 2009
OREM, Utah - After going the first 17 matches of the season without going to five sets, the Utah Valley Wolverines went five sets for the second consecutive match Tuesday night against Utah State and dropped a 19-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-16, 10-15 non-conference decision to the Aggies.
The Wolverines (12-7) never led in the fifth and final set. The set was tied just one time at 1-1.
Utah State (11-8) built a five-point advantage at 11-6, but the Wolverines fought back to within two at 12-10 on kills by Kayli Broadbent and Chelsea Fa'alogo and an attach error by the Aggies. Utah State scored the last three points to win the set and match.
"It was a tough one to lose especially here at home against a team we thought we played well against the first time around," said UVU volleyball coach Sam Atoa, whose team dropped a five-set decision to NJIT last Saturday. "We had our opportunities but we didn't take care of them."
Broadbent, who had three kills in the final set, tied a season-high with 23 kills in the match, while Chelsey Garfield had nine and Erica Nish and Camie Manwill had eight each. Nish's number tied her career-high.
Allyce Jones tied her season-high with 35 digs, while Fa'alogo tied her career-high with 53 assists. Also, Jaicee Kuresa had a career-high eight block assists and Sarah Clement added seven block assists.
The Wolverines are now 2-5 all-time against the Aggies. UVU had won two of the last three matches between the two schools, including a 3-1 victory earlier this year at the Weber State Invitational.
The opening set was tied nine times with the last coming at 14-14 before Utah State began pulling away. Two UVU attack errors and two Aggie kills increased USU's to three at 18-15. The Aggies got the lead to as high as five at 22-17.
Utah Valley pulled back to within three at 22-19, but a UVU attack error and USU kills led to the Aggies' 25-19 first-set victory.
Broadbent had five kills in the first set for the Wolverines.
The Wolverines even the match with a 25-19 second-set victory.
Early in the set, Garfield served three straight points to lift the Wolverines to a 10-6 lead. Later, Kathleen Stevens served three straight points and the UVU advantage was 16-10.
Along with her solid serving, Garfield recorded five kills in the set, while Nish and Broadbent had four each.
After hitting just .048 in the first set, the Wolverines hit at .282 in the second, which they won 25-19.
With the scored tied at 6-6 in the third set, Utah Valley allowed five straight points to trail 11-6. The Wolverines fought back with the aid of three straight service points by Jones to whittle the lead to one at 15-14.
The Aggies scored six straight points to pull away in the set before winning 25-19.
Broadbent recorded four kills in the set and Manwill added three, while Jones had nine digs.
The Wolverines forced the final set by scoring seven of nine points to surge out to a 16-10 lead in the fourth set. UVU continued to roll and were up by as many as 10 points, 24-14, after three straight service points by Jones.
Broadbent tallied seven digs, while Jones had 10 digs in the set.
The Wolverines return to Great West Conference action Thursday night when they host Texas-Pan American at 7 p.m. at the Shurian Family Activity Center. UVU closes out the week with a match at Idaho State on Saturday night in Pocatello.
