Oct. 30, 2010
OREM, Utah - Senior Kayli Doxey broke Camie Manwill's all-time school career kills record, but Utah Valley's women's volleyball team still fell to defending conference champion North Dakota 3-2 (25-15, 15-25, 20-25, 25-10, 15-11) Saturday night.
"Momentum is huge, sometimes you'd like to wish that the momentum would carry," said UVU head coach Sam Atoa. "We had the momentum for the first two-thirds of the fifth set and then they caught fire and we just couldn't stop them."
The start of the first set saw six ties and only one lead change, but the Wolverines (16-10, 5-3) couldn't swing the tight beginning in their favor. The Fighting Sioux (18-5, 8-0) used a 7-0 run towards the end of the set to extend their lead to 23-12 and put the set out of reach for UVU.
The Wolverines forced an early North Dakota timeout in the second set by starting on a 6-1 run. Sophomore Erica Nish was a big part of the quick lead through contributing two kills and a block. UVU would not relinquish its lead for the remainder of the set and tied the match at one set apiece.
In the third set, North Dakota was able to recover from another fast start by the Wolverines but it wasn't enough for them to take the set. After it began with a 5-1 UVU run, the Fighting Sioux countered with an 11-4 spurt of their own to keep the set close. After a Wolverine timeout with the score tied 20-20, UVU finished on a 5-0 run to win the set 25-20.
North Dakota ran out to a 14-4 lead to start the fourth set and never looked back on its way to a 25-10 win. In the end, the Wolverines couldn't overcome 14 kills and a .591 attack percentage in the set from the Fighting Sioux.
Neither team led by more than four in the final set, but an 8-1 finish pushed North Dakota to a 15-11 set victory and extended their perfect conference record to 8-0.
Manwill finished her career last year with 1520 kills. Doxey ended the night with 1521 career kills, one above Manwill's final total, to break the all-time record.
"(Kayli) works hard, comes prepared and wants it," added Atoa. "She has contributed from day one when she walked in her freshman year. She is very deserving of the record, it's a great accomplish, but succeeding tonight would have been more what she would have wanted."
Nish finished the match with eight kills and three blocks, junior Chelsey Heaps had eight kills with eight digs, and junior Sarah Clement had nine kills to go along with four blocks.
The Wolverines will play their final two home games of the season next week against Houston Baptist on Nov. 4 and Texas Pan-American the next night on Nov. 5. Both games will be played at 7 pm MT in the Activity Center. The match on Nov. 5 against Texas Pan-American will be senior night for UVU.
