The 1-15 Vandals welcomed the 6-10 Weber State Wildcats into the Memorial Gymnasium to begin the stretch of four straight games they’ll have in Moscow. This was the second and final meeting between the two schools, WBSU took the first in straight sets in Ogden back on Sept. 28.
The Wildcats began on a hot run, jumping out to an early 5-0 lead but then a 5-1 run by the Vandals brought the match to within a point. Unfortunately, that would be the closest the Vandals would reach as the Wildcats began to keep growing their lead. Eventually to 11 at 24-13 and they closed out the opening set winning 25-14.
The middle set began with a few ties as WBSU would grab the lead then UI would counter with tying things up and it wasn’t more than a one-point game until the Wildcats won a challenge that put them up two. Even after that the Vandals were able to tie things up at five then again at seven before WBSU started to pull away. They got up to a 16-11 lead, but the Vandals did not give up and went on a 6-1 run to tie it up at 17. The Wildcats ended the second set on an 8-3 run, taking it 25-20.
Like the opening set, the third began with WBSU to a large lead, 6-0 before UI came back and scored three straight of their own. UI would crawl back to within one at 11-10 but the Wildcats followed up by scoring 10 straight. From there they completed the sweep taking the final set 25-16, Rose Moore delivered the final kill.
Head coach Romana Redondo Kriskova reflected after the game as the Vandals struggles continue and their losing streak extends to 10 games. “We have lots of injuries on the team so that limits our options”, she stated. UI falls to 1-16 and they’ll have a tough one Saturday as the 13-5 Idaho State Bengals come to town.
For the game against Weber State, Zuzanna Wieczorek lead the Vandals in kills with a dozen. When asked after the Thursday loss how to prepare for ISU Saturday night she said, “good practice tomorrow and start fresh”. Vandals take on the Bengals in their second game of the homestand. First serve is 6 p.m.
Jackson Hamelund can be reached at [email protected]
