WICHITA FALLS, Texas – The University of West Alabama volleyball team wrapped up play at the Midwestern State Invitational on Saturday, falling to Western Colorado and Eastern New Mexico from D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
Match 1: Western Colorado 3, West Alabama 1
With a 9 a.m. start time, the Tigers were ready from the start, as they sprinted out to a 5-1 lead. Later, after back-to-back errors, the Tigers pushed the lead to 9-4. On the next rally, Cloe Bonvillian confused the defense with the service ace.
Later in the set, UWA used four of the next five points to secured set point, 24-19. However, WCU made things interesting by scoring the next four points to cut the deficit to 24-23. The Tigers would rebound without going to "lingering death" as an attack error by the Mountaineers secured the opening set.
From there, Western Colorado took advantage of UWA's mistakes on the attack. After committing six attack errors in the opening set, they had six in the final three sets of the match.
In set number two, the Mountaineers stormed out to a 7-1 lead thanks to three aces by Maggie Olson. UWA would respond by cutting the deficit down to two points on multiple instances, but back-to-back attack errors by the Tigers secured the set for the Mountaineers.
Western Colorado came back in the last two sets to take the match with identical 25-15 scores.
Despite the setback, UWA held in check with WCO on the attack, with the Mountaineers having the slight 42-39 advantage.
Amelia Johnigan scored 10.5 points thanks to seven kills, two aces and three assisted blocks.
Jaida Alvin racked up nine digs, while
Ally Craig added eight kills.
MATCH 2: Eastern New Mexico 3, West Alabama 0
In UWA's final match of the weekend, it was Eastern New Mexico who had the advantage with a 25-20 set score. The Greyhounds got out to a 9-3 lead, but the Tigers rallied the comeback with a 20-18 score after an
Ally Craig kill.
However, ENMU answered by winning five of the final seven points to win the opener.
Despite the Tigers tying the set at six in the second, the Greyhounds had a 17-2 run en route to a 25-11 victory.
In the final set, Eastern New Mexico began to pull away. Tied at five, they used an 11-3 run to make it 16-8, but West Alabama did not go away quietly. Using a 6-1 run thanks to kills by
Chyna Dixon,
Mya Carter and
Peyton Quesnel, the Tigers cut the deficit from 16-8 to 19-18.
Unfortunately, a service error pushed the rally and momentum back to ENMU, as they took the set 25-21.
Amelia Johnigan and
Mya Carter each had 7.5 points. Johnigan posted six kills, an ace and assisted on a block, while Carter tallied six kills and assisted on three blocks.
West Alabama (0-4) continues its season-opening road trip with a midweek battle with Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.
