Weber State women’s volleyball picked up its second-consecutive win as it conquered Northern Arizona in three sets with scores of 25-22, 25-23 and 25-16. Senior Amanda Varley led the Wildcats with 13 kills that pushed her over and into the exclusive 1,000 kills club.
Varley came into this weekend with 981 career kills and was bound and determined to reach the 1,000 kills milestone. She posted 11 kills against Southern Utah and only needed nine against NAU, but she posted an impressive 13 to make her the 14th Wildcat in WSU history to break 1,000 kills. Varley has averaged 2.79 kills per set throughout her career and is now set out to break her current season high of 310 kills set in 2016.
In the first set, NAU jumped out to an early 11-7 lead and continued to push its lead to 16-13. Weber State came back and with a nice setter dump by Ashlyn Power the Wildcats claimed an 18-17 lead. WSU maintained the lead for the rest of the match and pulled out the first game with a 25-22 win.
“NAU has been one of the top volleyball programs in our conference for the last five years, so to beat a team of that caliber is a wonderful accomplishment for our program,” said head coach Jeremiah Larsen. “Now we just need to build on with the momentum we are generating as we move forward.”
The two teams remained close to each other in the score column for the majority of the second set. WSU strung together a 4-0 run, including kills by Varley and Megan Gnieting that gave WSU an 18-16 lead. The Wildcats ended the second game with three-consecutive points. The first point was a service error by NAU, the second was a kill by Varley and the third point to drive in a victory was an error by the Lumberjacks.
With a two-set lead going into the third set, Weber State was fanning the flame under its momentum and took off starting with a 13-7 lead. The Wildcats never let up either and held Northern Arizona to its lowest score of the match as the third set finished with a 25-16 score.
Weber State was led by Andrea Hale and Varley, who each had 13 kills, and both posted more than 30 attacks. Defensively, Katelyn Erwin and Varley each had seven kills.
The Wildcats finished the night with 50 kills and 115 attacks with 12 errors for a .330 percentage. WSU had 48 total digs and four team blocks. Northern Arizona had 45 kills from 113 attacks with 12 errors for a .292 percentage. NAU also had 48 digs but managed six team blocks.
Weber State is now 4-12 overall on the season and 2-2 in Big Sky Conference, and it has managed a 3-1 record at home. WSU will remain at home for the next two matches as it plays host to Montana State (Oct. 5) and Montana (Oct. 5).