Volleyball falls to Washington State and Utah Valley

PULLMAN, Wash. - The Morehead State volleyball team fell in three sets to Washington State and Utah Valley in the Cougar Challenge. They fell 25-19, 25-19, 25-15 to WSU and 25-13, 25-21, 25-17 to UVU.

After falling in the first set to Washington State, the Eagles and the Cougars were tied at 19 in the second. But, a service error from Alli Evans opened up a 6-0 WSU run to end the set, 25-19. WSU then cruised to a 25-15 win in the third to win the match, 3-0.

With the win, the Cougars have won 18 consecutive sets.

"We did a nice job neutralizing WSU's outsides," said head coach Jaime Gordon. "But, unfortunately our serve receive play had some runs of bad execution which kept us from running our side out offense."

In the first set against UVU, the Wolverines jumped out to a 11-4 lead and never really looked back. They took the first set 25-13. In the second, Morehead State did jump out to an early 11-9 lead, but Utah Valley would regain the lead at 15-14 and go on to take the set, 25-21. After jumping out to an early 8-4 lead in the third, the Eagles allowed USU to knot it up at 12 and the Wolverines outscored MSU 13-5 the rest of the way to win the set, 25-17, and the match, 3-0.

"We struggled with a defensive answer for Utah Valley's offense," said Gordon. "We struggled a bit finishing sets. We put ourselves in good positions throughout the day, but were not able to close with an effectiveness."

MSU had 30 and 33 kills against Washington State and Utah Valley, but managed to hit just .049 and .165. In comparison, WSU had 34 kills, but hit .205 and USU had 37 kills, but hit .341.

"We have another opportunity tomorrow (vs. Ball State)," said Gordon. "But, we will need to execute our controllables at a higher level." 

Freshman Merideth Jewell, who has been named OVC Newcomer of the Week the first two weeks of the season, led the way with 15 kills against USU and 14 against WSU.

Freshman Jordan Jones set a career-high with 24 assists against Utah Valley.

"It was nice to see Jordan step in and do a nice job running the offense," said Gordon. 

The Eagles continue in the Cougar Challenge tomorrow as they face Ball State at 7 p.m.