'Cats find form at home

The Weber State University Volleyball Team won an important non-conference match against the University of Seattle Saturday night to get things back on track. "This gives us some confidence to right the train," said WSU Head Coach Al Givens, "get it back on the tracks, and now we have to get out and play with the kind of enthusiasm and the passion that we had in games three and four, with the same kind of defensive aggressiveness and offensive aggressiveness. If we do that, there's nobody we can't beat." The Wildcats were coming off of a tough conference loss on the road against then-2-8 Idaho State University to drop to 5-6 in conference play. "We started with kind of a hangover from Idaho State," Givens said about the Wildcats' first set against Seattle. "Our defense got us going. We started going harder, and we started digging balls. That led to more opportunities and more swings. Then we started getting really aggressive." After losing the first set 18-25, the Wildcats came storming back to win the final three sets 25-23, 25-19 and 25-11. The 'Cats were led once again by the killer B's - Chelsea Bair, Leah Burmeister and Brittney Bissaillon with 16, 12 and 10 kills respectively. WSU's Jenna Leggatt and Amy Dunford added six kills apiece. The Wildcats as a team were all over the court, outdigging Seattle 57-37. Caitlyn Anderson led all Wildcats with 18 digs. Bair added 15. Saturday night's win was one of WSU's better serving performances of the season, racking up eight aces and five errors. Bair, Burmeister and Jocilyn Randall had two aces each. "As a team, that's one of our goals that we wanted to work on tonight," Randall said about improving the serving game. "For me, I used to jump serve, but tonight he (Givens) was giving me areas to serve to try to get back into a rhythm." The execution made a big difference in Saturday's match. "I thought our service game took them out of some things they wanted to do," Givens said. The Wildcats' brief break from Big Sky Conference action couldn't have come at a better time. "We were excited about tonight's match," Bissaillon said, "and going into UVU on Tuesday, both non-conference matches, to build up our confidence for Sac State on Saturday." The Wildcats will host Utah Valley University Tuesday at 7 p.m. and then they weill meet the California State University, Sacramento Hornets at 7 p.m. Saturday for more Wildcat home matches. The 'Cats had not been at home for a match in a long time before Saturday's win. "It was nice after being gone 21 days," Givens said. "It was huge. They were so excited to be back at home. It's hard to go on the road for three weeks and not have the sanctuary of your home fans and your classmates and your family and community. So it was definitely fun to get home and back on the right track." The Wildcats had lost three consecutive matches coming into Saturday night after sweeping Montana State University and the University of Montana to start their road trip. The Wildcats currently sit in seventh place in the Big Sky with five matches remaining, three of them at home. But in such an evenly-matched conference, it's anyone's guess as to where the 'Cats will finish. "It's great to get back on our feet for conference," Randall said. "Hopefully we can boost our confidence back up."