A week after two convincing home wins, the Wildcats traveled to Utah to try and extend their winning streak. Instead, they fell in three sets to the Utah Tech Trailblazers in a poor-hitting night. 

Before leaving for the weekend, Head Coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup said she had high hopes for the conference portion of the season, especially with the momentum the Wildcats had going in. 

“I think that we’re exactly where we wanted to be going into conference play. So we have a little bit of confidence behind us,” she said. 

In their home tournament, Ashli Edmiston, junior outside hitter from Wilsonville, Oregon, hit .333 against Oral Roberts University, in her first game after being fully cleared from an ACL tear she suffered late last season. 

Edmiston said support from her teammates and coaches has helped her confidence with returning to action. 

“Our training staff has been amazing, the coach has been amazing. So it really is a team effort, and I’m really thankful to have a great support system around me,” she said. 

Moronu Alstrup said she knew what the team would have to prepare for against Utah Tech, but the Wildcats fell short of adjusting what they needed to. 

“They have good outside hitters,”  she said. “Utah Tech specifically has a really strong block and a really strong serve. I think service receive is going to be really huge for us to focus on.”

While these adjustments did not play out Thursday night, there is still a long conference schedule ahead of the Wildcats, which Edmiston says she is excited for in her third season.

“I love conference. I love the challenge. I love getting to see our progress, and so I’m really excited because I really do feel like we’re on such an upward trajectory,” Edmiston said. 

The Wildcats will play their second conference game of the season at Southern Utah University on Saturday at 2 p.m.

With 15 conference games remaining, the team is still in a good position to finish higher than the sixth place position predicted in the preseason coaches’ poll. And Moronu Alstrup believes they can.

“I definitely think we can finish higher than what we were ranked, so I think we’re just going into it with nothing to lose and everything to gain,” she said.