The Dixie State University volleyball team lost both of its games this weekend, pushing their losing streak to four matches.
After opening Pacific West Conference play with eight consecutive victories, the Trailblazers have lost four straight PacWest matches, including Saturday to California Baptist University and Sunday to Concordia University Irvine.
The match against CBU went five sets and swung back and forth until the Lancers were able to put DSU away in the decisive fifth set.
After losing the first set 25-18, DSU stormed back and never trailed the next two sets with wins of 25-21 and 25-22.
In the fourth game, the Trailblazers were not able to hold off CBU and lost 25-16 after a 12-3 Lancer run midway through the set.
The Trailblazers were unable to gain momentum in the fifth set. They dropped the set 15-8 to lose their first home conference game of the season.
“We fought really hard, but it came down to execution,” said freshman libero Rebekah Farris, a nursing major from Kuna, Idaho. “We need to make sure we play as a team and not as individuals.”
The Trailblazers were leading the conference until CBU took over first place in the PacWest following DSU’s two losses in Hawaii.
“It was a tough loss because we had so much energy in the gym and couldn’t come up with the win,” said junior libero Jaclyn Condie, an exercise science major from Cottonwood Heights. “We kind of fell apart in the fourth set and that didn’t give us any momentum going in the fifth.”
DSU then played CUI Sunday in hopes of getting back to its winning ways. The first two sets were highly competitive and extremely close, but DSU dropped them both 25-23 and 27-25.
The Trailblazers were swept after losing the third and final game of the set 25-19.
“We’ve got to let the losses go and reset [our mindset],” Farris said. “We need to go back to out-talking, out-hustling and out-working the opponent.”
Although the majority of the sets were back and forth and close in score, DSU just could not find a way to score or put away the opponent. Several times the Trailblazers held a lead late in the set but could never get over the hump. For instance, in the second set of the match against CUI, DSU was up 25-24 but could not put it away.
“[In both games], we put ourselves in position to win, but we just couldn’t finish it,” head coach Robyn Felder said. “We’ve had a good season, we’re just in a slump right now and the only way we’re going to get out of it is by continuing to battle and scrap.”
At 12-8 overall and 8-4 in PacWest play, DSU travels to Notre Dame de Namur University Friday.
