Boxscore:
Reno, Nev. - The University of Nevada(15-15) volleyball team saw its season come to an end falling 30-25, 27-30, 18-30, and 28-30 to San Jose State(19-11) in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno Wednesday night. The Wolf Pack ended the year 15-15 while SJSU improved to 19-11 with the victory. The Spartans advance on to play top seeded Hawai`i at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. UH defeated Fresno State 3-0 in the final match of the day to advance to the semifinals. FS won the first match of the day 3-1 over Louisiana Tech in the matchup of the eighth and ninth seeds.
In other first round action New Mexico State defeated Boise State 3-1 and Idaho downed Utah State 3-1. The two square of in the first semifinal on Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
Game one was tied 15 times and there were seven lead changes before Nevada won 30-25. The last tie was 19-19 before a 3-0 Wolf Pack run put them on top for good. Karly Sipherd and Jorgan Staker ended the game with a block of Niki Clement. Nevada hit .263 in game one and SJSU .186.
SJSU scored the first six points of game two and never trailed in winning 30-27. The Pack hit .300 and SJSU .239 in game two.
The Spartans took control early jumping to a 12-4 lead in game three and never looked back in winning easily 30-18 to take a 2-1 advantage in the match. Nevada hit .250 but SJSU had its best hitting game of the night at .340.
Nevada trailed most of game four but closed within a point at 29-28. SJSU ended the match with a kill by Jennifer Senftleben to win the game 30-28 and the match 3-1. The Pack hit .276 and SJSU .275 in the final game.
Teal Ericson led Nevada with 18 kills and senior Brianne Hall tallied a career-high 17 kills in the match. Carly Sorensen and Karly Sipherd finished with 15 and 14 kills respectively. Sorensen posted her 12th double-double of the season as she contributed 16 digs. Setter Tristin Johnson dished out a match-high 63 assists on the night. Libero Lauren Kelly totaled 20 digs in the match.
Senftleben posted a match-high 24 digs for the Spartans and Colleen Burke added 21. Clement finished the night with 18 kills. Jessie Shull totaled a match-high 32 digs while Sarah Christensen and Kristal Tsukano finished with 12 and 11 digs respectively. Setter Kristina Conrad ended the night with 61 assists.
The Pack out hit SJSU .274 to .262 in the match and won the blocking battled 12-3. Sipherd had eight blocks for Nevada and Burke three for the Spartans.
Nevada’s three seniors Hall, Johnson, and Sorensen all played their final match in the Silver and Blue. Hall was a member of the team for five season and the other two were four-year starters.
