Victory on ‘Senior Night’

Gaining another big victory, four lady Wolverine seniors played their last home match in the Activity Center on Nov. 5.

In front of an exuberant crowd of 745, Kayli Doxey, Dani Robison, Kathleen aStevens and Lanni O’Reilly played for their fans one last time against conference opponent Texas-Pan American, sweeping them 3-0.

Going into last weekend’s final two regular-season games, Utah Valley had extended their conference record to 7-3 and 18-10 overall for the season.

It was an emotional night for the four seniors, but their performance was not influenced by those emotions.

Senior All-Star Doxey led the lady Wolverines offensively with 16 kills and six digs.

“At first it was emotional and then we just kind of had to take a step back and remember just to enjoy it,” Doxey said. “It was weird wrapping four years up in one game, but it’s been awesome.”

Robison followed Doxey, finishing the match with 11 kills and one service ace.

“It was nice to end with a win and it was just great to be out there,” Robison said. “I’m not ready to be all done with this, but all good things come to an end.”

Stevens, the senior libero, led defensively finishing with 14 digs and two service aces and had nothing but good things to say about her team.

“It was a great way to end our last home game: with a win. I thought we played well throughout the match,” she said.

O’Reilly got to serve the last point for the team’s victory before the fans went wild over the win. O’Reilly finished the match with six digs.

“It doesn’t really feel like the last time ‘cause I’ve been here for so long, but it was a good win,” O’Reilly said. “I liked being able to serve that last point, getting in that [serving] one more time.”

Coach Sam Atoa had nothing but kind words regarding his four seniors.

“These four are a special bunch and it’s been great to be able to spend that [four years] and for them to be able to spend time together and to be able to develop as time went on,” Atoa said. “They’ve been a huge part of our success this year, and I expect them to just continue to do that in this next couple weeks.”

The lady Wolverines will now head to the Great West Conference Championships in Chicago, Nov. 19-21.