Weber State volleyball eliminated in reverse sweep to Idaho State
Photo supplied, Big Sky Conference
Weber State players Kaylie Ray, left, and Saane Munyer, center, leap for a block attempt against Montana in a Big Sky tournament quarterfinal Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Greeley, Colo.One of the most competitive Big Sky volleyball tournaments in recent memory continued Tuesday night in Greeley, Colorado, and Weber State ended up on the wrong end of that fervor in the semifinals.
No. 8 Idaho State rallied from down 2-0 and claimed a five-set victory 20-25, 23-25, 25-12, 26-24, 15-7 over No. 4 Weber State to end the Wildcats’ season and send the Bengals to the tournament title match for the first time in 11 years.
WSU ends 2025 with an 18-12 record.
With No. 3 Northern Colorado outlasting No. 2 Sacramento State in a 20-18 fifth set, five of the tournament’s six matches have gone the full five sets to decide a winner in the first two days (only WSU’s 3-0 quarterfinal sweep of No. 5 Montana did not).
Rose Moore led Weber State with 16 kills and two aces. Seniors Kaylie Ray and Ashley Gneiting each had eight kills, with Gneiting adding 14 digs.
Tuesday started well for Weber State, going up 2-0 while hitting .300 through the first two sets and running its streak of consecutive sets won to 11 straight. The Wildcats trailed 15-11 in the second set before rallying to a victory, moving just one frame away from the conference title match.
Things unwound in the third set with Idaho State cruising to a 25-12 victory with the Bengals hitting .333 to WSU’s negative-0.028.
The Wildcats led the fourth set 20-18 before two ISU points drew a WSU timeout at 20-20, and the teams went point for point from there, sometimes trading errors (both teams hit .000 in the fourth) — an attack error from WSU’s Saane Munyer led to a service error from ISU’s Dani Crawford, which tied it 24-24 and guaranteed at least one extra serve to decide it.
It only took the one extra. The errors ended there, and kills from Brinley Smith and Meline Shulikov gave ISU the 26-24 win to force the fifth set.
Whether Idaho State had momentum or not, it played like it. The Bengals committed no attack errors in the short final frame, hitting a blistering .583 that Weber State could not match (with another .000 set).
ISU went up 5-1 and then 10-3. Big swings from Munyer sandwiched a Maggie Larsen service ace to cut the score to 10-6, but it abruptly stopped there for WSU. Larsen served the next point long and Addison Eastwood missed a pass for another Munyer attempt, which made the score 12-6. Idaho State delivered from there to close it out.
