SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster women's volleyball team fell in three sets to No. 1 Rocky Mountain (Mont.) in a Frontier Conference match on Thursday night in the Behnken Field House. During the match, Westminster senior Alexis Aalona became the second player in school history to reach the 1,000 kills plateau for a career.
 
Westminster (9-12, 3-5 Frontier) battled with the nation's top-ranked team for much of the night before falling 25-22, 25-17, 25-21. The Griffins finished the contest with a 41-39 edge in total kills, including a match-high 12 from Aalona.
 
Coming into the match Aalona needed nine kills to reach 1,000 and she picked up four in an opening set that featured 11 ties and five lead changes. She would then notch another four kills in the second frame, setting up the milestone early in the third. The 1,000th kill came during a 5-0 run for the Griffins and gave the team an 11-8 lead in the set. Rocky would eventually take the set after seeing seven ties and four lead changes.
 
Rocky Mountain (19-2, 8-0) was able to win its 18th straight match with a solid blocking effort. The visitors recorded 14 blocks in the three sets, including five from Ahlea Billis. Westminster only hit .103 in the match to the .149 from Rocky and the Griffins finished with a slim 91-90 edge in digs. The 91 digs by the Griffins are the most a Westminster team has ever recorded in a three-set match and a season high.
 
Along with leading all players with 12 kills, Aalona added 18 digs for her sixth straight double-double and ninth straight match with double-digit digs. Amara Culpepper, Desiree Wickwar and Jessica Chellsen each finished with seven kills. Megan Gallegos led all players with 27 digs while Jacey Saunders and Jaden Green posted 14 and 12 digs respectively.
 
Yang Yang led Rocky with 10 kills while Mariah Stiffarm recorded eight. Billis added six kills and 22 digs to her block total and Jennifer Donaldson had 26 digs.
 
Westminster will now turn its attention to a Saturday match against Carroll (Mont.) that will begin at 2 p.m. MT in the Behnken Field House.