SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster women's volleyball team lost in five sets to Western State Colorado University in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match in the Behnken Field House on Friday night.
 
Westminster (5-11, 2-6 RMAC) was looking for consecutive wins for the first time this season, but fell 20-25, 25-18, 8-25, 25-20, 15-10.
 
Western State (6-12, 4-4) used a 59-44 edge in kills on the night to earn the road victory. That advantage was bolstered by a third set that saw the Griffins record only three kills and hit negative-.182.
 
Amara Culpepper led all players in the match with 15 kills. The sophomore added nine digs and four blocks while hitting .196. She had all four blocks in the fourth set to help the team force the deciding set.
 
The match only featured eight ties and two lead changes all night with four of the ties and both lead changes coming in the fourth set.
 
The Griffins had 70 digs, 11 blocks, and five service aces and they hit .098. Western State hit .212 with 86 digs and eight aces.
 
Jessica Chellsen added 11 kills for the griffins and Desiree Wickwar had nine kills. Alyse Horton led the team with 18 digs and Megan Gallegos added 16.
 
The Mountaineers had four players with double digit kill totals with Tori Gaherty leading the way with 14.
 
Westminster will return to action on Saturday when they host Colorado State-Pueblo at 7 p.m. in the Behnken Field House.