Match Stats
- Utah def. Cincinnati 3-0 (25-10, 25-18, 25-17)
- Utah moves to 1-0; Cincinnati drops to 0-1
- Lexington, Ky.
- Attendance:
- Box Score
LEXINGTON, Ky. – No. 23 Utah was nearly flawless offensively, hitting at a .426 clip with just six errors, in a season-opening sweep of Cincinnati at the Bluegrass Battle on Friday afternoon.
The Utes won every major statistical category in the match and also benefitted from 23 Bearcat attack errors. Utah outdid UC 37-31 in kills, .426 to .089 in hitting percentage, 4-0 in aces, 33-28 in digs and 5-3 in blocks.
Senior outside hitter Adora Anae hit at a blazing .760 clip, racking up 19 kills with no errors in 25 swings. The second team All-American and All-Pac-12 honoree also chipped in nine digs and four assists. Senior middle blocker Tawnee Luafalemana added five kills and a team-best five blocks. Freshman outside Kenzie Koerber chipped in four stuffs. Freshman Shannon Scully led the defense with 10 digs.
Junior outside Carly Nolan paced the Bearcats with nine kills, but hit .000 for the match. Redshirt junior Jasmine Jones, a transfer from UNC Greensboro, added six kills and a block. Senior middle blocker Maya Muldrow registered four kills and a team-leading two blocks. Junior Jade Tingelhoff, the 2016 American Athletic Conference Setter of the Year, added a team-best 10 digs to her 22 assist tally for a double-double.
Utah raced out to a 6-1 lead in Set 1 with help from a pair of Luafalemana putaways. After giving up three straight points to Cincinnati, the Utes rebounded to push ahead 12-5. A five-point run, including four Bearcat miscues, put Utah ahead 18-7 and put the game out of reach. Cincinnati did hold off one Ute set-point chance, before Anae closed the door at 25-10.
The teams split the first eight points of Set 2, before Utah pulled away with a 6-2 run, including a trio of Anae kills. Trailing 10-5, Cincinnati battled back to take a 12-11 lead with help from two blocks and two Utah miscues. The advantage was short-lived, however, as the Utes rallied with eight of the next 10 points, including five Bearcat errors. A UC hitting error wrapped up the 25-18 Utah victory.
In the finale, Utah went up 10-6 early and held off a mid-set rally for the 25-17 win. Cincinnati was within two at 13-11, but would get no closer. A kill by Koerber set up the Utes first match point attempt at 24-16. A putaway by Berkeley Oblad two serves later ended the match.
The Utes wrap up Day 1 in Lexington, Ky., with a battle against tournament hosts No. 14 Kentucky at 9 p.m. ET. The Bearcats look to rebound against Arkansas State at 6 p.m. ET.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy: Utah Athletics
The No. 23-ranked Utah Utes opened the 2017 campaign in sweeping fashion, downing the Cincinnati Bearcats in straight sets (25-10, 25-18, 25-17) in its first match of the Bluegrass Battle Friday afternoon at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky.
Senior All-American Adora Anae led the way with 19 kills, while fellow senior Tawnee Luafalemana added five kills and a team-leading five total blocks. Anae did not have a hitting error in the match and finished the afternoon with a career-high .760 hitting percentage. Her previous career-high was a .457 total she tallied against Idaho State last season.
Utah ran away with the match registering 37 kills on just 73 attempts and outhitting the Bearcats .425 to .089 in the match. Cincinnati totaled 23 hitting errors, while the Utes managed to total just six hitting errors through three frames. The Utes led the way on defense as well, out-digging the Bearcats (33-28) and posting more blocks on the day (5.0-3.0)
Anae and Luafalemana tallied four kills each and the Utes rolled to a 25-10 first-set victory. Utah opened the set with a 4-0 run and then later used a pair of 5-0 runs to go up 22-9. Anae would get two of Utah’s final three kills in the frame and the Utes went onto outhit the Bearcats .500 to -.172. Cincy had a total of 11 attack errors, while the Utes registered just one in the set.
The Utes jumped out to a 7-4 lead following a service ace from Camryn Machado, which forced the Bearcats to call an early timeout. Anae registered three of the next four points in the set for the Utes, but Cincinnati followed with a 7-1 run to take its first lead of the afternoon, up 12-11 midway through the set and forcing the Utes to call a timeout.
Utah countered out of the timeout with an 8-2 run and then closed the frame winning six of the next 10 points to take the set, 25-18. Anae would finish the set with 10 kills to bring her total to 14 kills through two frames.
Anae would get five more kills and a service ace, while helping guide the Utes to a 25-17 win in the third set. Cincinnati kept things close midway through the set, down just 13-11, but a 9-3 run put the Utes in control on the way to earning the straight sets victory. Despite Cincinnati registering more kills than Utah in the frame (13-11), the Utes went onto outhit the Bearcats .526 to .259 in the frame.
Junior Berkeley Oblad, who registered the final kill for the Utes on the day, finished with four kills and a .429 hitting percentage. Luafalemana tallied a .444 hitting percentage, giving the Utes three players with .400-plus attacking totals in the same match.
Anae, who came into the match ranked No. 3 all-time in school history with 1,373 kills, moved up to No. 3 all-time with 1,392 kills. She surpassed Chesley Schofield-Olsen, who tallied a total of 1,379 kills.
Sophomore Bailey Choy led the Utes with 21 assists. Freshman Camryn Machado added nine assists, while leading the team with two service aces. Freshman Shannon Scully totaled a team-high 10 digs on the afternoon and fellow freshman Kenzie Koerber collected four total blocks.
The Utes will be back in action again tonight, taking on No. 14-ranked Kentucky at 7 p.m. MT/9 p.m. ET. The contest will be televised live on the SEC Network. The contest can also be aired on the WatchESPN app.
Courtesy: Cincinnati Athletics
The University of Cincinnati volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to #23 Utah in the season opener for both teams at the Bluegrass Battle in Lexington, Ky., Friday afternoon. The set scores were 25-10, 25-18, 25-17 in the first of three contests being played at Memorial Coliseum on the University of Kentucky campus.
// NOTES
• Cincinnati fell to 0-1 on the year while the Utes moved to 1-0
• The Bearcats slipped to 0-2 in the all-time series with Utah after dropping a 3-2 decision to the #17 Utes in 2009
• The Utes entered the match ranked #23 in the AVCA Preseason Top 25 rankings
• Carly Nolan led all Bearcats with nine kills in the match while junior transfer Jasmine Jones added six
• Jade Tingelhoff recorded a double-double as she led the team in both assists (22) and digs (10)
• Elly Ogle recorded a career-high four kills in the match, surpassing her previous best of three, which she recorded three times previously, the most recent coming last year in the opening weekend against Louisiana-Monroe
• Four players made their UC debuts, including true freshmen Chrysanthi Stamatiou and Maya Eller, redshirt freshman Erica Kostalec and junior transfer Jasmine Jones. Both Jones and Stamatiou earned a starting spot as well
// SET BREAKDOWN
Set 1: Utah, 25-10
• The Utes opened the match with serve and built a lead of 4-0 before clawing back into the set at 7-5 with a Maya Muldrow kill and forcing UU into several attack errors.
• The Bearcats fell behind, 12-6, before UU took seven of the next eight points to jump ahead, 19-8.
• Jones and Nolan recorded on kill each, but the Bearcats were unable to climb back further with the Utes taking the first set, 25-10
• Nolan led the way with a team-high three kills while adding a team-best two digs
• Jade Tingelhoff had six assists in the opening set as well
Set 2: Utah, 25-19
• UC came out the aggressor in the second set and built a small lead before UU reclaimed the lead to 10-6 before a Muldrow block halted the Utes’ run at 10-7.
• Muldrow had another big block to get UC to within one point (11-10) before Nolan slammed home a kill to tie the match at 11-11.
• Jones sent one straight down to take a 12-11 lead before the Utes ran off three points
• Ogles’ center attack ended the UU rally and started a streak of back-and-forth scoring before UU began to pull away
• With the score at 24-19 in favor of the Utes, the Bearcats looked to have a kill to keep the set going, but a video review challenge by the Utes overturned the call (UC was whistled for a net infraction) to take the set, 25-19.
• Nolan (4), Jones (3) and Kostalec (2) each recorded multiple kills in the set with Tinglehoff posting 10 assists
Set 3: Utah, 25-17
• The Utes jumped out to a 4-1 lead before Nolan once again stopped the run as she sent a kill straight down between blockers
• Both teams continues to score in a back-and-forth fashion before the Utes scored four points in a row and built a 10-6 lead before Ogle halted the run with a huge kill of her own
• The Bearcats hung around and closed to within three points (12-9) with Stamatiou sending a kill off the Utah blockers
• UC received a kill on a cross-court shot from Ogle to make it 16-12 in favor of the Utes, but that was as close as the Bearcats would get as Utah ran off four points to take a 20-15 lead before closing out the match, 25-17
• The third set saw six different Bearcats record at least two kills, including Stamatiou, who led the way with three in the frame
// NEXT MATCH
UC returns to the court at 6 p.m. tonight and will face Arkansas State. The match with the Red Wolves will be the second of three matches the Bearcats will play this weekend in Kentucky.
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