Match Stats
- #16 Utah def. Washington State 3-2 (25-15, 22-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-8)
- Utah moves to 20-8 (11-6 Pac-12); Washington State falls to 19-10 (9-8 Pac-12)
- Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
- Attendance: 1146
The Utah Utes have played most of their biggest games on the road this season, but this weekend they welcome in the duo from Washington for two big home matches that will go a long way toward NCAA tournament seeding.
They kicked that off on Thursday with a 3-2 win over Washington State, who has been ranked this year but is not currently. That win gives the Utes a sweep on the season series, their first such in this matchup since 2011.
Junior Adora Anae, the Utes’ offensive leader, had 23 kills on a .348 average and nearly added a double-double with 9 digs. Carly Trueman also hit north of .300 en route to 19 kills of her own.
Washington State’s top hitter was Kyra Holt with 16 kills but just a .140 average; McKenna Woodford had only 13 kills, but did so on just 31 swings for a .258 average.
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SALT LAKE CITY – The No. 16-ranked Utah volleyball team won its third straight match with a five-set win (25-15, 22-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-8) over the Washington State Cougars in Pac-12 Conference play Thursday night at the Huntsman Center.
Junior Adora Anae led the way with 23 kills and junior Carly Trueman added 19 kills on the way to helping Utah move to 20-8 overall and 11-6 in Pac-12 play. The victory assures the Utes of recording its first winning record in Pac-12 Conference play since joining the league in 2011. It also marks the 10th time since 2000 that the Utes have eclipsed the 20-win mark in a season.
The Cougars dropped to 19-10 overall and 9-8 in the league standings with the loss. Utah swept the season series from WSU for the first time since taking both matches from the Cougars back in 2011.
Utah cruised to a 25-15 win in the first set behind Anae’s six kills and .750 hitting percentage. The Utes registered four total blocks and limited the Cougars to a hitting percentage of -.062. Sophomore Megan Shughrou had a pair of service aces and Utah had just one service error in the frame.
WSU came back to notch the match at 1-1 after taking set two, 25-22. Utah opened the frame with three straight kills from Anae, but the Cougars would later counter with a 7-1 run to take a 10-5 lead. The Utes trailed by as many as six points, down 19-13 late in the set, and despite a 4-1 run down the stretch, WSU managed to take the set with a kill from Kyra Holt.
Utah used an early 5-0 run to go up 8-4 on the way to taking the third set 25-23. Trueman registered five consecutive kills to put Utah up 11-9 and later registered another four straight kills to push Utah’s lead to 20-17. WSU scored four of the next seven points, but a kill from junior Tawnee Luafalemana put the Utes up set point, 24-21. The Cougars countered with back-to-back points, but Utah put the set away with a block from sophomore Berkeley Oblad.
WSU tied the match at 2-2 following a 26-24 win over the Utes in the fourth set. The Cougars led by as many as four points, up 19-15 late in the frame. Utah chipped away at WSU’s lead and finally notched things at 24-24 with a block from Trueman, but the Cougars took the final two points of the frame to send the match into a decisive fifth set.
Utah won four of the first five points, forcing the Cougars to call an early timeout and after both teams switched sides, Luafalemana recorded a block to put Utah up 9-5 and WSU had to call its final timeout. Trueman registered another kill to go up 10-5 and Oblad put the set away a few points later with her kill to seal both the frame and the match.
Anae topped 20-plus kills for the 12th time this season and for the 24th time in her career, while pushing her season total to 512 kills and breaking the single-season mark for kills, which she set last season (501). Anae also managed to move into sixth-place all-time in school history with 1,293 career kills.
Trueman was a kill shy of her career-high of 20 kills, which she recorded earlier this season against Illinois State. Meanwhile, Luafalemana added 10 kills to give her a double-digit total for the 11th time this season.
Freshman Bailey Choy and sophomore Jessie Openshaw both registered double-doubles on the night with 26 assists and 10 digs each. Freshman Brianna Doehrmann led the team with 16 digs – her ninth straight match with 10 digs or more.
Utah out-blocked the Cougars 10.0 to 9.0 as Luafalemana paced the defense with five total blocks in the match.
Utah finished the match hitting .273 as a team, while the defense limited WSU to just .157 hitting on the night.
The Utes are out of action for the next few days before hosting No. 8-ranked Washington on Sunday, Nov. 20. First serve between the Utes and Huskies is set for 1 p.m. at the Huntsman Center.
Courtesy Washington State Athletics
SALT LAKE CITY — The Washington State volleyball team (19-10 overall, 9-8 Pac-12) fell in five sets to No. 16 Utah (20-8, 11-6) Thursday night at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. Set scores in the Utes’ win were 25-15, 22-25, 25-23, 24-26, and 15-8.
Kyra Holt led WSU with 16 kills and had seven digs and one block. Holt now has 1,705 career kills, second only to All-American Sarah Silvernail’s 1,848 (1993-96). McKenna Woodford added 13 kills, two blocks and two digs. Casey Schoenlein had nine kills and two blocks. Taylor Mims led the match with six blocks and had six kills. Alexis Dirige led the match with 24 digs and Tani Stephens landed two aces. Haley MacDonald set up 32 assists and Nicole Rigoni had 19 assists.
Utah’s Ador Anae led the match with 23 kills, hit .348 on the night, and had nine digs. Tawnee Luafalemana and Carly Trueman combined for 29 kills. Three Utes were in double-digit digs with 16 from Brianna Doehrmann, and 10 each from Bailey Choy and Jessie Openshaw. Luafalemana led the team with five blocks. Megan Shughrou and Berkeley Oblad each served a pair of aces.
Utah hit .273 on the night with 68 kills and had 61 digs and 10 blocks. The Cougars hit .157 for the match, had 54 kills, 52 digs and nine blocks. Both teams served six aces.
“Non-consistency once again. Unfortunately we can’t seem to get our hitters consistently hitting the ball at good numbers. Last weekend I thought we did a pretty good job of attacking and having better numbers than we did tonight. We couldn’t get anything going offensively and definitely that won’t help you win,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “One point here or there in this league is going to make a huge difference. Credit goes to a great Utah team; they played exceptionally well, especially their outside hitters. I’m disappointing that we couldn’t get out blocks going to slow them down. For a team to hit .273 on us after we have done a good job most of the season in limiting our opponent’s hitting percentage and that certainly wasn’t the case tonight.”
In this final road trip of the Pac-12 season, WSU travels to Boulder to play Colorado (13-13, 5-11* pending Nov. 18 vs. No. 8 Washington) Sunday morning at 11 a.m. PT.
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