MATCH STATS
- Utah defeats #9 BYU (27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25, 15-13)
- Utah (8-2) BYU (9-1)
In a stunning 5-set upset, the Utah Utes took down #9 BYU Cougars on BYU’s home turf Thursday night (27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25, 15-13). Utes junior Adora Anae earned 31 kills, and freshman Bailey Choy finished with a new career-high 57 assists.
The Utes have not won the rivalry match since 2010, and crushed BYU’s 29-match winning streak at home- also the nation’s longest current home winning streak. The Cougars had been 55-1 at home since 2011.
BYU had one too many errors in the first set, giving the Utah offense a change to steal the game away 27-25 with a kill from Eliza Katoa.
The Utes took the game away from BYU in the second set with a dominating offensive game, not letting the Cougars take a big enough lead to win. The Cougars snagged a lead halfway through the second set, but Utah’s 9-2 run gave them a 21-18 lead. BYU tried to come back, but the Utes 4-0 run to end the game put them up 2-0.
BYU seemed to hit their stride in the second and third sets, handedly defeating the Utes 25-23, 25-17. Utah had a lead late in the third set, but a timeout got the Cougars back in the game to take a 22-20 lead. Four offensive points gave them the 25-23 lead.
Utah lost their momentum in the fourth set, falling 25-17 and unable to match up to BYU’s offense. The Utes tried to rally, but a 9-1 run from BYU closed them out of the set.
Utah claimed a 7-4 lead early in the fifth set, but the game was soon tied 8-8, forcing the Utes to refocus. BYU still scored 5-2 after Utah’s timeout to lead 13-11, but the Utes caught up to tie the game. Two final kills ended the fifth set.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy of Utah Athletics
PROVO, Utah – Utah junior Adora Anae recorded a school record 31 kills, freshman Bailey Choy notched a career-high 57 assists and sophomore Megan Shughrou registered a season-high 24 digs on the way to helping guide the Utah Utes (8-2) to a five-set win (27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25, 15-13) over the No. 9-ranked BYU Cougars (9-1) Thursday evening at Smith Fieldhouse.
Anae becomes just the second player in school history to become a member of the 30-kill club, while setting a new single-match record for most kills in the rally-scoring era. She breaks the prevous record of 28 kills, which she set herself two times last season.
Meanwhile, Utah snapped a five-match losing streak to the Cougars, defeating BYU for the first time since Oct. 29, 2010 and winning inside Smith Fieldhouse for the first time since Oct. 1, 2010. The Utes also snapped BYU’s 29-match home winning streak, which happened to be the nation’s longest current home winning streak. BYU was 55-1 at home since November 2011.
Both teams traded points throughout the majority of the first set. Utah had an early 4-0 run to take a 7-5 lead and BYU later countered with a 4-0 run to go up 13-11, but neither team would string together more than two points before Utah’s 3-0 run gave the Utes a 19-18 lead. Anae would later put Utah up set point (24-22), but the home team countered with consecutive points to tie the frame at 24-all. A kill from junior Carly Trueman gave Utah a 25-24 lead, but BYU again came back to tie the set at 25-25. A Cougar service error once again gave Utah set point, up 26-25, and the Utes’ would take advantage of the lead and finally took the set 27-25 with a kill from junior Eliza Katoa.
Utah took a 2-0 lead into intermission after downing the Cougars 25-20 in the second set. BYU would go up by as many as four points, up 16-12, midway through the frame, but Utah countered with back-to-back kills from Trueman, which help set up a 9-2 run and a 21-18 Utah lead. BYU came back with a pair of points, but the Utes closed out the set with a 4-0 run to take the two-set advantage into the locker room.
Utah led by as many as four points late in the third set, up 19-15, and later 20-16 with a kill from Anae. BYU called a timeout and followed with a 6-0 run to go up 22-20. The Utes would get kills from sophomore Berkeley Oblad and Anae to tie the set at 22-all, but BYU won three of the final four points to take the set 25-23.
After the Utes went up early in the fourth set, 7-2, BYU was forced to take a quick timeout. The Cougars rallied with a 5-0 run and that would force Utah to call its first timeout of the frame. Anae recorded a kill for the Utes out of the timeout, but a 9-1 run from the Cougars put the home team up 16-9. Utah would later go on a 3-1 run, but BYU pulled away to a 25-17 win and force a fifth set.
BYU took an early 3-1 lead and later pushed its lead to 4-2 before Utah posted a 5-0 run and take a 7-4 lead. BYU stopped the run before Utah put up another point on the board, but the Cougars came back to tie the frame 8-8 and force Utah to call timeout. Oblad registered a kill out of the break, but BYU scored five of the next seven points to take a 13-11 lead. A kill from junior Tawnee Luafalemana, followed by a block from Oblad and Anae, tied the set at 13-all and BYU quickly called its final timeout. Anae did the rest, recording the set’s final two points on the way to a 31-kill effort and securing the win for the Utes.
Utah defeated BYU for the fourth time out of the past five matches when the two teams have played to five sets. BYU won the last time the two teams took the match to five sets, but prior to that, Utah had won four straight dating back to 2007. Utah leads the series 9-6 when the match has gone to a fifth set.
The Utes out-hit the Cougars by the slightest of margins, .230 to .229, and has now posted a better hitting percentage against all 10 of its opponents so far this season.
Katoa (eight kills) led the way with a .353 hitting percentage and Luafalemana (six kills) followed hitting .333 on the night.
Along with Anae’s 31 kills, Oblad and Trueman added 11 kills each on the evening. Utah totaled 67 kills to BYU’s 62. For Anae, she became just the second player in school history to record at least 30 kills in a single match, just two kills shy of Maile Gee-Merrill’s 33 kills that were recorded back on Oct. 27, 1984.
Choy became the first Ute to notch 50 or more assists in a match since Jessie Openshaw tallied 54 assists against California on Oct. 18th of last season. She is the first Ute to record 55 or more assists since Kiesha Fisher registered 58 kills against San Diego State back on Sept. 13, 2007.
In addition to Shughrou’s match-high 24 digs, Anae added 10 digs for the Utes on the way to collecting her seventh double-double of the season.
Utah out-blocked the Cougars in total team blocks, 12.0 to 9.0. Luafalemana set a new career-high with seven total blocks, while Katoa added a season-high six total blocks on the evening. Oblad added five total blocks in the five-set thriller.
What’s Next: The Utes will be back in action this Saturday, Sept. 17, hosting the Utah State Aggies in the team’s final non-conference match of the regular-season. First serve is set for 7 p.m. inside the Huntsman Center.
Utes Numbers
Adora Anae (31 kills, 10 digs, 2 blocks)
Carly Trueman (11 kills, 4 digs)
Megan Shughrou (4 assists, 2 aces, 24 digs)
Berkeley Oblad (11 kills, 1 ace, 5 blocks)
Eliza Katoa (8 kills, 2 aces, 2 digs)
Follow the Utes on Facebook, Twitter @utahvolleyball and Instagram @utahvolleyball
Courtesy of BYU Athletics
PROVO, Utah — In a neck-and-neck match-up, No. 9 BYU women’s volleyball fell to Utah in a five-set (27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25, 15-13) heartbreaker Thursday night in the Deseret First Duel.
“It was a great match and it was exactly what I thought it was going to be,” BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. “Congrats to Utah, they executed when it mattered. I’m really proud of our team for coming back from being down 0-2 to give ourselves a chance, but we couldn’t get it done in the end.”
Freshman McKenna Miller led the Cougars offensively with 24 kills, while sophomore Veronica Jones-Perry added a career-high 20 kills of her own. Senior Amy Boswell recorded six blocks along with seven kills and four digs. Mary Lake collected a team-leading 21 digs and Lyndie Haddock paced the team with 47 assists and nine digs.
BYU (9-1) jumped out to a 2-0 lead to begin the decisive fifth set. Utah (8-2) quickly responded with a 5-2 run to take a 7-4 lead, forcing the Cougars to use their first timeout. A kill by Jones-Perry then brought the Cougars’ deficit down to two, 7-5, before the teams switched courts. Jones-Perry struck again after a Makenna Santiago ace to bring the teams back to being tied at 8-8. A couple of Ute attack errors helped the Cougars take the lead, 10-9. The Utes responded quickly to bring the teams back to being tied at 13-13. Two kills from Utah’s Adora Anae ended the match for the Utes, 15-13.
The Cougars and Utes traded points back and forth in the first minutes of the first set until the Cougars finally took the lead at 4-3. Utah rallied back and made up the difference right away to tie BYU and slowly build its lead to 7-5. With two kills from Miller, the Cougars were back in the set matching the Ute’s pace. BYU led 14-12, until two kills from the Utes brought the teams back to 14-all. Kills by Haddock and Jones-Perry gave the Cougars a 18-16 edge, but the Utes matched those two kills with two of their own to tie things up at 18 apiece. An error from Utah led the Utes to take a timeout as the Cougars then held the lead at 20-19. Utah took over after a timeout to take a 23-21 advantage. The teams traded points again until the Utes took the two-point lead to end the first set in extra points, 27-25.
Three kills from Miller started off the second set to help the Cougars match Utah 5-5. Jones-Perry recorded her eighth kill of the night to then bring the teams back together at 9-9. Miller with her tenth and eleventh kill, helped the Cougars take the lead 11-9. Another big kill from Miller and then Howard helped BYU take a 15-12 edge before a media timeout. After an error, the Utes came back on a 5-0 run to bring them back ahead 17-16, but another kill from Jones-Perry ended the run and brought the score to 17-17. On a 3-0 rally, Utah regained the advantage coming within striking distance of set point. A huge kill from Jones-Perry quickly ended the run. The Utes came back fired up from the timeout, ending the second set on a 4-1 run, 25-20.
In the third set, both teams exchanged scores until the Utes went on a 4-2 rally to give them their highest lead of the set at 15-13. After a break, Utah kept its streak alive with a 4-1 rally, bringing the score to 19-15. The Cougars rallied back with a run of 7-1 to take the lead by two before Utah called a timeout. The Utes came back scoring the first two points following the break. Kills from Miller and Jones-Perry brought the Cougars to set point, 24-23. With her 14th kill of the night, Jones-Perry ended the third set in favor of the Cougars, 25-23.
Utah started the fourth set out on a 3-0 run before two attack errors gave BYU its first points. Another 4-0 run for the Utes put the Cougars on the offensive scramble. A kill by Miller led BYU in a 5-0 run to bring the two teams back together at 7-7. With kills from Haddock, Jones-Perry and Boswell, the Cougars took off again on a 10-2 run to extend their lead to 17-9. A Jones-Perry kill and attack error from Utah then put BYU up 19-11. The Cougars kept the momentum, collecting two more kills from Boswell and Miller, to take a 23-15 lead. An attack error from Utah gave the Cougars set point before another Ute error gave BYU set point, 25-17, sending it to the decisive fifth set.
“That match was exactly what we needed,” coach Olmstead said. “It’s a quick turn around so we’ll have to learn from it quickly.”
What’s Next: The Cougars return to action tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 15, to face CSUN at 7 p.m. MDT in the Smith Fieldhouse. The match will be streamed live on BYUtv. Links to live stats and a video feed can be found on the BYU women’s volleyball schedule page.
Cougar Stats
McKenna Miller (24 kills, 2 digs, 1 block)
Veronica Jones-Perry (20 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks)
Amy Boswell (7 killsm 1 ace, 4 digs)
Track the Cougars on Facebook, Twitter @BYUwvolleyball and Instagram @byuwvolleyball
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