Press Release courtesy of Utah Athletics
Match 20: #12 Utah vs. #13 UCLA
Friday, Oct. 20 | 6 p.m. MT
Salt Lake City | Huntsman Center
TV: Pac-12 Networks (Thad Anderson, Mike Dodd)
Stream: Pac-12 NOW
Live Stats: UtahUtes.com
Match 21: #12 Utah vs. #19 USC
Sunday, Oct. 22 | 1 p.m. MT
Salt Lake City | Huntsman Center
TV: Pac-12 Networks (Thad Anderson, Holly McPeak)
Stream: Pac-12 NOW
Live Stats: UtahUtes.com
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
• Utah heads into the week with a 7-1 mark in Pac-12 play and has won five consecutive conference matches, which marks the longest conference match winning streak for the program since joining the league in 2011. Utah’s previous long was a four-match winning streak back in 2014. It also marks the longest winning streak in conference play since five straight as a member of the Mountain West Conference back in 2009.
- Utah is coming off back-to-back two-win weekends on the road. The Ute have won six straight road matches dating back to its victory at Hawaii on Sept. 3, which already matches last season’s longest span of wins away from home.
- Utah ranks among the nation’s top-50 teams in eight different statistical categories, which includes top-10 rankings in assists-per-set (3rd, 13.90) and kills-per-set (7th, 14.66).
- The Utes moved up to No. 12 in this week’s AVCA Top-25 Poll and was ranked No. 10 inMonday’sset of NCAA RRI rankings.
- Utah senior Carly Trueman guided Utah to a win over Arizona State this past Sunday, notching a team-high 20 kills on the day. It was Trueman’s second-career 20-kill effort in a single match.
FIRST SERVE
The No. 12-ranked Utah Utes (16-3, 7-1) return home to the friend confines of the Jon M. Huntsman Center this weekend to host a pair of top-25 matches when they take on No. 13-ranked UCLA (12-5, 5-3) and No. 19-ranked USC (14-5, 6-2). The Utes and Bruins are set to go head-to-head this Friday, Oct. 20, with a first serve set for 6 p.m. MT. The Utes and Trojans will close out the weekend with a Sunday, Oct. 22, matinée scheduled for 1 p.m. MT
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UCLA Bruins
UCLA faced No. 3-ranked Stanford and California last weekend to continue conference play. The Bruins snapped its three-game conference win streak, losing to Stanford in four sets. UCLA bounced back and swept California to move to 5-3 in Pac-12 play.
Reily Buechler leads the Bruin offense with 198 kills on the season, which is good for a 3.19 kills-per-set average. Sarah Sponcil ranks third in the Pac-12 in assists-per-set and runs the UCLA offense, totaling 10.95 aps. Defensively for the Bruins, Zana Muno ranks second in the conference in digs-per-set and teammate Madeleine Gates ranks eighth in blocks-per-set. Muno tallies 4.62 dig/s, while Gates totals 1.25 blk/s for UCLA.
USC Trojans
USC opened conference play on a hot start, winning the first four conference matchups. The past two weekends, the Trojans have gone 1-1 to move to a conference record of 6-2. Last weekend, USC downed California in four sets but then fell to No. 3-ranked Stanford in four sets to close out the weekend.
Khalia Lanier leads the Trojan offense with her 4.08 kills-per-set average, while Brittany Abercrombie adds in 3.50 k/s for USC. Reni Meyer-Whalley and Cindy Marina combine to run the offense with Meyer-Whalley recording 6.36 a/s and Marina registering a 5.42 assists-per-set average. Victoria Garrick leads the USC defense with 282 digs on the season (4.09 dig/s).
SERIES HISTORY
UCLA leads the all-time series having won 20 of the 22 matches between the two teams and the Bruins also bring in a four-match winning streak against the Utes this weekend. Utah’s last win was a three-set sweep over the Bruins back on Nov. 9, 2014 in Salt Lake City. The victory marked Utah’s only win over the Bruins as a member of the Pac-12 Conference and the first win since 2004, which also came in a home contest.
USC leads 16-3 all-time, but the two teams split last season’s series with both road squads earning the win. Utah dropped a five-setter to the Trojans early in the season, but then registered a four-set win over USC in Los Angeles. The win snapped three-match losing streak and also gave the Utes its first win over USC at the Galen Center since 1986. Utah is just 1-7 all-time when facing the Trojans in Salt Lake City, with its last and only win coming back in 2014.
COVERING THE UTES
Both contests this weekend will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks with Thad Anderson calling play-by-play and Mike Dodd providing color commentary on Friday. Anderson will again call play-by-play on Sunday with Holly McPeak providing color commentary for that match. Fans can also follow the action on-line by logging onto Pac-12.com/live or watching via smart phones and tablets using the Pac-12 Now App, which can be downloaded at the Apple Store, Google Play Store or Amazon Apps Store.
Live stats will be provided for both contests this weekend, with links to these matches found at www.UtahUtes.com.
WEEKEND PROMOTIONS
Friday’s match against UCLA will mark Utah’s Pink Out match for the season. The Utes will wear pink jerseys in honor of breast cancer awareness month and fans wearing pink to the contest will receive free admission. Pre-match ceremonies on Friday, Utah will recognize senior Adora Anae for becoming the program’s all-time career leader in kills. Anae set the all-time record for career kills a few weekends back in a road match at Washington State.
LAST TIME OUT
The Utes picked up wins No. 6 and No. 7 in Pac-12 play this past weekend, registering road victories at both Arizona (25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23) and Arizona State (24-26, 25-17, 31-29, 28-26). It marked Utah’s fourth and fifth straight win and moved the Utes to 7-1 in conference play.
Despite hitting a season-low .156 in its match against the Wildcats on Friday, Utah’s defense limited Arizona to hitting at a clip of just .144 en route to the win. Utah tallied one more kill than the Wildcats (52 to 51), produced more digs (76 to 70) and totaled five service aces to UA’s total of three aces. Arizona’s Kendra Dahlke tallied a match-high 17 kills, but Utah had a trio of players with 10+ kills to offset the Wildcats’ performance. Senior Adora Anae led the team with 14 kills, senior Carly Trueman added 11 kills and junior Berkeley Oblad totaled 10 kills on the evening. Sophomore Bailey Choy collected her eighth double-double of the season with 20 assists and a team-high 15 digs.
Utah dropped the first set to Arizona State, but then came back to win the next three sets to take the match in four frames. After hitting just .250 in the first set, the Utes managed to hit .464 in the second frame and despite both third and fourth sets going into extra points, Utah still came away with points when needed. Trueman matched a career-high with 20 kills in the contest, while both Anae (12 kills) and Oblad (11 kills) notched double-digit kill efforts as well. Choy tallied 46 assists and Brianna Doehrmann totaled a team-high 14 digs.
Senior Tawnee Luafalemana collected a team-high seven total blocks at the net and Oblad added five blocks on the day as well, while Utah totaled 18.0 total team blocks. It marked the seventh time this season that the Utes had tallied at least 13.0 team blocks in a match.
POLL TALK
Utah moved up one spot to No. 12 in this week’s AVCA Top-25 Coaches Poll, giving Utah its highest ranking in the poll since coming in at No. 11 back on Nov. 27, 2006. Utah has now been ranked inside the AVCA Poll for 18 straight weeks dating back to last season – the team’s longest stretch of being ranked since a run of 45 straight weeks that ran Sept. 11, 2000 to Dec. 2, 2002. This is Utah’s highest ranking in the AVCA Poll as a member of the Pac-12 Conference.
UTES AGAINST RANKED TEAMS
With its win over No. 9-ranked Washington back on Oct. 6, Utah moved to 3-3 against AVCA top-25 ranked teams this season. All three losses have come to teams ranked No. 14 or higher (No. 14 Kentucky, No. 14 BYU and No. 12 Oregon) and all three losses came in five sets. Utah is 9-10 against ranked teams the past two seasons.
With No. 13-ranked UCLA and No. 19-ranked USC on tap this weekend, the Utes will face top-25 ranked teams in the same weekend for the first time this season and for the first time overall since facing No. 12 UCLA and No. 24 USC last season.
Utah is 2-16 all-time when facing a top-25 ranked UCLA team and 3-13 all-time when facing a top-ranked USC squad.
LET’S GO STREAKING
Utah, who has won eight of its past nine matches, heads into the weekend on a current five-match winning streak with all five victories coming in Pac-12 play. The five-match conference winning streak is Utah’s longest such streak since joining the Pac-12, surpassing a four-match Pac-12 winning streak the program tallied back in the 2014 season. The conference match winning streak also matches the program’s longest streak since collecting five straight wins as a member of the Mountain West Conference back in 2009.
#ROADWARRIORS
Speaking of streaks, the Utes have won six straight road matches dating back to its win against Hawaii on Sept. 3, which already matches last season’s longest road winning streak. The four straight road wins in Pac-12 Conference play is Utah’s longest road winning streak against Pac-12 foes since joining the league in 2011. It also marks the longest road winning streak against conference opponents since Utah won five straight as a member of the Mountain West Conference back in 2008.
TRUEMAN NEARING MILESTONE
Senior outside hitter Carly Trueman, who is coming off a weekend where she tallied 31 total kills (20 kills at Arizona State), surpassed the 900 career-kills mark and heads into the weekend with 927 kills in her four-year career with the Utes. She is now just 73 kills away from becoming a member of the 1,000 career-kill club. She would be the 18th player in school history to eclipse the 1,000-kill mark.
BLOCK-U
The Utes are coming off an 18.0 total team block effort against the Sun Devils this past weekend. Utah has tallied 10.0 or more total team blocks in nine matches so far this season, which is just one match shy of last season’s mark of 10 matches with 10.0+ blocks.
Utah currently ranks No. 30 in the nation with 193.0 total team blocks and No. 31 overall with a 2.64 blocks per set average. The Utes are on pace to collect 310.0 total team blocks, which would surpass last season’s total of 279.5 blocks and it would give Utah 300.0+ total blocks in a season since collecting 312.0 blocks back in 2014.
Junior Berkeley Oblad leads the team with 87 total blocks, which ranks No. 65 in the nation (fifth in the Pac-12), and senior Tawnee Luafalemana is behind her at No. 75 in the nation (seventh in the Pac-12) with 85 blocks. Both players also rank among the nation’s top-90 in blocks-per-set average.
LEADERS OF THE PAC
Utah continues to rank among the league leaders in assists/set (13.90), total assists (1,015), kills/set (14.66), and team kills (1,070).
Individually, senior Tawnee Luafalemana leads the league with a .378 hitting percentage and junior Berkeley Oblad follows right behind her, second in the conference, with a .359 hitting percentage. Senior Adora Anae ranks fourth in the league in kills/set (4.30) and total kills (288). Sophomore Bailey Choy is third in the league with 697 total assists.
UP NEXT
The Utes will be back on the road next week with a pair of matches against both Oregon schools. Utah will face the Oregon Ducks next Wednesday, Oct. 25, in the Pac-12 Networks “Match of the Week” and will then close out the week against the Oregon State Beavers that Friday, Oct. 27.
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