Many boundaries were crossed this season, and the U volleyball team took its next step in becoming one of the elite programs in the nation.
Never had the team won a second-round NCAA Tournament matchup until this season, which saw the Utes land in the Sweet 16.
However, Utah would not get any farther, as the Stanford Cardinal were steamrolling through the tournament, and the Utes were in the way on Dec. 7, and fell in four games, 30-17, 30-17, 28-30, 30-19.
Utah was the only team to even win one game from the Cardinal, as Stanford went on to sweep up the rest of the tournament and win the National Championship.
“Stanford poses problems that we hadn’t seen,” said Ute coach Beth Launiere. Stanford had too much firepower for the Utes to handle. With Logan Tom, Tara Conrad and Ogonna Nnamani, the Cardinal were unstoppable.
With the other stars, the Utes couldn’t concentrate on Tom, and she took advantage, as she scored a match-high 26 kills and had an attack percentage of .404.
“She can be overpowering,” Launiere said. “She plays so in control and she’s so smart. She kept us off-balance because when we were expecting her to hit it straight down, she wouldn’t.”
Meanwhile, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Nnamani lived up to her billing and had 15 kills and a match-high attack percentage of .468. Conrad added 15 kills for Stanford to complete the offensive barrage.
Blocking had been a staple for the Utes throughout the season, but Utah could not gain any ground at the net, as it only totaled 10 team blocks.
Utah could not get anything going on offense, as the jump serves Stanford was executing put the Utes off-balance, and the team could never get into a rhythm.
Though the Mountain West Conference featured many jump servers, such as Colorado State’s Angela Knopf and Soraya Santos, the Utes had never seen the consistency that the Cardinal exhibited.
“We’ve faced the jump serve a lot this season, but I think it threw us off facing three jump servers,” Launiere said. We just couldn’t sustain it and they went on to win.”
An attack percentage of .164 was just not going to get it done against a team like Stanford.
Sylva Strzinkov led the Utes with 12 kills and also contributed on defense with 13 digs. In her last game as a Ute, McKelle Stilson tallied 11 kills, and had an attack percentage of .226.
The Utes attempted to make a comeback, as they had all season, by winning Game 3, but it was too little too late, and the Utes went down in Game 4. “We just didn’t want it to be over,” said senior middle blocker Adrianne Drake.
The season ended, however, not without many successes, and something to look forward to next season for Launiere.
Winning the postseason conference title, finishing second in the race for the regular season title, replacing BYU as the top team in the state, and finishing the season ranked 15th in the nation definitely raised the program’s prestige throughout the volleyball world.
“Getting here was a step, and we felt like we could win this match. We fought hard and I am proud of our effort and this team,” Launiere said.