When asked about the exciting possibility of setting the U volleyball team’s all-time dig record before the Utes’ weekend road trip, Connie Dangerfield hardly batted an eyelash.
It’s not that the senior libero considered the honor trivial. It’s just that she had more important goals on her mind, such as collecting conference wins over Air Force and Wyoming.
Over the weekend, Dangerfield experienced the thrill of all three.
“It was a really, really fun weekend,” Dangerfield said. “When you go on the road, you look for two wins.”
The Utes walked into Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday and left with their second consecutive 3-0 sweep with a win over the Air Force Academy. Dangerfield walked away from the match nine digs short of Brenda Barton-Whicker’s record of 1,313 career digs. On Saturday, as Utah was applying the finishing touches to their 3-1 win over the Cowgirls of Wyoming, Dangerfield broke the Utes’ all-time digs record and increased the new total to 1,318.
“Anytime a career record is broken, it’s such an accomplishment because it’s the culmination of four years of hard work,” head coach Beth Launiere said. “She’s been in charge of our back row for four years and has consistently been there for us year after year.”
While breaking the record was nice for Dangerfield, getting the win in a difficult road environment was even more satisfying.
“It was awesome,” Dangerfield said. “Just being able to celebrate the win and the record broken. Breaking the record wouldn’t have been as sweet to me if we would have lost.”
With the wins, the Utes sweetened their record to 6-7 overall and 3-2 in the conference. The back-to-back road wins also extended their season-long winning streak to four games. But on top of what the wins did for the Utes in the standings, beating Air Force and Wyoming on the road further validated the progress the Utes have made this year.
On Friday, the Utes breezed past a struggling but stout Air Force team that carried a 7-10 overall record into the match. The Utes outhit the Falcons and raced to a sweep with wins of 30-17, 30-19 and 30-27 in games one through three respectively.
“Every win is a good win for us,” Launiere said after the Air Force win. “Our defense continues to play well. We held them to .008 in hitting, which is excellent.”
On Saturday night in Laramie, Wyo., the Utes faced a much more difficult task in trying to knock off the Cowgirls on the road.
Wyoming proved to be too much for the Utes as the Cowgirls jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a 30-26 win in the opening game. But Utah proved they have been well taught in the art of battling back this season.
Despite allowing Wyoming to jump out to an early lead in game two — which was as much as four points late — the Utes did not allow themselves to fall into an 0-2 hole.
With Wyoming sitting on game point at 29-26, the Utes managed to score six of the final seven points of the game — behind four Wyoming errors and a kill each from Whitney Webb and Kate Robison — to steal game two and the momentum away from Wyoming.
Utah managed to run away with game three, largely due to the fact that the Utes out-hit Wyoming .217 to .128 and limited the Cowgirls to just 13 kills.
In game four, the Utes found themselves in another dog fight up until the last point, and again, the U volleyball team confirmed just how far they’ve come in the last few weeks by picking up a tight 32-30 win to seal the match.
“We’ve been in a lot of situations where we’ve been up 29-26 or been tied 27-27 and we didn’t win those games early in the season,” Dangerfield said. “Just being on the road and having that happen, especially Wyoming, shows that we’re maturing as a team, and we’re getting better, and we’re learning how to win tight games.”
The Utes have a full plate of home games this week, starting with a matchup Wednesday against No. 24 New Mexico State.