Ute libero Connie Dangerfield had never experienced what happened on Saturday. Fellow seniors Whitney Webb and Kate Robison hadn’t either. Neither had BYU outside hitter Chelsea Goodman. Even U head coach Beth Launiere hadn’t experienced what happened over the weeke nd on Crimson Court during this century.
But when the No. 30 Cougars dropped the Utes in five games Saturday night at Crimson Court, all parties involved experienced the rare anomaly of a BYU volleyball team leaving Salt Lake City as the victor. For Dangerfield, Webb and Robison, it was the first time they’d ever felt the sting of a loss to their in-state rivals.
“We haven’t even won a game here since I’ve been the head coach,” third-year BYU head coach Jason Watson said. “This was an incredibly big win.”
Although it was a home match for the Utes — as the majority of the stands indicated — the seats boarding the serve lines were dominated by BYU fans. The play at the net was also dominated by the visitors from Provo.
BYU managed to more than double Utah’s block total of 20 with 52 of its own and were led by the outstanding play of Goodman. Beside providing the emotional lift that comes with senior leadership, Goodman also led her team on the court. Her triple-double (21 kills, 11 digs, 12 blocks) provided a spark that the remainder of her team was able to feed off of.
“She’s done that all year long and she continues to do that,” Watson said. “I think she’s everything for us and I’m proud of her. I know how much this (win) means to her. She was about as good as good can be.”
One of the benefactors of Goodman receiving a bulk of Utah’s blocking attention was Rachel Dyer, who managed 11 kills and 12 blocks in BYU’s 3-2 win.
“I can see both of the blockers coming at me, which is fantastic because Rachel and Ashton (Hansen) were on fire tonight,” Goodman said. “I’m so glad that I have them as middles because our team would not be where we are right now.”
For Utah, the loss further continues the somewhat frustrating and jerky road the team has been on.
After finally looking like a much-improved team over a four-game winning streak that began on Sept. 21 with a win over MWC powerhouse Colorado State, the Utes have dropped three of four home matches, something that hasn’t happened since the end of the 1995 season. The loss also dropped the Utes to 4-4 in the conference and 7-10 overall. In Launiere’s eyes, the formula for the Utes from here is to simply improve.
“We’ve got to get better,” Launiere said. “We’ve just got to get better. We’ve just got to come everyday to get better. That’s all we can do. That’s what we can do.”
While the loss to BYU might have hurt the pride of some of the U players — especially the seniors who had yet to lose to Utah’s biggest rival during their entire college career — the effort was certainly there for the Utes.
Utah jumped out on top of the Cougars in game one and ran away with a relatively basic 30-25 win to go up 1-0. BYU returned the favor in games two and three behind a reformed blocking effort and a two respectable hitting games in which the Cougars averaged a .279 hitting percentage on the best hitting defense in the conference.
But Utah remained focused and took game four despite trading points with BYU and trailing 22-20 late.
“I thought we fought hard-we battled,” Launiere said. “We were down in game four, I think, and we battled back. I think it was a good volleyball match. Obviously it’s always a big loss with a rivalry, but we played hard.”
But BYU’s focus proved to be the deciding factor.
BYU cruised to a 15-7 win in the fifth and deciding game, with its final six points all coming unearned by way of a slew of Ute miscues.
Despite contributing to the Utes’ outbreak of hitting errors-most of which were not solely her fault-Webb managed 22 kills on the night. Her right-side counterpart, Karolina Bartkowiak-who saw her own tough stretch at the end of game two-finished with 15 kills and a hitting percentage of .440.
“It’s more frustrating because it was more things we were doing to ourselves than what was happening to us,” Webb said. “We fought hard. It just wasn’t the result that we wanted.”
The Utes will have the entire work week to regroup before traveling to Fort Collins, Colo., on Saturday to face off with conference leader Colorado State (13-4, 7-1) who will be undoubtedly be looking for payback for its only conference blemish of the season.