The advantage of the U volleyball team venturing into the conference schedule for the second time this season is that the Utes should be more familiar with their conference opponents. The problem is that the opponents also have a better understanding of the Utes.
Utah fell to No. 21 Colorado State to start the second half of their conference schedule with a 3-1 (30-21, 28-30, 30-24, 30-18) loss. The victory gave the Rams a win over their eighth different conference opponent and improved their record to 15-4 overall and 8-1 in the MWC.
“They remained very calm,” U libero Connie Dangerfield said of Colorado State. “They are good at putting pressure on everyone.”
After spending much of a Oct. 15 recruiting trip to Hawaii scouring her team’s stats, 18-year head coach Beth Launiere decided to tinker with her lineup and some of her players’ in-game responsibilities. With opponents determined on giving outside hitter Kat Haynie the responsibility of passing off the serve and setting up for a kill, Launiere decided to try to neutralize this by putting more of the passing responsibility on seniors Kate Robison and Dangerfield.
“This was a big test to see if Kate and I could keep the passing numbers up,” Dangerfield said.
Even in the loss, the tactic worked. Robison and Dangerfield combined to take the majority of all service balls and to their credit, they combined to make only one receiving error. More telling of the change’s success was Haynie’s performance.
The Ute junior finished the game with 17 kills and five hitting errors, which was good for a 0.353 hitting percentage-easily one of her best this season. Other changes saw Launiere insert Stephanie Hodgman into the starting lineup for the first time in hopes of solidifying Utah’s passing game. The Utes also changed their serving rotation, which has typically started with the setter.
Although the Utes managed just one ace on the night, the service game in general helped keep the Rams off balance and Utah in the game.
“We served really well,” Dangerfield said.
In the end, Colorado State’s dynamic duo of Jamie Strauss and Mekana Barnes proved too much for the Utes to handle.
Strauss’ 18 kills and a 0.265 hitting percentage, combined with Barnes’ 16 kills for a 0.400 hitting percentage helped the Rams compile a 0.287 hitting percentage against the Utes, who were allowing an average 0.162 percentage on the season. Despite the offense the Rams brought to the table, Utah managed to bring its own offensive prowess-until the fourth game rolled around, that is.
“I thought we played really well for three games-we just got stuck after giving up a run in game four and couldn’t recover,” Launiere said. “We did some good things in practice this week and carried that into the match. I am really pleased with how we played.”
The rut the Utes fell into came when the score was tied 4-4 in the fourth and ultimately deciding game.
The Rams went on a three-point run behind a kill by Danielle Minch and two attacking errors by Haynie. A kill by Haynie and setter Keisha Fisher drew the Utes within one at 6-7 before the Rams scored 10 straight points behind a slew of Colorado State blocks and Utah attacking errors.
The loss drops the Utes to 7-11 on the season and 4-5 in the conference. The Utes will have a chance to build their confidence on Tuesday against non-conference foe Utah Valley State College before returning to conference action in back-to-back home matches on Friday and Saturday against Wyoming and Air Force, respectively.