The Utah women’s volleyball team started its season off perfectly, going 2-0 at the Ute Invitational this past weekend.
The Utes started the season off with a 3-0 sweep over Utah Valley University on Friday at Crimson Court, winning 25-17, 25-10 and 25-22.
“We played pretty well for our first match,” said head coach Beth Launiere. “We executed well, but it wasn’t as fine-tuned as it will become.”
In the first set, senior Kathryn Haynie got the Utes off to a great start with a kill on the first rally of the game. Behind kills by Haynie, Lori Baird and newcomer Cinthia Silva, the Utes jumped to an early 10-2 lead.
The Wolverines didn’t recover from the 8-point deficit, as the Utah women continued to outhit them, tallying 15 kills to UVU’s six. An ace and back-to-back kills from Baird and Emillie Toone ended the game at 25-17.
With a comfortable lead in the second set, Launiere replaced starting setter Stephanie Shardlow with freshman Abby Simmons.
“I wanted her to be able to get a few points under her belt,” Launiere said. “She did well for her first college match.”
The Wolverines were determined not to go down without a fight and kept the third set close. With four lead changes and four score ties, UVU made the Utes fight for the third set and their first win.
The Utes’ lead didn’t last for long, as a kill and three back-to-back stuff blocks by the Wolverines gave them a 14-13 lead.
Utah relied on the hitting experience of seniors Baird and Haynie to take back the lead, and they did just that, dropping UVU 25-22.
“The whole team was flowing,” Haynie said. “Everyone was taking care of their responsibilities and focusing on scoring the next point.”
In the second match of the weekend, Utah won in come-from-behind fashion with a 3-2 victory over Santa Clara.
The Utes took a 2-0 lead in the first set with two Haynie kills, but didn’t get a chance to build much of a lead, as the Broncos battled back with several kills of their own.
Utah led the entire set but didn’t lead by more than four, as several hitting errors kept the game close. The set ended at 25-23 on a Santa Clara hitting error.
Hitting errors on both sides of the net kept the set within three points. Despite the Utes outhitting the Broncos in terms of percentage points, Santa Clara pulled off a 26-24 win.
Utah started the third set out sluggish, letting the Broncos take a 7-2 lead that ballooned to 15-6 after many Utah errors.
“They were being the aggressors,” Launiere said. “We were letting them dictate the match.”
Santa Clara wound up taking a 2-sets-to-1 lead by closing out the third set 25-20.
It looked to be much of the same situation for Utah early in the fourth set of the match, as Santa Clara led 6-3. The Utes came alive as two blocks, an ace and two Baird kills gave Utah a 9-6 lead. The Utes found the momentum they needed getting two blocks and five kills to put them ahead of the Broncos 20-13, before coasting to a 25-19 fourth-set win.
The Utes were unwilling to give up after being down early in the fifth set and went on a 4-point run behind two Haynie aces and a kill by Toone to lead the match 13-12.
A solo block by Silva and a kill by Baird sealed the game for the Utes at 15-13.
Haynie, who earned a double-double, led the team with 21 kills, 10 digs and 5 aces.
“It felt great to get that many kills,” Haynie said. “But really it was the middles who started pounding balls and really opened up the outside for us.”
Lucas IsleyEmillie Toone accounted 5 of the Utes 45 kills in her first match back against Utah Valley University.