The Utah women’s volleyball team is standing face to face with one of the toughest weeks of its season.
The Utes will play three games this week, starting in Ogden with Weber State tonight before hitting the road to take on TCU and New Mexico.
“This is as big a week as we will have all season,” head coach Beth Launiere said. “The combination of Weber, TCU and New Mexico means a big week for the Utes.”
After a much-needed weekend off, Utah spent Monday in practice focusing on two key things8212;getting a max block and first-ball kills.
After switching to a 6-2 lineup last week, Utah’s main emphasis has been putting up a bigger, stronger block.
“We’ve have been working on our block a lot,” Emillie Toone said. “We’ve been making sure it’s there so the back row defense can line up behind it.”
Another thing the Utes have been working on is increasing the number of first-ball kills they get and getting side-outs faster.
“First-ball kills are really important to us,” Kathryn Haynie said. “We want to get more kills out of serve-receive and we’ve been working on that.”
With three big games this week, Utah is taking it one game at a time, and devoted most of yesterday’s practice to preparing for Weber State.
“It’s a good test for us,” Launiere said. “Weber is a competitive team and good team at home.”
The Utes specifically worked on how to adjust their lineup based on who is on the other side of the net and what rotation teams are in.
Utah walked through each rotation that Weber has, talking about its strengths and weaknesses in each rotation and how to adjust the offense and defense to be more successful.
“Every team has their own little differences,” Haynie said. “We really worked on our lineup and how to get a feel for those differences.”
Utah not only spent practice in preparation for the match tonight, but also on things it will face later in the week.
The Utes prepared specifically for TCU’s setter Nirelle Hampton, who is averaging 3.73 kills per match.
“She is a very offensive setter,” Launiere said. “And we really worked on that. It’s something we need to practice two or three times before we face it.”
As always, Utah is focused on what is happening on its side of the net and coming prepared to play more than anything else.
“We know what is coming from the other teams,” Launiere said. “We just have to be able to perform on the road.”