With their slim hopes of repeating as Mountain West Conference champions fading, the Utah volleyball team was unable to hold onto a fourth-set lead and fell to Colorado State 3-1 (20-25, 21-25, 25-19, 23-25) at Crimson Court on Thursday night.
The loss eliminated the Utes from conference title contention, as the Rams are now four and a half games ahead of Utah with just three matches remaining on the conference schedule.
Despite the loss, head coach Beth Launiere remained positive about her team’s performance.
“I thought we played a good match,” Launiere said. “We got better as the match went on. We started off a little shaky and had some problems with our offense, but we really turned that around. We didn’t allow them to go on big runs in sets three and four, so that was a big difference.”
The Utes started off on the right foot with a service ace by setter Stephanie Neeley to open the match, which helped them build a small lead early on. However, the Rams took the lead at 13-12, and despite Utah’s efforts to keep the set close, took the win 25-20.
Once again, Utah took an early lead in the second set. The Utes started the set with three consecutive kills on their way to building a 12-6 lead, which was capped by a service error by the Rams. Colorado State scored eight of the next nine points to take the lead, with the only Utah point in the stretch being a kill by outside hitter Cinthia Silva. Utah was able to keep it close until late in the set, when the Rams pulled away with a 25-21 win.
After falling behind to begin the third set, the Utes used kills by Silva and middle blocker Chelsey Sandberg to tie the set at eight. Eventually, Utah took the lead at 15-14 on a kill by middle blocker Danielle Killpack. The Utes didn’t trail the rest of the way, using a 6-1 run8212;-highlighted by kills by opposite hitter Karolina Bartkowiak and outside hitter Sarah Hibbert8212;-to pull away 25-19.
The fourth set was close the whole way, with neither team earning an advantage larger than three points. The Utes started to pull away when back-to-back kills by Killpack gave the Utes a three-point lead, but the Rams came back to tie it at 20. With the score even at 23, the Rams hit consecutive kills to win the set and match.
Launiere lamented being eliminated from conference title contention with the loss, but said the Utes will continue to play hard.
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“It wasn’t what we wanted of course,” she said. “We’re gonna battle to the end. You can’t win the championship every year.”
Senior Chelsey Sandberg reiterated the pain that comes with such a loss.
“It does (hurt),” she said. “But we need to not treat other games lightly. Third’s better than sixth.”
Utah will conclude its conference schedule on the road with matches at San Diego State and Air Force, followed by a nonconference tussle with Long Beach State to close out the regular season.