The Utes were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by second-ranked Penn State Saturday night in University Park, Pa. The Nittany Lions dominated in the sweep and won the contest (25-14, 25-15, 25-11). Utah produced just 25 kills on 103 attempts in the defeat.
“We just came up against a very good Penn State team,” said Utes’ head coach Beth Launiere. “Everyone knows about their game at the net. They are big, they are physical, they are athletic and they are very, very good defensively. We just got into trouble getting kills. We did some good things at times but we just could not sustain anything and put it together and they caused a lot of problems.”
Utah actually got the first point of the match when setter Kalee Kirby assisted middle blocker Bailey Bateman for a kill. Penn State pounced from there, however, as it went on an 8-1 run to open up a lead in the first set that the Utes were unable to recover from. In all, the Nittany Lions doubled up Utah in the kill department in the first frame 18-9 as Morgan Odale, Chelsey Schofield and Shelby Dalton were shut down.
Sets two and three were much the same as the first as Penn State continuously took away any chance the Utes had to get back into the match. Utah came within five in the middle of the third but couldn’t get any closer as the Nittany Lions went on a 12-3 run to finish off the contest. The final play of the night resulted in a Penn State block on an attempt from senior Erin Redd-Brandon.
In the final match of her career, Redd-Brandon was the lone bright spot for the Utes. She finished with a team-high 12 kills and also had three blocks.
“Penn State is a solid team all the way around,” Redd-Brandon said. “They are really physical at the net and their defense is absolutely amazing. It kept our team from getting kills. I have no doubt that we went out and gave it our best shot, but we just came up short.”
Utah finished its season with a record of 21-13 and its trip to the NCAA Tournament marked the first time it had gotten to that point since 2008. It was difficult for Launiere to put into words her feelings after the match, but she was proud of the way her team worked throughout the season to get as far as it did. Because of that, she said the talk in the locker room after the match focused on the positive things the Utes did throughout the season and not the way the campaign ended.
“We talked about the fact that we just need to be proud of the season,” she said. “We won four of our last six to get to this match today. It did not go as we wanted it, but we grinded it out the last 10 matches to get to where we needed to be. I am proud of the team. I am proud of what was accomplished this year.”