Utah volleyball unofficially started their season on Saturday against former Ute greats in an alumni match. There was no return to glory for the past Utah players on this night, however, as the current squad came out victorious with a 3-1 win.
The first set got off to a close start as ex-Ute Morgan Odale got a kill to bring the Alumni within one at 5-4. After Odale’s kill, the 2014 Utes were able to go on a 6-0 run to open the game. From there, the current squad didn’t look back, closing out the set 25-18. Senior Chelsey Schofield-Olsen led the way in kills in the first set with four.
“I think we are coming together really nicely, putting the puzzle pieces together,” Schofield-Olsen said. “Obviously the little things, little communication errors and that will get better even within one day.”
In the second set the Utes started off on fire, going up 11-2, and although the alumni made a push toward the end of the set, the lead was too big as the Utes took the set 25-17. Seniors Shelby Dalton and Bailey Bateman led the way in kills in the second set, tallying up seven each.
With the current Utah squad up 22-17 in the third set and looking to finish off the match in a sweep, the alumni made a run to tie the game up at 22. After it was all squared, the two teams exchanged points back and forth until it was 34-34 and the Utes made back to back attacking errors by freshmen Carly Trueman and Adora Anae.
“I was very happy with getting into a competitive match,” head coach Beth Launiere said. “In set three we got a chance to have a lot of our younger players in there and to get into that kind of situation. You just can’t replicate that in practice.”
The Utes were able to close out the match in the fourth set with a 25-19 victory.
“I thought we played pretty well, and there’s obviously always things to work on,” Dalton said. “Next week will be really good to work on a few things before we play a real game in the tournament.”
Two setters and two liberos played both sides of the net as the alumni team didn’t have players at those positions. Jessie Jorgensen, a freshman setter out of Timpview High School, played both for both squads and finished with 25 assists for the Utes and 23 assists for the alumni, tallying up a total of 48 assists for the match.
Seniors Bateman, Schofield-Olsen and Dalton led the way for the Utes in kills as they had 11, 12, and 13 kills respectively.
As for the alumni, they were led by last year’s senior Odale, who recorded 12 kills and a game high 16 digs.
The Utes will now get ready for the Utah Classic, starting this Friday on Crimson Court against Montana State.
@BenJasarevic