A 37-35 match to end practice on Wednesday between the starters and backups shows head coach Beth Launiere that her team is a lot deeper this year than in previous seasons
The Utes have been getting ready for their first competitive match of the season as they host the Utah Classic this weekend. Launiere and her squad welcome in Montana State, Missouri State and New Mexico State to Crimson Court for a round robin tournament starting Friday evening.
“We are coming out of preseason practices and two-a-days, we have a lot of little tweaks and strains, nothing major, but we have had to kind of heal up a little bit,” Launiere said. “We went real light yesterday and then went short but intense today and I felt like it was a very good practice.”
The Montana State Bobcats will be the Utes first opponent of the Utah Classic. Montana State comes in as presumably the worst team in the tournament after having a 6-25 overall record in 2013, going 4-16 in the Big Sky conference.
That being said, Launiere is not going to underestimate the Bobcats saying, “You never know until you get on the court.” The Utes lead the all-time series with the Bobcats at 9-3, but the schools have not faced one another since 1997, in which the Utes came out victorious with a 3-1 win.
“We are really excited to play a team other than ourselves,” said senior Shelby Dalton. “It will be nice to play a game that really counts. We have been working really hard this whole year.”
For each of the six seniors on this year’s squad, the Utes will have six true freshmen who are poised to make an impact right away. Adora Anae and Eliza Katoa head the impressive class with the latter of the two being an Under Armour All-American at Layton High School last year. Another freshman who will be considered a strong addition to the team is freshman Carly Trueman who redshirted last season due to a broken wrist.
“I got jitters last year even not playing so of course they are going to still be there this year,” Trueman said. “I am really excited, I can’t wait to be back on the court.”
Missouri State and New Mexico State are expected to provide a much tougher challenge on Saturday morning and Saturday night for the Utes. The Bears are coming off of a respectable year in 2013, where they went 21-11 overall and 12-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference, good enough for a fourth place finish.
As for the Aggies of New Mexico State, they are back-to-back champions of the Western Athletic Conference and have been picked to three-peat by the conference coaches. The Utes and Aggies faced off last year, with the Utes coming away with a 3-2 victory. Last year’s win also saw the Utes tie up the all-time series with New Mexico State at 17-17.
“The tournaments are just really survival of the fittest,” Launiere said. “You have to go into the tournament planning on three matches. We will have a full itinerary for the team all weekend.”
Launiere says she will probably play different starting lineups in the three different matches.
“I think there’s a lot of people that deserve the chance still early on and we are going to need everybody to get through this tournament.” Launiere added.
The team is antsy to get out on the court and show that they’re better than the 10th spot they received in the Pac-12 coaches’ poll. The first match against the Bobcats is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. MT.
@BenJasarevic