This weekend, the Utes will have a chance to get payback for a pair of hard-to-swallow losses earlier this month.
Oregon and Oregon State will both be coming to town as the second half of Pac-12 play starts for Utah in the Huntsman Center. The Utes will take on the Ducks on Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. MT and then, after a day off, will face the Beavers on Sunday at noon.
Oregon State and Oregon were the second and third losses on Utah’s current nine-game losing streak, and the Utes will hope to break out of this slump against the same teams that helped put them in it. In their previous meetings this season, the Utes took both teams to five sets and will hope to finish strong and get some wins this time around.
Oregon is led by Maggie Scott, who is leading the Pac-12 in assists with 11.07 per game, while the Ducks will be tough to handle offensively with Martenne Bettendorf and Lindsey Vander Weide both averaging more than three kills per set on the season.
“The thing with Oregon is they run a really fast offense,” said head coach Beth Launiere. “They play really fast and rarely set any high balls. They are an athletic team.”
On the other side, Oregon is a weaker defensive team, which should play right into the hands of Adora Anae, Eliza Katoa and the rest of the Utes’ supporting cast. The Ducks are second-to-last in the Pac-12 in blocks per set and are ninth in the conference in opponent hitting percentage, allowing their opponents to hit at a .216 mark.
The Utes themselves are 10th in the league in the same category, allowing their opponents to hit a .217 mark. This will undoubtedly lead to a shootout between these two teams, and the Utes will hope their offense can get moving and find a consistency they have lacked in recent weeks.
In their second game of the weekend, the Utes will face off against a team that, on paper, looks very vulnerable. The Beavers currently sit in dead last in the Pac-12 in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists and kills and are 10th in digs. They are on a four-game losing streak and have only gone 1-6 since beating Utah on Oct. 2.
But the Beavers have a weapon on their team that was Utah’s kryptonite the last time around — Mary-Kate Marshall.
Last time these two teams faced off, Marshall recorded 30 kills, still a Pac-12 high for the season, and absolutely dominated the game. She single-handedly led the Beavers to a win, because frankly, the Utes played a better match.
The Utes had the fifth set all tied up at nine apiece, before Marshall reeled off four straight kills to lead her team to victory. This time around the Utes will be looking to slow the Beaver star. If they can manage to contain Marshall and stop her from catching fire, the Utes believe they can pull off the victory.
“She’s tough,” Launiere said. “She’s a legitimately good player, and we have to do better against her, no question. She’s going to get kills, but we can’t let her go off for as many as she did last time.”
Facing off against these two vastly different opponents in the same weekend has been really tough for the team in preparation.
“[Oregon] is a very different style team than Oregon State,” Launiere said. “We’re going to have to adjust to two different styles.”
The players have not let that slow them down, though. Freshman Berkeley Oblad sees this weekend as an opportunity for her team to earn hard-fought wins and to move up in the standings.
“I can already see us wanting to work harder and get better,” Oblad said. “Especially [this week’s] practices really proved that we want to come back and win. Hopefully we can see things start to change.”
These two games will be crucial for the Utes. They are at home, and the Oregon schools are the two teams the Utes have shown an ability to compete with.
To salvage what it can from this season, Utah will have to step up and show its toughness to pull off some wins this weekend.
@Twelvegage96