The Utes have a pair of home games this weekend against two Arizona teams, and will kick things off this Thursday.
Utah will face No. 19 Arizona Thursday night. In late Oct. when the Utes faced off against the Wildcats they lost in three straight sets. The last time Utah took home a victory against Arizona was back in 2013. Arizona’s 6-8 conference record is currently tied for sixth place in the Pac-12 standings — it has a 16-10 overall record.
The Utes will have to deal with Kalei Mau, who is third in the Pac-12 in kills with 4.4 per set, and head coach Beth Launiere knows they’ll have to focus a lot of their efforts on her.
“[Mau] gets an enormous amount of sets so we have to prepare for her,” Launiere said. “They are a good passing team so we have to serve tough and get them out of system.”
Arizona’s setter, Penina Snuka, leads the Pac-12 in total assists with 1,039 on the season. So far this season, the Wildcats have excelled in three set matches, winning nine of their matches in three sets while only going 7-8 in matches that go four or five sets.
Following the game against Arizona, Utah will face off against no. 21 Arizona State on Saturday evening. While in Utah, the Utes have found plenty of success against the Sun Devils. Utah’s record at home against Arizona State is 6-3 and the Sun Devils haven’t won in Salt Lake since 1984. The Utes hope to continue this success against a team that has only won three of its past 10 matches.
The Sun Devils’ attack is balanced, with three players having eclipsed the 200 kill mark this season. The Sun Devils are also holding their opponents to a .166 hitting percentage and average the third most blocks in the Pac-12. Their offense has stuttered lately, but the defense is thriving. Utah will find it tough to score against them this time and Adora Anae will have to bring her A-game to lead this team to a victory.
Anae will also have the opportunity to reach a milestone over the weekend. With 395 kills, Anae only needs five more to reach the 400 mark, something that a Ute hasn’t achieved since Kathryn Haynie got 423 kills in 2007. Anae is the focal point of this Ute attack and will most likely reach this mark in the upcoming games.
The last weekend that Utah played in the Huntsman, Anae recorded 48 kills over the two matches and Anae knows that this is her role on the team.
“I’m the go-to player,” Anae said. “So they are setting more balls for me than any other player. I feel like I can contribute that way to getting kills for the team.”
Kendall Cygan will also have an opportunity to reach a milestone of her own, jumping to the sixth spot on Utah’s all time assists list. Cygan has 2,303 assists in her career so far and only needs seven more to reach that sixth slot.
Currently, the Utes are tied for last in the Pac-12, but Launiere is not too worried about it considering if they win, they have a good shot of moving above the rest.
“There are four of us tied there at the bottom,” Launiere said. “We’ve been talking about who is going to play better at the end of the season. I mean, you can move up four spots. We are pretty motivated about that.”
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