This past weekend the Utes went up against two in-state foes in Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. The Utes went 1-1 on the weekend, bringing them to a current record of 8-3 overall.
Utah started off the weekend in Provo on Thursday, September 13th. BYU is currently the number one team in the country and has not lost a match so far this season. They continued their winning streak against Utah with a sweep, winning 3-0. Even though it was a rough loss for the Utes, head coach Beth Launiere believes it was a good experience for the young Utah Volleyball team to go through.
“I think it was an excellent experience for us tonight minus losing,” Launiere said. “My young players have to go through these matches. We’re going to get better. We have a lot of young talent on the floor but were just a little too young to handle something like that tonight. Just watching them tonight, they identified things they need to get better at and they’re hungry.”
The Utes finished off their weekend by taking on Utah Valley, winning the match 3-1. The first two sets both started off pretty tight with Utah taking the win in the first set 25-17 and Utah Valley taking the second set 25-19. Utah came back in the last two sets finishing them both off with wins. Utah took the third set 25-16 with Kennedi Evans taking the Utes on a 4-1 run early in the set with two aces in three points. The Utes started the fourth leading 12-7 and UVU responded quickly to tie the match at 14. Utah soon took the lead again finishing off the fourth set 25-21.
“I was really proud that after our loss yesterday we were able to bounce back and come out with a win today,” said outside hitter Dani Drews, after their win against Utah Valley. “One of our goals is to win after a loss so I was really happy that we were able to do that.”
The Utes have now finished their non-conference season and will start Pac-12 Play in Colorado on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m.