Christian Stringer: Hi and welcome back to the Home Stretch, the Daily Utah Chronicle sports podcast. My name is Christian, I will be your host. Today, Brooke will be talking about some of our fall sports teams and how they have done so far this season. Hi Brooke, and welcome to the podcast.
Brooke Hale: Hi, thank you for having me.
Christian Stringer: So what have you seen from some of the Utes fall sports this semester?
Brooke Hale: Yeah, it’s been super exciting. So today I’ll just kind of talk about the women’s volleyball team and the women’s soccer team, just because they’ve had really good seasons. I mean, volleyball is still playing. They are going to make a run in the NCAA tournament, which is so exciting. And the women’s soccer team, they had their best season so far in years since, like, maybe 2016 so there is a lot to talk about today. And it’s very exciting to see our women’s team being successful, and especially our first year in the Big 12, it’s super exciting to see that they can make an impact right away in the conference.
Christian Stringer: Yeah, having hot starts in new conferences is always a great thing. So specifically, what have you seen from the volleyball team so far?
Brooke Hale: Yeah I mean, the volleyball team has had a great year. They have been ranked in the top 25 for most of the season, which is super exciting. They will hopefully be hosting the first couple rounds at the NCAA. Kind of depends on seeding and where they are ranked by the end of the season, but they should be in a great spot which is super exciting. Currently they’re 21-5, which is an awesome record, that is insane. Again, making an emphasis on the first year being in the Big 12, that’s an awesome record there. Their winning percentage is 8.08 which is super exciting. They’re 11-4 in conference play, and at home they’re 10-2. So being at home, and especially if they are hosting in the NCAA, that will be awesome. They have a great winning at-home percentage. Utah has 1,292 kills against other teams. It has 1,190 assists, which is awesome, and [for] aces, they’re leading opponents by 149 which is awesome. That is a ton of aces. So this team this year, they’re really stacked. I mean, on all sides, on offense and defense, they’re really doing well, and they take on West Virginia, Cincinnati and Iowa State in their next couple games before the NCAA. So I mean, with the 21-5 record, they should be in a great spot for the tournament and having three more games and senior night coming up, they should have a great home advantage. So shout out to volleyball. They’re doing awesome, they’re killing it. I wish you guys the best for the NCAA. I hope you guys can make a great run. You guys have a great team this year and it’s super exciting.
Christian Stringer: Yeah, good luck to them coming up on the tournament. And I love hearing about that home court advantage. That just seems like a trend here at Utah. In years past, we always seem to have that good home field advantage, home court advantage. So now shifting gears, what have you seen from the soccer team so far this year?
Brooke Hale: Yeah, the soccer team, I mentioned this earlier, they had their best season since 2016 which is huge. They were kind of in a rut for a little bit, kind of a lot of coaching changes, a lot of transfers coming in the program. There’s been a lot of up and down, especially the last couple seasons. So again, entering the Big 12 this season, they ended the season 8-6-5, which is awesome. I mean, obviously all games are hard and especially the Big 12, there’s some great competition. And they made their first Big 12 tournament this year, being in the Big 12 for the first time this year, they were seeded, which is super exciting. That’s awesome [for the] first year in the conference. And then they did fall off to the Colorado Buffs. They played them back to back. Their last game was actually regular season at Colorado, and that was a tie, which was a back and forth game, which is a super exciting game, and then the tournament was the next week and they got seeded against Colorado, and they fell short to them in Kansas, which was super disappointing. They definitely looked like the better team. But I mean, coming off a great season and especially half the team was new this year, there was a big turnover. And [then] finally, things kind of clicking and putting things together, which is super awesome for the soccer team. And again going off the volleyball team, it’s great to have some women sports doing well, and especially in the Big 12. So the soccer team has a lot to build off of after this season, and they have a lot of young players and experienced players, which is super exciting. And I think this is kind of the season they needed to build off of the talent they have this year. And I think moving into this next year with a lot of new faces, they kind of set the tone for you know, this is how we play. This is the expectation and to make the tournament every year, that should be an expectation for this team. So again, shout out to women’s soccer. It was exciting to watch them this year and shout out to woman’s volleyball. Again, hope you guys have a great run in the tournament. And super exciting to see our women’s teams be successful!
Christian Stringer: Congrats to the soccer team for making that Big 12 tournament, not the outcome we wanted, but here’s to hoping for more success in the future, more growth, more improvement. Well, that was awesome, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts today Brooke. And thank you guys for listening to the Home Stretch, the Daily Utah Chronicle sports podcast. Stay tuned for new episodes coming every other week.
Transcribed by Otter.ai
Host: Christian Stringer — [email protected]
Guest: Brooke Hale — [email protected] | @brookehale
