The Utah volleyball season came to an abrupt end Friday night as the Utes lost in five sets to the Marquette University Golden Eagles 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 25-18, 26-24, 12-15) at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
While much of the night went neck and neck, Marquette snagged the first two sets, but Utes pushed through the third and fourth sets to tie the match and head to a fifth. This marked the ninth time in Utes history that Utah has taken a postseason series to a fifth set, where Utes previously had a record of 4-4.
Unfortunately the Utes fell short in the fifth set 12-15. This was the 19th time that Utah had made the NCAA Tournament, and the 15th time making it to the second round.
Following a disappointing 11-19 season to close out their time in the Pac-12, the Utes were projected to finish ninth in a preseason Big 12 poll. However, Utah went 25-6 and 14-4 in their first year in the Conference, ultimately placing them third.
Head coach Beth Launiere is grateful for the time she’s had with her team.
“I’ve done this for a long time and sometimes you have a special group and that’s what this team was,” Launiere said. “I couldn’t have enjoyed coaching this group more, just a joy everyday. Their maturity but yet their ability to have fun, their ability to have hard conversations and confront things as we needed to was just extraordinary and elite.”
The Utes say goodbye to eight impactful seniors who have all left their mark.
“This group is leaving behind a legacy of how to be strong women in tough situations,” Launiere said. “They came in as young people and they’re leaving as incredibly strong women.”
The senior class for the Utes includes Allie Olsen, Lauren Jardine, Kamry Bailey, Rianne Vos, Grace Hammond, Vanessa Ramirez, Claranne Fechter and Amelia Van Der Werff.
