The No. 17 Ute volleyball team hit its first speed bumps of the season as it dropped two matches against Utah Valley University and Washington State but bounced back to salvage a sharp win against Missouri in this weekend's tournament at UVU.

The No. 17 ranked Ute volleyball team easily earned its fourth consecutive win to begin the season undefeated as it beat Cal Poly in three sets.

The reigning Mountain West Conference champions will face Arizona State, UC-Riverside and Cincinnati during the weekend.

Beth Launiere has worked with both great coaches and great players, but while serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women's National Team at the 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix this summer, she had the opportunity to work with the best.

Utah was ranked No. 19 nationally in a preseason poll fromVolleyball Magazine. Head coach Beth Launiere was happy with the lofty ranking but wants to guard against becoming too caught up in preseason rankings.

Riding on the strength of three All-Mountain West Conference seniors, the 2008 Utah women's volleyball team earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16, but now that Lori Baird, Kathryn Haynie and Emillie Toone have concluded their Utah careers, the Utes will be forced to turn to different players to continue their winning ways.

Although Utah prepared as well as it could in the snowy conditions, the women's volleyball team took seventh out of eight teams in the fourth annual Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship held in Riverside, Calif., last weekend.

The Utes have been invited to compete in the fourth annual Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship in Riverside, Calif., along with seven other top programs from around the country.

After a few months of working on individual strength training and conditioning, the Utah women's volleyball team is back on the court.

After winning 19 of their last 20 games, Utah's win streak and hopes of getting to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history were crushed by No. 5 seed Washington Huskies as the Utes got swept for just the third time this season 25-16, 25-20, 25-16.