Upcoming Event: Volleyball versus California Baptist on September 18, 2025 at 1:30 PM
1:30 PM
Volleyball
vs California Baptist
Saturday, November 17
Provo, Utah
2:00 PM MT
University of Utah
3
at
2
Colorado St
Utah Captures MWC Women's Volleyball Championship
11/17/2001 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 17, 2001
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
PROVO, Utah - No. 2 seed Utah won the Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship, upsetting regular season conference champions and No. 1 seed Colorado State in a thrilling five game victory, 32-34, 19-30, 30-23, 30-27, 15-8.
Utah, who has handed CSU its only two losses of the 2001 season, were led by the MWC Tournament's Most Valuable Player Kim Turner. Turner had 15 kills and a match-high 13 blocks while leading the Utes to their first conference title in the history of the school.
Utah's Adrianne Bradley-Drake and Sylva Strzinkova joined Turner in the awards ceremony, garnering all-tournament team honors. Drake finished with nine kills, 10 digs and nine blocks, while Strzinkova recorded 13 kills, 13 digs and three blocks.
CSU's Angela Knopf and Courtney Cox were named to the tournament team, and teammate Allison Peckham was the all-tournament setter. Knopf finished 18 kills, 15 digs and six blocks, while Cox had a match-high 19 kills and 13 digs.
BYU's Nina Puikkonen and defensive specialist Uila Crabbe joined the all-tournament team as the only players not in the championship game to be named to the team.
Utah the only team to come back from two games down in the regular season, made MWC Tournament history as the first team to ever overcome a 2-0 deficit in the tournament.
Sept. 8, 2001 against University of Colorado, Utah was down 2-0, and came back to win the match in five games.
In the decisive game five, CSU came out with a vengeance scoring the first two points, but Utah quickly quieted the Rams in 10-2 run, giving CSU the serve with the score 10-4. CSU hit the ball wide on the ensuing play, handing the ball back to Utah with the score 11-4. CSU executed a 4-2 run, with the score at 13-8. After a long volley, Strzinkova came up with a huge kill to give the Utes the game-point serve. The game ended, when Stilson and Geddes combined for an immovable block, sending the ball back to the floor for the point and the Utah championship.
The first game was a point-for-point battle with few point runs for either team. The Rams were able to close the game 34-32 with a 20 team kills for CSU's. The Ram's, who came into Saturday's match averaging 5 aces per game in the tournament, recorded only one ace in the first game. The first game took 38 minutes, with long volleys and seven extra points played.
Colorado State was poised and ready to play in game two, starting out with a 7-1. Utah showed some resistance early in the game, but CSU overwhelmed them late, taking the game 30-19.
Utah turned it up in game three, pulling ahead late in the game and winning 30-23. Despite both teams finishing with 16 kills each, Utah hit .262 in the match while holding Colorado State to a .065 attack percentage.
In game four, Utah did what needed to for the win, despite recording less digs than the Rams. The Utes were equal to the Rams statistically speaking, but made the right plays at the right time to move the match to a fifth game.
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Keith Kelley, voice of the Wyoming Cowboys
Tuesday, September 09
Utah Volleyball's Kamryn Gibadlo - ESPN+ Feature
Tuesday, September 09
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Ron McBride
Wednesday, September 03
Utah Volleyball's Head Coach Beth Launiere begins her 36th season at the helm! - ESPN+ Feature
Saturday, August 30