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5:00 PM
Volleyball
at Nebraska
Saturday, November 20
Fort Collins, Colo.
3:00 PM
University of Utah
0
vs
3
Colorado State (MWC Championship)
Utah Volleyball Comes Up Short In Tourney Title Match
11/20/2004 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 20, 2004
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The Utah volleyball's bid for a second Mountain West Conference trophy fell short as it dropped a 3-0 decision to Colorado State in the Mountain West Conference tournament title match this afternoon.
Game scores were 18-30, 16-30 and 18-30. The Utes fall to 23-5 for the year while CSU improves to 24-4 overall.
The tournament wraps up with Shelly Sommerfeldt and Kelsie Kartchner landing on the all-tournament team.
"I think CSU is playing good volleyball right now," head coach Beth Launiere said. "It wasn't that we were unprepared, CSU just played very well.
"Every player was ready and I think we did the best we could out there. We're not playing our best right now and came up against a team that is playing extremely well."
Nothing went right for the Utes who hit a paltry .099 (35 kills and 24 errors on 111 attempts) and were outblocked 9-1 by their rivals. CSU hit an unstoppable .381 (50-10-105), capturing the title by hitting a smooth .417 in the final game.
Leading the way for Utah was Danielle Leichliter and her 11 kills. Sommerfeldt was behind Leichliter with seven. The offense went through Tracy Neumeier and Kartchner. Neumeier had 20 assists and Kartchner 14.
Potent at blocking all year long, only Amie Toone and Sommerfeldt registered a block, both with one block assists. Connie Dangerfield had a solid 12 digs in the back row.
The Rams' Tess Rogers hit a swift .591 in racking up a match-best 14 kills. Melissa Courtney had 37 assists while the defense was led by Katie Jo Shirley-Cahoon (six blocks) and Kristen Karlik (15 digs).
It was like a script and all three games followed it to a "T." The Utes and Rams would battle point-for-point at the onset of all three games but CSU's potent offense would find its rhythm and build insurmountable leads on the No. 1 seed.
Tightly contested games turned into a 12-point game one lead, a 13-point game two cushion and a 10-point game three lead.
The Utes got off to a sluggish start in games one and two as CSU held the Utes to the lowest single-game totals for the season. CSU hit .368 over the first two games, holding the Utes to a meager .111. The No. 2 seed hit .394 in game one while Utah never hit better than .138 in either of the opening stanzas.
Game three saw the Utes hit a game-low .081 and CSU rode its .417 hitting percentage to the win. The Rams opened up another huge lead, going up 17-27 as it cruised to the three-game victory.
"We need to get in the gym and regain more confidence in our execution," Launiere said of the final regular season matches and the impending NCAA tournament. "I think we're getting there. Our goal was to improve each day at the (MWC) tournament and I believe that we did.
"Wednesday (against Hawaii) starts a new season for us. We're excited about it."
Players Mentioned
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