No. 21 Volleyball Sweeps CSU in Conference Opener

Friday, September 15

Salt Lake City

7:00 PM

University of Utah

Colorado State

No. 21 Volleyball Sweeps CSU in Conference Opener

9/15/2006 12:00 AM | Volleyball

Sept. 15, 2006

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY - The No. 21-ranked University of Utah volleyball team (8-2 overall, 1-0 Mountain West) stymied the Colorado State offense here tonight in winning its sixth straight match, 3-0.

Game scores were, 30-26, 30-21 and 30-24. The Rams fall to 5-5 on the year, 0-1 in league play.

"Our block caused a lot of problems for Colorado State tonight," said head coach Beth Launiere. "Our block takes away a lot of options for our opponents and when you do that, it's easier to figure out what it is they are going to do."

And problems it did cause for the Rams. Utah held the 15.5-7 edge in team blocks and held CSU to a meager .064 hitting for the match. In fact, the Rams never successfully staged a rally and never held a significant lead during the match because of that. Their only leads at any point during the match were a pair of 1-0 starts in games one and two.

Leading the offense tonight was the tandem of Kathryn Lovell and Airial Salvo. Both of them had a match-high 11 kills. The only other Ute to approach double-digit kills was Emillie Toone with nine.

Sydney Anderson got the start at setter and dished out 39 assists. She nearly had a double-double with nine digs. Anderson also had three total blocks.

But, Toone factored in on defense chalking up a game-high nine total blocks. Three of them were block solos. Whitney Webb and Lori Baird also figured in on the block with six each.

Connie Dangerfield led all back-row players with 15 digs.

Leading the Rams was Mekana Barnes (11 kills), Ashley Fornstrom (34 assists), Katelin Batten (10 digs) while two CSU players tallied four total block apiece.

Tonight's match will be televised on a tape delay on CSTV on Sunday, Sept. 17. It will air at 4 p.m. (MDT).

The Utes return to action tomorrow night at 7 p.m., when they host conference rival Air Force.