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5:00 PM
Volleyball
at Nebraska
Saturday, September 13
Salt Lake City, Utah
10:00 AM
University of Utah
3
vs
0
Saint Louis
Utah Volleyball Beats Saint Louis, 3-0
9/13/2008 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 13, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY - The University of Utah volleyball team needed to win its first 25-plus-point-set of the season to complete its second sweep in as many matches at the Utah Classic, but the Utes won 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 32-30) against Saint Louis at Crimson Court Saturday morning.
Utah (7-1) has now won five matches in a row and is now 4-0 at home this season. The Utes have only dropped two sets in their four home matches this year, all during a 3-2 win against Santa Clara on Aug. 31.
Middle blocker Lori Baird had 13 kills, six digs, and five blocks. Cinthia Silva had a team-high 10 digs and also chipped in seven kills to go along with two blocks. Karolina Bartkowiak also had an impressive performance, turning in seven kills with two digs and two blocks. Emillie Toone had nine kills and blocks during the match.
The Utes got out to a 6-3 lead in the back-and-forth third set, when the Billikens went on a 4-0 run to assume a 7-3 lead. Utah battled back to tie the match at 10 points apiece, then took five of the next seven points for a 15-12 lead. The Utes expanded their lead to three points at 23-20 but Saint Louis came back with a 4-1 run to bring the set to 24 points apiece. The two sides traded points and were deadlocked at 30 before a kill by Haynie and a Saint Louis attack error clinched the 32-30 set win as well as the match victory for the Utes.
Utah hit a match-high .267 in the third set, while still holding Saint Louis to a .174 mark and was led on the attack by five kills from Baird.
"We didn't hit very well today," head coach Beth Launiere said. "But it was nice to see how we stepped up and improved in the final set and improved a lot."
Even though Saint Louis had more service aces, 6-3, the Utes benefited from 10 Billiken service errors, while committing four themselves.
"We really served the ball well, today," Launiere said. "It is an important part of the game and I hope we can keep it up."
Utah raced out to a 10-3 lead to start the first set of the morning thanks to two kills and a service ace from Haynie, and Baird had two kills as well. The Utes led by as many as 11 at a score of 16-5. Both teams hit below .100 for the set, with Utah outhitting Saint Louis .083 to .071. The Utes benefitted from five Billiken service errors. Baird totaled four kills and two blocks in the first set alone.
Utah is 7-0 when winning the first set this season, and 5-0 after winning the first two sets of a match.
The Utes found themselves down 3-0 early in the second set and slowly climbed back into the set to reduce the deficit to one point at 4-3. After the Billikens took seven of the next 11 points, Utah then responded by ripping off a 5-1 run to take a 12-11 lead. As the score was tied at 15, the Utes again went on a 4-1 run to extend their lead to the largest margin of the night, 19-16. On the attack, Toone had four kills in the second set while Silva had three.
In the back row, setter Stephanie Shardlow set up 35 kills and also had seven digs, while libero Keisha Fisher registered five digs.
Saint Louis (5-3) was led by a match-high 15 kills from Bridget Fonke and Megan Boken had 10 kills. Setter Whitney Roth was credited with 36 assists.
The Utes conclude Utah Classic play at 7 p.m., tonight against No. 15 Purdue. In other Utah Classic action today, Utah State takes on the Boilermakers at noon, then the Aggies play Saint Louis at 5 p.m.
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