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The University of Utah Athletics
2009 Utah Volleyball Season Review
11/30/2009 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 30, 2009
The University of Utah volleyball team ended its 2009 season 17-12 overall and finished in a third-place tie with New Mexico with a 10-6 record in the Mountain West Conference this season.
For updates throughout offseason workouts and spring practices, be sure to continue following Utah Volleyball on Twitter at http://twitter.com/utahvolleyball and the Utah Volleyball Blog at http://utahvolleyball.blogspot.com.
Last Time Out: Utah fell 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 13-15) at Long Beach State Saturday in the Mizuno Thanksgiving Classic at the Walter Pyramid. The Utes hit .234 for the match, compared to a .238 for Long Beach State, while blocks were even at 15 apiece. Utes held a 2-1 edge in the match after taking the second and third sets, but unfortunately, could not pull out the victory.
All-Conference Utes: Bartkowiak and Sandberg were Utah's All-MWC selections this season. Bartkowiak earned her second straight all-conference selection. In the 16 conference matches this season, Bartkowiak is fifth in the conference-only statistics with 3.17 kills and 3.70 points per set. Bartkowiak served as a team tri-captain this season, earning 2009 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII accolades and MWC Player of the Week honors three times. Bartkowiak came up with her 12th double-double of the season with 16 kills to go with 15 digs Saturday at Long Beach State. Bartkowiak currently ranks sixth in the MWC's overall statistics with 3.04 kills and 3.59 points per set. In conference matches only, Bartkowiak is fifth with 3.17 kills and 3.70 points per set.
Chelsey Sandberg (West Jordan, Utah) earned her first career all-conference selection and tied for third in the MWC with 0.30 service aces per set and ranks sixth with a .310 hitting percentage. Sandberg hit a career-high 19 kills in the final regular-season match of her career at Long Beach State. She got her 19 kills on 40 swings with only three errors for a team-high .400 hitting percentage. The West Jordan, Utah native also had five blocks, three digs and a pair of service aces. After stepping up to a leadership role during spring practice, Sandberg served as one of the team's tri-captains in 2009. Sandberg finished her career eighth in school history with 327 block assists and is also ninth in the Utah record book with 347 total blocks.
Aces Up their Sleeve: Junior libero Keisha Fisher (Ririe, Idaho) tripled her previous career high with six service aces Oct. 31 against UNLV. Fisher averaged 0.24 aces per set in 2009 to finish 10th in the MWC.
Dual Setters: In Utah's 6-2 system, Neeley and Simmons shared opportunities at the setter position for the Utes this season. Simmons was 10th in the MWC with a 5.43 assist-per-set average, while Neeley finished 11th after distributing 5.33 assists per set. Neeley now has 1,856 career assists and is in sixth place on Utah's all-time career list. Neeley is 453 assists behind Katie Gesto (1984-86) for fifth place.
Getting Defensive: Fisher had 437 digs in 2009, the fifth-highest single-season total in Utah history. She now has 1,110 digs in her career to also rank fifth in school history with one more year of eligibility remaining. She had 3.97 digs per set to rank fifth in the league and had 27 double-digit-dig performances this season and now has 60 for her career.
Dani on the Block (and the Attack): Danielle Killpack (Idaho Falls, Idaho) leads the MWC with 1.27 blocks per set and her 1.39 blocks per set in conference-only matches leads the league as well.
Players Mentioned
ESPN+ Feature | Utah Volleyball's Devyn Weist
Thursday, November 06
Utah Volleyball's Ultimate Ute, Briar Rose - ESPN+ Feature
Monday, October 20
Utah Volleyball's Neea-Maria Joki - ESPN+ Feature
Friday, October 10
Utah Volleyball's Emrie Moea'i - ESPN+ Feature
Thursday, September 25