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University of Utah
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Arizona State
Utah Volleyball Earns Five-set Road Win at Arizona State
9/18/2010 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 18, 2010
TEMPE, Ariz. - Senior setter Stephanie Neeley dished out a career-high 64 assists and freshman outside hitter Morgan Odale pounded a career-high 22 kills to help the University of Utah volleyball team to an exciting five-set victory at Arizona State (25-18, 27-29, 25-18, 16-25, 15-13) Saturday in the final match of the ASU Sheraton Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.
Utah (5-7) outhit the Sun Devils in three of the five sets and both sides had 85.0 points on the box score.
"It was a very even match," Utah head coach Beth Launiere said. "We made plays at the end and that made the difference. Our team was very hungry for that win. We have really grown as a team. I'm proud of how they stuck together and found a way to win."
Neeley set up the Utes with a career-high 64 assists and also pitched in four digs, two blocks and two kills.
Bartkowiak earned all-tournament team recognition after having 17 kills on a .308 hitting percentage to go with 14 digs and a team-high-tying four blocks. She has four double-doubles this season and 15 over her career.
Odale had 22 kills to go with 17 digs and three blocks for her sixth double-double in 12 matches as at Ute.
Utah's freshman middle blocker Erin Redd established a new career-high for the second consecutive match with 16 kills on 30 swings and only two errors for a .467 hitting percentage.
"Those three [Bartkowiak, Odale and Redd] really did a nice job on the attack," Launiere said. "[Keisha] Fisher did a great job passing and really played well for us."
Fisher recorded 25 in the back row for the Utes and her double-digit-dig match streak extended to 14 straight. She now has 71 double-figure-dig performances in her career and has led or tied for team-high honors in nine matches this season. Fisher now has 1,287 career digs, which is 251 shy of the school record.
With the fifth and deciding set tied at three points apiece, the Utes took three straight to take a 6-3 advantage, which grew to a five-point lead at 13-8. Utah would go on to clinch the match with a 15-13 win.
To begin the match, there were four ties and three lead changes in the first set. When the set was tied at four points apiece before the Utes put together a 4-0 spurt to assume an 8-4 advantage. Utah maintained its four-point spread until the 19-15 mark and even extended its lead to seven points, 23-16. The Utes went on to take a 25-18 first-set win thanks to six kills from Bartkowiak and 15 assists delivered by Neeley.
There were 10 ties and four lead changes in a competitive second set. After the second set was tied at two points apiece, but Arizona State took four of the next five points to obtain a 6-3 lead. The Sun Devils built their lead to 12-8 but Utah fought back to take the lead at 20-18. Utah fell behind 24-22 but came back to knot the match at 25 points each. Unfortunately, the Utes could not sustain its rally and fell 29-27.
Utah earned a 10-5 lead early in the third set but ASU quickly cut its deficit to two points at 11-9. The Utes went on to take control of the set and took a six-point lead (20-14) en route to a 25-20 third-set victory.
ASU held a 19-14 lead late in the fourth set and held on for a 25-16 win to force the fifth set.
This was Utah's third five-set match of the season and the Utes are 2-1 in those matches. Utah won at Northwestern on Sept. 4 before suffering a loss at Missouri State on Sept. 11.
Arizona State fell 4-7 this season with the loss and the Sun Devils received 19 kills from Sarah Reaves while Sarah Johnson came through with in 25 digs.
With the win, the Utes improved their all-time record against the 10 institutions currently in the Pac 10 Conference to 27-71 (.276) Arizona (4-17), Arizona State (4-9), California (3-3), Oregon (4-5), Oregon State (2-5), USC (2-6), Stanford (1-3), UCLA (1-9), Washington (5-5), Washington State (1-9).
Utah snapped its five-match losing streak with the win.
The Utes return home to Crimson Court to begin their Mountain West Conference schedule Thursday against Wyoming. First serve against Cowgirls is set for 7 p.m. MT.
2010 Arizona State Sheraton All-Tournament Team
Svenja Englehardt, Pacific
Karolina Bartkowiak, Utah
Danica Mendivil, Arizona State
Sarah Reaves, Arizona State
Lexi Zimmerman, Michigan
Most Valuable Player: Alex Hunt, Michigan
Players Mentioned
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