#21 Utes Wrap-Up Road Swing at UW and WSU this Weekend

MATCH 18 \| #21 UTAH (13-4, 4-2) at #7 WASHINGTON (14-2, 4-2)
DATE/TIME	Friday, Oct. 14 \| 7 p.m. PT
LOCATION	Alaska Airlines Arena \| Seattle,Wash.
TELEVISION	Pac-12 Networks \| Pac-12 LIVE
LIVE STATS	Live Stats
SERIES/STREAK	Washington leads, 13-6 \| UW, Won 1
LAST MATCH	Utah 0, Washington 3 \| Nov. 25, 2015

MATCH 19 \| #21 UTAH (13-4, 4-2) at #13 WASHINGTON STATE (15-3, 5-1)
DATE	Sunday, Oct. 15 \| 12 p.m. PT
LOCATION	Bohler Gym \| Pullman, Wash.
TELEVISION	Pac-12 Networks \| Pac-12 LIVE
LIVE STATS	Live Stats
SERIES/STREAK	Washington State leads, 13-7 \| WSU, Won 1
LAST MATCH	Utah 0, Washington State 3 \| Sept. 26, 2015

FIRST SERVE
The No. 21 Utah Utes (13-4, 4-2) closes out its four-match road swing with a pair of contests in the Pacific Northwest, first taking on the No. 7-ranked Washington Huskies (14-2, 4-2) this Friday, Oct. 14, at Alaska Airlines Arena and then facing the No. 13-ranked Washington State Cougars (15-3, 5-1) on Sunday, Oct. 16, at Bohler Gym.

First serve between the Utes and Huskies is set for 7 p.m. PT and Utah's match against the Cougars is set to get underway 12 p.m. PT.

COVERING THE UTES
Both matches this weekend will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks. Elise Woodward (play-by-play) and Amy Gant (analyst) will have the call on Friday, while Kevin Barnett (play-by-play) and Nicole Branagh (analyst) calls the action on Sunday.

Fans can also follow Friday and Sunday's action on-line by logging onto Pac-12.com/live or watching via smart phones and tablets using the Pac-12 Now App, which can be downloaded at the Apple Store, Google Play Store or Amazon Apps Store.

Live stats will be provided for both contests this weekend, as well. Links to Friday's match against UW can be found at www.GoHuskies.com or www.UtahUtes.com, while links to Sunday's match at WSU can be found at either www.WSUCougars.com or www.UtahUtes.com.

ABOUT UTAH
The Utes are coming off a pair of road wins from the Bay Area this past weekend, notching victories at California (25-23, 25-20, 25-16) and at then No. 7-ranked Stanford (26-24, 20-25, 25-23, 25-19).

Junior Adora Anae led the way for the Utes, posting 15 kills in the win over the Golden Bears and another 20 kills in Utah's upset against the Cardinal. Junior Tawnee Luafalemana led the way defensively, recording four blocks in both matches, respectively. Sophomore Jessie Openshaw tallied a team-high 21 assists against Cal, while freshman Bailey Choy collected 36 assists at Stanford. Sophomore Megan Shughrou led Utah's back row with eight digs at Cal and then posting 16 digs against Stanford on Sunday.

Utah moved to 13-4 overall with the victories and are now tied for second-place in the conference standings with a league record of 4-2.

LUAFALEMANA NAMED PAC-12 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior middle blocker Tawnee Luafalemana was named this week's Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week after helping guide the Utes to a pair of wins in the Bay Area this past weekend, posting a total of eight blocks with a 1.14 blocks per set average. She tallied four blocks in Utah's first-ever sweep over California on Friday and then followed with another four kills in the Utes' upset over No. 7-ranked Stanford on Sunday. The Carson, Calif., native also registered 18 kills this past weekend, while posting a team-best .485 hitting percentage.

Luafalemana is the fourth different Utah player to earn Pac-12 Player of the Week honors this season, joining Bailey Choy (Freshman, Sept. 26), Megan Shughrou (Defense, Sept. 19) and Adora Anae (Offense, Sept. 19). This is Utah's second Defensive Player of the Week honor so far this season and seventh overall.

WINNING ON THE ROAD
Utah moved to 6-0 overall in road matches this season with its two-match sweep over Cal and Stanford in the Bay Area. The Utes are off to its best road start since winning eight straight to open the 1997 campaign.

Utah's current six-match road winning streak is tied for the second-longest in school history. Utah's best streak is an 11-match winning streak that ran from Nov. 14, 1996 through Oct. 11, 1997. Utah's only other six-match winning streak came back in the 1979 season (Oct. 5-Nov. 1).

TAKING DOWN TOP-RANKED TEAMS ON THE ROAD
Following its upset victory at No. 7 Stanford on Sunday, the Utes have now won a school-best three straight matches to top-25 ranked teams on the road. Utah defeated No. 7 BYU in Provo back on Sept. 15 and then followed with a road win at No. 16 Colorado on Sept. 1.

WEEKEND OF FIRSTS
Utah tallied a couple of "firsts" over the weekend, which included sweeping California for the first time in the series history and defeating Stanford for the first time at Maples Pavilion.

Utah also managed to pick up two straight wins on the road against travel partners for the first time since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.

UTES BACK IN AVCA TOP-25 POLL
Following a pair of wins in the Bay Area, which included an upset win over then No. 7-ranked Stanford, the Utes made its way back into the AVCA Top-25 Coaches Poll, coming in at No. 21 this week.

Utah debuted in the poll back on Sept. 19, coming in at No. 25, but dropped out last week. Utah's No. 21 ranking is the squad's highest since earning the No. 18 overall ranking in the Dec. 22, 2014, poll.

RPI TALK
The Utes moved up six spots to No. 21 in this week's NCAA RPI rankings. Utah debuted at No. 27 in the RPI rankings last week.

Along with Utah, the Pac-12 has six teams ranked inside the RPI Top-25 and a total of eight teams inside the top-30. Stanford (7) leads the way, followed by Washington (11), Washington State (14), Oregon (15), UCLA (20), USC (28) and Arizona (29).

Utah is 2-1 against RPI teams ranked 1-25, 2-1 against teams ranked 25-50 and 2-1 against teams ranked 51-100. The Utes are 10-4 overall against the RPI top-150.

UTAH STATISTICAL LEADERS
Junior Tawnee Luafalemana leads Utah and ranks No. 5 in the conference with a .377 hitting percentage. Luafalemana also leads the team in both total blocks (74) and blocks per set (1.09). Junior Adora Anae leads the team, while also ranking No. 1 in the conference in kills (4.76) and points (5.48). Anae also has a team-best 314 kills, 215 digs and 26 aces on the season. Her 0.39 aces per set average ranks third in the Pac-12.

Freshman Bailey Choy leads the team with 573 assists and 8.43 assists per set, while sophomore Jessie Openshaw follows with 231 assists (4.81/set).

UTAH PLAYER NOTES
• Junior Adora Anae is the only player in the nation to average at least 4.7 kills and at least 3.2 digs per set. She has tallied 10 kills or more in 11 straight matches and in 16 of Utah's 17 contests this season.
• Anae was the first and now only player in the Pac-12 to have registered 300+ kills so far in the season.
• Junior Eliza Katoa recorded a season-high 10 kills in Utah's win at Stanford on Sunday. She tallied seven kills at California on Friday, while posting a team-best .636 hitting percentage.
• Sophomore Jessie Openshaw led the Utes with 21 assists on Friday. It was her first time to lead Utah in assists since collecting 19 assists against Rice (Sept. 2).
• Sophomore Emma Kirst tied a season-high with four kills against California on Friday and then matched a career-high with four digs against Stanford on Sunday.
• Junior Tawnee Luafalemana (.377 hitting percentage, 1.09 blocks per set) is one of four Pac-12 players to have at least a .375 hitting percentage and average at least 1.00 blocks per set. She joins Stanford's inky Ajanaku, WSU's Taylor Mims and Oregon's Ronika Stone.

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
Washington is riding a three-match winning streak after sweeping both Oregon schools on the road this past weekend. The Huskies defeated No. 20 Oregon (25-20, 25-18, 25-23) this past Friday and then went onto down Oregon State (26-24, 17-25, 26-24, 25-12) on Sunday. The Huskies are 4-2 in league play with losses to Washington State and Stanford. Both conference losses came in Seattle at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Huskies moved up one spot from No. 8 to No. 7 in this week's AVCA Top-25 poll.

HUSKIES STATISTICAL LEADERS
Statistical leaders for the Huskies heading into the week include: Kills: Courtney Schwan (223); Hitting Percentage: Schwan (.323); Assists: Bailey Tanner (627); Aces: Crissy Jones (25); Digs: Shayne McPherson (218); Blocks: Kara Bajema (70).

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Washington State dropped its first conference of the match this season with a 3-0 (21-25, 10-25, 14-25) loss to No. 20 Oregon on Sunday. The Cougars opened the weekend with a win over Oregon State (19-25, 25-15, 25-20, 25-18) back on Friday.

The Cougars, who dropped from No. 10 to No. 13 in this week's AVCA Top-25 poll, is a perfect 5-0 inside Bohler Gym this season. WSU went 7-6 in Pullman last season.

COUGARS STATISTICAL LEADERS
Statistical leaders for the Cougars heading into the week include: Kills: Kyra Holt (242); Hitting percentage: Taylor Mims (.376); Assists: Haley MacDonald (360); Aces: Holt (15); Digs: Alexis Dirige (257) and Blocks: Mims (100).

SERIES HISTORY
Washington leads the all-time series 13-6 and has won 11 of past 12 meetings against Utah. UW took last season's contest, 3-0, in Salt Lake City. The Utes are 1-8 against UW since joining the Pac-12 in 2011. The Utes have dropped all six decisions to the Huskies when playing in Seattle.

WSU defeated the Utes 3-0 last season in Pullman and lead the all-time series 13-7. Utah defeated the Cougars 3-1 in Salt Lake City last season, but has dropped three of the past four decisions. Utah is 1-5 all-time when facing the Cougars in Pullman, with its only win coming back on Oct. 7, 2011.

#BLOCKU
Utah has played better at the net since beginning conference play back on Sept. 21. The Utes tallied 91.0 total blocks, while averaging 8.27 blocks per match and 2.12 blocks per set in non-conference play. Since then, the Utes have recorded 61.0 total team blocks that average out to 10.10 blocks per match and 2.44 blocks per set against league teams.

The Utes recorded 9.0 blocks or more in five of 11 non-conference matches, but have already posted four matches of 9.0 blocks or more in its first six Pac-12 contests.

UP NEXT
Utah returns home to the Huntsman Center next week to host both Oregon schools, first taking on the Oregon Ducks next Friday, Oct. 21 and closing out the weekend against the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday, Oct. 22. The Utes and Ducks are set to get underway at 8 p.m. MT, while Utah's match against the Beavers is set to begin at 7 p.m. MT.

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#21 Utes Wrap-Up Road Swing at UW and WSU this Weekend

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#21 Utes Wrap-Up Road Swing at UW and WSU this Weekend

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Adora Anae

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