Utes Sweep In-State Rival Aggies

Saturday, September 17

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

9-2

Utah State

5-6

Utah State

Utah

9/17/2016 10:04 PM | Volleyball

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Anae and Trueman combine for 32 kills in win

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah volleyball team closed out non-conference play with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 26-24) win over in-state rival Utah State Saturday night at the Huntsman Center.

The Utes wrap-up the non-conference slate with a 9-2 record, while the Aggies dropped to 5-6 with the loss.

The Utes trailed by as many as four points early in the first set, but a 6-0 run midway through the set gave the home team its first lead and the Aggies were forced to call a timeout, down 14-11. A pair of kills from junior Adora Anae pushed the lead to 17-14, but USU racked up five of the next seven points to tie the frame at 19-all. A 3-0 run forced the Aggies to call its final timeout and Anae's sixth kill of the set would give Utah the win, 25-22.

A 7-4 run would give Utah a 15-10 lead before USU came back with a 4-0 run and pull within a point of the Utes. Utah called a timeout and followed with an 8-0 run to take a commanding 23-14 lead. The Aggies managed to get one more point, but back-to-back kills from junior Eliza Katoa wrapped up the second set, 25-15, and sent the Utes into intermission up 2-0 in the match.

Utah State opened the third with three straight points, but Utah countered with a 5-2 run to notch things up at 5-all. Both teams would trade points back-and-forth before a 3-0 run gave the Aggies a 15-12 lead and force the Utes to call a timeout. USU pushed its lead to 16-12 before a kill from Anae ended the run.

A 7-3 run would pull the Utes back within a point, down 21-20, and that forced the Aggies to call its first timeout of the third set. A kill from Carly Trueman would later tie the set at 23-23 and that would push USU to call its final timeout. Junior Tawnee Luafalemana registered a kill to give the Utes match point, but the Aggies managed to tie it back up with a Utah hitting error. Luafalemana put the Utes back up match point with another kill and Trueman would put the match away with her 15th kill of the night.

The Utes defeated Utah State for the fifth straight time, while moving to 48-25 in the all-time series.

Anae registered a match-high 17 kills, while hitting .317 on the evening. Trueman posted her 15 kills on .300 hitting, while Luafalemana notched 11 kills with a team-best .440 hitting effort.

Anae added 16 digs for her eighth double-double of the season and sophomore Megan Shughrou matched her effort with another 16 digs for the Utes.

Freshman Bailey Choy tallied a match-high 46 assists, while leading the Utes to a .290 team hitting percentage.

Luafalemana led the Ute blocking attack with five total blocks.

Utah returns to action this Wednesday, Sept. 21, opening up Pac-12 play at Colorado. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo.