PALO ALTO, Calif. – The No. 13-ranked Utah Utes went toe-to-toe with the No. 2-ranked Texas Longhorns in the NCAA Regional Semifinal round, but the Longhorns came out on top, winning the match in five sets (25-19, 16-25, 24-26, 25-21, 16-14) Friday evening at Maples Pavilion.
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Utah's
Adora Anae registered a match-high 25 kills and
Carly Trueman followed with 13 kills on the evening.
Berkeley Oblad totaled 12 kills and
Tawnee Luafalemana chipped in with 10 kills giving Utah four players with double-digit kill totals. The Utes would register more kills (66) than the Longhorns (59), but Texas managed to outhit Utah, 284 to .224.
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Utah bounced back from a 4-0 deficit and later trailed 9-6, but a 9-2 run led to a 17-8 Texas lead and Utah was forced to call its final timeout of the first set. The Utes clawed back with a 7-3 run to get back within five, down 20-15, but the Horns managed to win five of the next nine points to take the frame 25-19. Anae tallied four kills and Trueman totaled three kills on three swings, but Utah was outhit .424 to .179 in the set.
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Utah matched Texas point-for-point early in the second set and later took its first lead of the match, 9-8, when a UT attack went wide. Anae followed with a kill and both Luafalemana and
Kenzie Koerber combined for a block to force the Horns to call timeout, down 11-8. Utah continued its dominance in the frame and went onto take the set, 25-16, behind Anae's six kills and a pair of service aces from
Shannon Scully and Oblad. The Utes hit just .219 in the frame, but limited the Horns to a .000 hitting percentage.
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It marked the first time a Utah team took a set off its opponent in the NCAA Regional Semifinal round since winning the third set (30-28) against Stanford back on Dec. 7, 2001. It also marked the first time that Texas had given up a set to an opponent in the NCAA Tournament this year and the first set since falling 25-21 to Baylor in the second set back on Nov. 25.
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Minus a couple 3-0 runs from each team, both squads would keep it close in the third set, but the Utes would take a 15-13 lead into the media timeout following a kill from Luafalemana. Texas would come back to notch the frame at 16-all, but a 3-0 lead pushed Utah's lead to 19-16 and force Texas to call a timeout. UT's first lead in the set after a 4-3 lead early in the frame, came via a successful challenge by the Horns bench, to make it 22-21. Utah countered though, winning the next two points and taking a 23-22 lead. That forced UT to call timeout and then after falling behind set-point, the Horns managed to get a point to tie it at 24-24. Ensuing kills from Koerber and
Dani Barton would give the set to Utah though and the Utes would take a 2-1 advantage into the fourth set.
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Texas jumped out to a 7-2 lead and Utah had to call an early timeout. The Utes would come back and make it an 8-6 game, but the Horns would get back up by five points, up 13-8. Down late in the set, 23-16, Utah would go on a 5-1 run behind a pair of kills from Oblad, but the Horns would earn the final point to take the set 25-21.
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Despite falling behind 4-1 and forced to call a timeout, Utah came back with a 4-1 run and later trailed just 8-6 as both teams traded sides of the court. Texas won the next point, but the Utes countered with a 5-3 run to notch the frame at 10-10. The teams would go point-for-point down the stretch, but Texas eventually won it, taking the final two points of the set to win 16-14.
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The Utes end their season with an overall record of 24-10. Texas improved to 27-2 overall and will move onto the regional final round taking on the winner of Stanford/Wisconsin.
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MATCH NOTES
• Anae surpassed Kim Turner's all-time career kills total in NCAA Tournament matches. Anae finishes her career with 114 career kills in NCAA Tournament matches, which eclipsed Turner's total of 108 kills.
• Doehrmann finished the match with 30 digs, surpassing Chelsey Schofield-Olsen's NCAA Tournament single-match school record of 21 digs, which was set back on Dec. 6, 2014, against Nebraska.
• Doehrmann, who also tallied 30 digs earlier in the season against UCLA, became the only Utah player to register 30 digs or more twice in one season in the rally scoring era. She is the first player to register at least 29 digs in two matches in the same season since 2007 (Connie Dangerfield).
• Texas dropped two sets to an opponent for the first time since Nov. 1, when the Horns defeated Kansas State 3-2 on the road.
• Utah won two sets in a NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal match for the first time in school history. Utah's prior regional matches were scores of 1-3 and 0-3.
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POST-MATCH QUOTES
Utah
Texas
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