No. 23 Utes Set for Rainbow Wahine Classic

Match 4: #22 Utah vs. South Dakota
Thursday, Aug. 31 | 4:45 p.m. HT/8:45 p.m. MT
Honolulu, Hawaii | Stan Sheriff Center
Live Stats

Match 5: #22 Utah vs. Western Carolina
Friday, Sept. 1 | 4:45 p.m. HT/8:45 p.m. MT
Honolulu, Hawaii | Stan Sheriff Center
Live Stats

Match 6: #22 Utah at Hawaii
Sunday, Sept. 3 | 4 p.m. HT/8 p.m. MT
Honolulu, Hawaii | Stan Sheriff Center
Live Stats | Web-Stream

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
· The Utes opened its 2017 campaign going 2-1 at the Bluegrass Battle in Lexington, Ky., picking up wins against Cincinnati (25-10, 25-18, 25-17) and Arkansas State (26-24, 25-23, 25-20). Utah's only loss was a five-set defeat to No. 14 Kentucky (23-25, 27-29, 25-13, 25-20, 12-15).
· Senior Adora Anae led the way with 57 kills on the weekend, which included a 26-kill effort against UK and a .760 hitting percentage in the season-opener against Cincinnati.
· Senior Tawnee Luafalemana tallied a team-best 14 total blocks on the weekend. She also registered 18 kills and a .371 hitting percentage.
Bailey Choy totaled 107 assists through her first three matches of the season, for an average of 9.7 assists per set. She registered just over 7.1 assists per set last season.
· Five of seven incoming freshmen saw action this past week. Freshmen leaders from the squad included: Dani Barton (13 kills), Kenzie Koerber (7 blocks), Shannon Scully (30 digs), Camryn Machado (21 assists) and Kristen Abels (4 service aces).

FIRST SERVE
The No. 22-ranked Utah Utes (2-1) hit the road again this week as the team travels across the Pacific Ocean to compete in the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Utes will face three teams this weekend, taking on South Dakota this Thursday, Aug. 31; Western Carolina on Friday, Sept. 1; and then closing out the event against Hawaii on Sunday, Sept. 3.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
South Dakota Coyotes
South Dakota opened its season at the Rumble in the Rockies tournament hosted by Wyoming this past weekend. The Coyotes finished the weekend 1-2, dropping the first match of the tournament to Wyoming, 3-0. South Dakota split on the final day of the tournament, falling to Portland 3-0, but picked up a sweep over Abilene Christian to close out the weekend. Junior Rachel Schmidt lead the team with 38 kills on the weekend, while junior Hayley Dotseth chipped in 35 kills. Senior setter Brittany Jensen totaled 102 assists (11.33 assists per set) to run the offense for the Coyotes.

Western Carolina Catamounts
Western Carolina hosted the Catamount Volleyball Classic to open the season and finished 1-2 on the weekend. Western Carolina swept its season opener over Charleston Southern, but fell to Towson and Jacksonville State on Saturday. The Catamounts fell to Towson in four sets, while being swept by Jacksonville State. Sophomore Abigail Veit totaled 31 kills during the Catamount Volleyball Classic and sophomore Meagan Sanchez finished the weekend with 47 digs. Running the offense were freshman Hannah Price and senior Jo-Leigh VerVelde. Price chipped in 44 assists (6.29 assists per set), while VerVelde added in 52 assists (8.67 assists per set).

Hawaii Rainbow Wahine
Hawaii hosted the Texaco Rainbow Wahine Invitational last weekend and dropped all three of its matches to open the season. Hawaii fell in five sets to Marquette on Friday, and was swept by San Diego on Saturday. The Rainbow Wahine closed out the invitational against UCLA on Sunday and fell in five sets. Junior McKenna Granato led the team in kills, totaling 51 over the three-day tournament. Sophomore Norene Iosia finished the tournament with 135 assists (10.38 assists per set) and senior Savanah Kahakai added in 52 digs on the weekend.

SERIES HISTORY
This week will mark the first-ever meeting for the Utes against both South Dakota and Western Carolina. Meanwhile, this will be the 12th meeting against Hawaii, but the first since 2004.

Hawaii leads the all-time series 11-0, which includes a 5-0 mark when playing the Utes in Honolulu. Utah is 0-3 all-time when facing the Rainbow Wahine in Honolulu during the regular season. The other two losses to Hawaii in Honolulu came in the NCAA Tournament (1999, 2000).

COVERING THE UTES
Live stats will be available for all three matches this weekend, with links at both www.HawaiiAthletics.com and www.UtahUtes.com. A live web-stream will be available for Sunday's match when the Utes take on Hawaii.

LAST TIME OUT
The Utes opened the 2017 campaign going 2-1 at the Bluegrass Battle. Utah opened the season with a domination victory over Cincinnati, but later dropped a heart breaker to No. 14 Kentucky. Utah bounced back though with a three-set win over Arkansas State in the final match of the tournament.

Seniors Adora Anae and Tawnee Luafalemana were both named to the all-tournament team following the conclusion of the event.

POLL TALK
Following a 2-1 opening-weekend record, the Utes moved up one spot to No. 22 in this week's AVCA Coaches' Top-25 Poll. The Utes earned 315 total points in the poll, jumping one spot up from its No. 23 preseason ranking.

This marks the 11th straight week, dating back to last season, that the Utes have registered an AVCA top-25 ranking. It is Utah's longest streak in the AVCA having been ranked for 18 consecutive weeks back in 2005-07. It is Utah's 102st weekly ranking overall.

ATTACK THIS
Senior Adora Anae registered her all-time best hitting effort in a single match this past weekend, posting a .760 hitting percentage against Cincinnati in the season-opener. The fourth-year veteran tallied 19 kills and zero errors on a total of 25 swings.

It is just the fifth time in her career overall that she has finished a match without a hitting error, and the first since totaling 10 kills in 18 attempts back in Dec. 5, 2014, in a first-round NCAA Tournament match against the Kansas State Wildcats. The .760 hitting percentage is her all-time best performance, which surpassed her previous high of .556, which was set against KSU.

The .760 effort also ranks eighth-highest all-time for a Ute player in a single-match (with at least 10 attempts) and is the largest single-match hitting percentage from a Utah player since Carly Trueman's .824 effort against Gonzaga in 2015.

ERROR FREE IN KENTUCKY
Adora Anae would not only go error free in the first match of the season, but the senior would follow the next match against Kentucky, registering 10 kills before recording her first error. Overall, Anae tallied 29 kills and a total of 43 swings before recording her first hitting error.

ON THE ATTACK
Utah registered a blistering .336 hitting percentage over the first weekend of play, notching hitting percentage totals of .425, .290 and .346 through its first three matches. After just one week of play, Utah's .336 hitting percentage ranks ninth overall in the nation and second in the Pac-12. Only USC's .383 hitting percentage ranked higher than the Utes' total.

In the season-opener against Cincinnati, the Utes notched a .426 hitting percentage collecting 37 kills on 73 swings and just six errors. It marked Utah's first .400 or better hitting effort since Sept. 7, 2013, when the Utes posted hitting percentages of .449 against Prairie View A&M and .414 against Northwestern State at the North Texas Invitational in Denton, Texas.

ACE UP THE SLEEVE
Utah servers managed to record eight service aces in Friday's defeat to Kentucky. Utah's eight service aces was just one off from last season's team-high of nine (at USC, Oct. 28), but already matches the team's second-best effort last season, which was recorded twice against Oregon State (Oct. 22 and Nov. 10).

True freshman Kristen Abels led the team over the weekend, notching a total of four service aces in a total of six sets. She tallied a pair of aces against both Kentucky and Arkansas State. Meanwhile, senior Adora Anae went on to tally three service aces on the weekend. She is Utah's active leader with 63 aces in her career.

HIGH FIVE FOR 25
Senior Adora Anae registered at least 25 kills in a single match for the 11th time in her career when she tallied 26 kills in a loss to Kentucky. Anae is the only player in school history to record at least 25 kills in a single match more than five times in a career.

Anae, who has a current 29-match streak of registering at least 10 kills or more, has gone onto collect 20 kills or more, 28 different times in her career. Overall, Anae has posted double-digit kill efforts in 74 of the 98 matches she has played in over the last four seasons.

ASSISTED LIVING
Sophomore Bailey Choy totaled 107 assists while running the offense this past weekend. Choy, who tallied 9.73 assists per set over the first weekend of play, has already registered nearly 12 percent of the assist total she notched as a true freshman last season. She totaled 918 assists and a 7.17 assists per set average last year.

Choy totaled 53 assists in Utah's loss to Kentucky, netting her 50-plus assists for the second time in her career. She tallied a career-high 57 assists against BYU last season (Sept. 15). Choy is the first Ute to post a pair of 50-assist performances since Keisha Fisher did so back in 2007. Fisher would go onto record 50 assists or more in three matches that season: 59, vs. Tennessee, Aug. 25; 50, at Purdue, Sept. 1; 58, at San Diego State, Sept.13.

EXPERIENCED AT THE TOP
Utah had four experienced veterans lead the way offensively this past weekend, as the quadruplet went onto tally 120 of its 154 total kills (78 percent). Senior Adora Anae totaled a team-high 57 kills on the weekend, while fellow senior Carly Trueman added 23 kills. Junior Berkeley Oblad tallied 22 kills and senior Tawnee Luafalemana chipped in with 18 kills.

SO FRESH, SO CLEAN
Not to be outdone by the upperclassmen, Utah's incoming freshmen class managed to make their mark this weekend as well. Five of seven incoming freshmen managed to see action over the weekend and went onto post some good numbers, as well.

Shannon Scully is tied for the team lead after recording a total of 30 digs through her first three matches and Kristen Abels totaled a team-high four service aces in two matches she played in. Kenzie Koerber currently ranks second on the team with seven total blocks and Camryn Machado ranks second with 21 assists. Dani Barton is the only freshman on the squad with at least 10 kills on the year (13) and she is tied for third on the squad with six total blocks.

MOVING ON UP
Senior Adora Anae continues to climb her way up Utah's all-time statistical leader boards. The four-year veteran moved up to No. 3 all-time in career kills. She now has 1,430 career kills after surpassing former Ute, Chelsey Schofield-Olsen (1,379), this past weekend.

Anae heads into the week ranked No. 5 all-time with 3,649 career attempts and needs just 76 more attacks to move into the No. 5 spot all-time. She would surpass Sharman Grant (1991-94) who finished her career with 3,724 total attacks.

Anae is also very close to moving into the top-10 in career digs. She heads into the weekend with 954 career digs and needs just 30 more to move into the No. 10 spot, which would also surpass Grant, who tallied 983 digs in her career with the Utes.

UTES PICKED TO FINISH FOURTH IN PAC-12
Utah earned its highest preseason finish since joining the Pac-12 back in 2012, coming in at No. 4 in the 2017 preseason coaches' poll. The Utes garnered one first-place vote in the poll for a total of 88 points. Washington was picked to win the league, while Stanford and Oregon followed to round out the top-three.

ANAE NAMED TO ALL-PAC-12 PRESEASON TEAM
Adora Anae was named to the All-Pac-12 Preseason Team for a second straight season. Anae, who enters her senior season with the Utes, was an All-Pac-12 First Team selection following the 2016 season. She led the league in kills (592), kills-per-set (4.70) and points-per-set (5.22).

UP NEXT
The Utes will make its long-awaited home debut next week, hosting #17 San Diego (3-1), Green Bay (3-0) and Missouri (2-2) at the 2017 Utah Volleyball Classic. Action is set to get underway next Friday, Sept. 8, at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

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Players Mentioned

Kristen Abels

Adora Anae

Bailey Choy

Dani Drews

Kenzie Koerber

Tawnee Luafalemana

Camryn Machado

Berkeley Oblad

Shannon Scully

Carly Trueman

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