Utah Volleyball Defeats Arizona in Five Sets

Sunday, October 22

Salt Lake City, UT

12:00 PM

University of Utah

9-11,4-6Pac-12

Arizona

6-15,1-9Pac-12

Arizona

Utah

10/22/2023 6:51 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Three Utes collected double-digit kills while five Utes tallied multiple service aces.

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Volleyball defeated Arizona on Sunday afternoon, taking down the Wildcats in five sets (25-17, 25-17, 14-25, 20-25, 15-12). The Utes battled adversity after taking the first two sets and then dropping the following pair of sets to the Wildcats. A strong fifth-set performance pushed Utah towards victory and a split of its weekend matchups.

"We showed some pretty good composure," said head coach Beth Launiere. "(Arizona) started playing better in sets three and four, and they started doing some different things that we had to counter. It just took us a little bit of time, but we made some nice adjustments. It was a fun match to coach. By set five, I felt like we kind of had things back in control."

This is the second five-set victory of the season for the Utes as they used a variety of weapons to complete the win. Emrie Satuala continues her stellar season with a dominating game against the Wildcats. Satuala racked up 14 kills and hit at a clip of .414, her second highest of the season, while adding her sixth match of the year with double-digit kills. Defensively, the sophomore recorded three blocks to complete her all-around match.

"I think just giving what I can give to the team," said Satuala. "I know what I'm good at, I know what my strengths are, and just being able to give everything I can to the team. Coming out of Friday we knew that we had a lot of work to do, and we all just came together, and everybody did what they needed to do today."

Freshman Kamryn Gibadlo and junior Lauren Jardine shined offensively as both players connected on 11 kills in the match. This is the tenth match of double-digit kills for Gibadlo and the seventh match for Jardine. Viktoria Wahlgren ran the offense, dishing out 40 assists and spinning in two aces.

"It meant a lot to me," Jardine said. "It felt like my team wholly trusted me to do my job, and I think that ultimately gave me more of a spark than anything could have, and that just gave me confidence to go hit high and swing hard."'

Libero Vanessa Ramirez and Kamry Bailey led the back row as Ramirez had 14 digs, totaling 25 for the weekend, while Bailey contributed 10 digs of her own. Ramirez dominated behind the service line as racked up a career-high five aces. Emily Smith picked up a new career-high six aces against the Wildcats as Utah totaled a season-high 17 aces as a team.

The Utes were in control early in the first set, using a 5-1 run to take an early lead as Smith picked up three aces during this period. The Wildcats responded with two of their own points, but Satuala recorded back-to-back kills to extend the lead back to four points. The Utes would grab their largest lead of the set with three consecutive points with help from an ace from Wahlgren and a kill from Gibadlo to stretch the lead, 12-6. Both teams would trade runs of four consecutive points, but Utah won four of the last five points to take the set. As a team, the Utes hit .308 and totaled 11 kills in the set while forcing Arizona to hit .038.

The Wildcats used an early 8-1 run to take a quick 12-7 lead in the second set. The Utes responded with five straight points including kills from Bailey and Jardine to tie the game, 12-12. Arizona put together two straight points to cut the deficit, but Utah exploded with an 8-0 run to take a firm grasp of the set. Three different Utes added a kill, while a service ace and a trio of attack errors from Arizona contributed to the extended run. The Utes used the momentum to finish the set, scoring the last four of five points. Utah continued their strong hitting performance from the first set, hitting .364 with 16 kills.

Arizona turned things around in the third set, jumping out to a 11-4 advantage. Gibadlo responded with her eighth kill of the match and the Utes later came within five points, 12-7. Both teams would trade scoring runs as Arizona connected on two straight points and Utah responded with three of their own points with a kill from Bailey and an ace from Olsen. Arizona would use a 5-0 run to lead 21-12 and later take the final four points to capture the third set.

The fourth set began with a service ace from Wahlgren, her second of the match and team-leading 26th of the season. Arizona used a 9-2 run to take the lead and continue its hot hitting from the third set. Utah started to get the offense rolling with five consecutive points as a kill from Gibadlo and an ace from Ramirez followed by three straight Arizona attack errors tied the set, 11-11. Arizona separated themselves from Utah with a 4-0 run, but the Utes responded with their own run of four straight, including an ace from Smith to tie the set at 19 points apiece. The Wildcats finished the rest of the set with a 6-1 scoring run to force a fifth set.

Utah scored first following an Arizona service error, but the Wildcats grabbed the lead by winning five of the next six points to jump out to a 5-2 lead. Gibadlo and Ramirez led a Utah 3-0 run with a kill and an ace to tie the set at 5-5. Both teams would go toe-to-toe with each other as neither team could obtain a lead larger than one point. As Utah trailed 8-7, Jardine took the match into her own hands and recorded three consecutive kills to give Utah the lead. Arizona responded and took the lead 12-11, but three attack errors from the Wildcats gave Utah a two-point advantage with a match point. Ramirez closed out the match with her fifth ace.

"At the end of the day, in set five, our athletes executed, and that was the name of the game," Launiere added. "We had a great service match. We challenged players yesterday in practice to serve tougher, and we had 17 aces. We just had a lot of players do their job, and I just thought it was a great team win. Emrie has been leading us in kills and percentage, and that's been great. I thought Lauren came up really big in set five for us with a lot of kills."

UP NEXT
The Utes begin the second half of a four-game home stand, welcoming the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans to Salt Lake City. This is the second time this season that the Utes have matched up with both teams, falling at USC and defeating UCLA in straight sets in Los Angeles. The Halloween match for Freaky Friday against UCLA will start at 7:00 p.m. MT, next Friday, Oct. 27, on Pac-12 Insider. To close out the weekend, first serve with the Trojans for Super Sunday will be at 12:00 p.m. MT on Oct. 29, and broadcast on Pac-12 Mountain.