Utah Volleyball Hosts Utah State And Pepperdine

Sept. 14, 1999

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utes ended their win streak last weekend at the State Farm Illini. Classic with a tough loss to Georgia. The Bulldogs defeated the Utes, 3-2 (16-14, 11-15, 12-15, 15-7, 13-15). Utah came off the loss to win its next match over George Mason in three games (15-3, 15-6, 15-10). Sophomore transfer, Adrianne Bradley received all-tourney honors last weekend at the State Farm Illini. Classic. Utah's overall record is currently 6-2.

Possible starters for the Utes in the match-up against Utah State are: Graciela Torres-Lopez (Sr., S), McKelle Stilson (So., MB), Jen Snow-Richards (Jr., OH), Katrena Ellett (Fr., MB), Brooke Barton (Jr., OH), Adrianne Bradley (So., OH), or Lucie Turkova (Jr., DS). Utah's all-time assists leader Graciela Torres has added 348 assists thus far to her career total of 4,054. The Utes add four transfers and four true freshmen to this year's roster.

COMING UP

Utah vs. Utah State
Sept. 16
Crimson Court
Salt Lake City
7:00 p.m.

Utah vs. Pepperdine
Sept. 17
Crimson Court
Salt Lake City
7:00 p.m.

Utah is back in action at home against in-state rival Utah State Thurs., Sept. 16, at 7:00 p.m. The Utes will take on Pepperdine University Fri., Sept. 17, at 7:00 p.m. at Crimson Court.

AFTER THIS:
The Utes hit the road Mon., Sept. 20 to take on Idaho State of the Big Sky Conference. Match time is set for 7:00 p.m. at Reed Gym in Pocatello, Idaho. Utah's next match up will be at the Mountain West/Pac 10 Challenge, Sept. 24-25, in Palo Alto, Calif. The Utes play Stanford on Fri., Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m. (PDT). On Sat., Sept. 25, Utah will face California at 5:00 p.m. (PDT).

State farm illini. Classic MATCH RECAP:
The Utes lost a heartbreaker to Georgia, 3-2 ( 16-14, 11-15, 12-15, 15-7, 13-15) in their opening match of the State Farm Illini Classic. Georgia improved to 2-2 overall, 0-0 in the SEC.

Utah won the first game of the match but Georgia came back to win the next two. In the third game, Utah scored 10 unanswered points, getting the win, 15-7. In the last game, the score flip-flopped back and forth, and with the rally scoring, the Utes were unable to produce the win.

For the Utes, Adrianne Bradley recorded a double-double, posting 19 kills and 19 digs in the match. McKelle Stilson racked up 17 kills for a .366 hitting percentage and 10 total blocks. Jen Snow-Richards also totaled 17 kills, and teammate Alisa Geddes added 12 kills and 15 digs. Utah posted a .224 hitting percentage compared to the .214 that Georgia recorded. Utah recorded 15 total team blocks, while Georgia totaled 13 team blocks.

For the Bulldogs, Stacy Buerger totaled 24 kills and 18 digs. Rebecca Dady recorded 20 kills and 14 digs, and teammate Erin Gornes added 20 kills. Iskra Perez and Jessica Leveritte each totaled 16 digs in the match.

The Utes shut-down George Mason, 3-0 ( 15-3, 15-6, 15-10) in their consolation match of the State Farm Illini. Classic. With the loss, George Mason moved to 2-3 overall, 0-0 in the CAA.

For the Utes, Adrianne Bradley tied the Illini Classic record for service aces in a match with seven. She led the team with 10 kills respectively. Bradley was named to the State Farm Illini. Classic all-tourney team. Utah unloaded its bench after the first game and the Utes posted a .330 hitting percentage in the match. Brenda Beal totaled seven kills for an impressive .778 hitting percentage. Lucie Turkov? added 34 assists and four total blocks.

For the Patriots, Natalia Torres-Tirado and Shelbylynn McBride totaled 8 kills each. Teammate Daniela Pastore added 14 assists and 6 digs. George Mason managed a .119 hitting percentage in the match.

Scouting Utah State:
The Aggies opened their season Sat., Sept. 10-11, in the San Diego Tournament. Utah State lost on Saturday to San Diego in three games, 9-15, 12-15, 14-16. The following day, the Aggies recorded their second loss of the season to San Jose State, 3-0 (10-15, 3-15, 12-15).

In their next match, the Aggies defeated Portland State in four games, 14-16, 15-12, 15-4, 15-7. Junior Amy Goulding-Crosbie currently leads the team in kills, averaging 4.00 kills per game for a .305 hitting percentage. Goulding-Crosbie also averages 2.00 digs per game. Last season, Goulding-Crosbie posted 2.87 KPG, 0.34 BPG and 1.32 DPG.

Two year letterwinner Melissa Schoepf averages 3.00 kills per game for a .204 hitting percentage. Schoepf leads the team with 2.80 digs per game. Schoepf averaged 2.38 KPG, 0.61 BPG and 2.20 DPG in 1998.

Middle blocker Denae Mohlman, a two year letterwinner, currently averages 2.40 kills per game and 1.70 digs per game. Utah State is currently 1-2 overall, 0-0 in the Big West Conference.

Utah State returns all six starters from last year's team that went 8-22 overall and 4-12 in the Big West Conference. Head Coach Tom Peterson begins his first season at Utah State.

Scouting pepperdine:
The Pepperdine women's volleyball team continued its early season dominance as it won the All Sport Challenge in Ann Arbor, Mich. last weekend. Pepperdine won a tournament for the second consecutive week as it swept then No. 16 Arkansas, No. 25 Michigan and Syracuse to improve its season record to 5-0.

The Waves opened their season on Sept. 3 with a 3-1 victory over Arizona State and swept Southwest Texas State on Sept. 4 to win the Phoenix Airport Hilton/Sun Devil Challenge in Tempe, AZ. Pepperdine is ranked No. 11 in the most recent USA Today/AVCA poll and No. 12 in this week's Volleyball rankings.

Pepperdine returns four starters and nine letterwinners from last year's team, which posted a 19-11 overall record, 11-3 in the West Coast Conference.

Senior middle blocker Jamie Hill currently averages 4.50 kills per game and 0.88 blocks per game. Hill posted 4.19 KPG and 1.32 BPG in 1998.

Freshman Stacy Rouwenhorst averages 4.06 kills per game and 3.25 digs per game. Teammate Melissa Snow (So., OH) totals 3.00 kills per game and leads the team in digs with 3.92 digs per game. Last season, Snow averaged 1.96 KPG and 2.36 DPG.

Head Coach Nina Matthies enters her 17th year at the helm for the Bulldogs. Matthies has compiled a 288-211 overall record at Pepperdine.

Series shorts:
Utah leads the all-time series with Utah State 34-21.
Pepperdine leads the series with Utah, 3-2.

The new mountain west conference:
Utah and seven other schools broke away from the WAC to form the new Mountain West Conference. Joining the Utes in the nation's newest conference are: Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV and Wyoming. The Utes open their conference schedule in October.

HEAD COACH BETH LAUNIERE:
In her tenth season, Beth Launiere has not only resurrected the Ute volleyball program and turned it into a consistent winner, she has also guided Utah to unprecedented success on the national level.

Under Launiere's leadership, Utah made its first-ever appearance in 1999 and advanced to the second round. It is the crowning achievement of Launiere's tenure at Utah, in which she has posted a 164-131 (.556) career record.

The winningest coach in school history, Launiere has overseen a significant transformation since her arrival in 1990. In the last five years alone, Launiere has guided the Utes to four 20-win seasons and five upper division finishes in the Western Athletic Conference.

QUOTING LAUNIERE:
On the State Farm Illini Classic- "We were able to play a lot of people and used our depth and I like the depth that we've got. For the development of the team, I think it was a good weekend, we learned a lot from the loss to Georgia. We're in a good position to be in and we were able to get a lot of playing experience in from some of our other kids."

On the Utah State match- "Utah State will be a difficult match for us because they are a very experienced team. They have a new coach, but return the whole starting line-up from last year. They played really well last spring, so it's going to be a tough match-up for us. We always have a good battle with them, so I'm expecting that again."

On the Pepperdine match- "Pepperdine will be a big challenge for us, >from everything I've heard, they're a very good team this year. They went to the sweet sixteen last year and had one of the top recruiting classes in the country, so it will be a challenging match-up for us. The good news is that we're home and ready to play well on Crimson Court with two big matches."

MWC pre-season poll:
In a survey of the Mountain West Conference coaches before the season, Utah, which received votes in the preseason national poll, was picked to finish third. Brigham Young was the unanimous favorite in the poll, with Colorado State projected to be the MWC runner-up. BYU entered the season ranked No. 7 in the nation, while Colorado State climbed into the preseason national poll at No. 24.

Bradley named to all-tourney team:
Adrianne Bradley was named to the State Farm Illini. Classic all-tourney team. Bradley posted 3.63 kills per game for a .254 hitting percentage in the State Farm Illini. Classic. Bradley tied the tourney record for service aces in a match with 7. She totaled 3.00 digs per game and 0.50 blocks per game in the tourney.

Mountain west conference statistical leaders:
Utah leads the conference in digs, averaging 17.89 digs per game. The Utes are second in kills with 491 (17.54 KPG), and assists with 440 (15.71 APG). McKelle Stilson is currently fourth in blocks with 1.31 blocks per game. Stilson is fifth with a .365 hitting percentage and tenth in kills, averaging 3.65 kills per game. Teammate Adrianne Bradley is fourth in service aces (0.56 SAPG), fifth in digs (3.16 DPG) and ninth in kills (3.72 KPG). Graciela Torres-Lopez is currently third in the conference in assists, averaging 13.92 assists per game. Torres-Lopez is tenth in digs, averaging 2.84 digs per game. Alisa Geddes is fourth in digs, averaging 3.25 digs per game. Katrena Ellett is seventh in blocks, averaging 1.14 blocks per game.

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