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Utah Volleyball Notes
11/25/2002 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 25, 2002
SALT LAKE CITY -
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THIS WEEK:
No. 24 Utah (24-7, 10-4) hosts No. 2 Hawaii and No. 12 Arizona this week. The Utes will play Hawaii on Wednesday, Nov. 27, and Arizona on Saturday, Nov. 30. Both matches start at 7 p.m. at Crimson Court. Saturday's match against the Wildcats is Senior Night, when captain Sylva Strzinkova and fellow senior Brenda Beal will be honored prior to the match.
REVIEWING LAST WEEK:
Utah is coming off its second consecutive Mountain West Conference Tournament championship. The Utes, who didn't even drop a game in the tournament, defeated Wyoming (32-30, 30-20, 30-25), San Diego State (30-24, 30-19, 30-20) and Brigham Young (30-22, 30-25, 30-23) to claim the title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Junior Kim Turner, who earlier in the week was named MWC Co-Player of the Year, was named MVP of the tournament after averaging 4.33 kills, 2.00 blocks and 1.67 digs per game, while hitting .342. Junior Jackie Morrill was named Top Defensive Specialist, sophomore Kelsie Kartchner was named Top Setter and Sylva Strzinkov?, who only played in seven of the nine tournament games, was also named to the all-tournament team. Morrill averaged 4.56 digs during the tournament, while Kartchner averaged 13.56 assists, 2.44 digs, 0.89 kills, 0.78 service aces and 0.78 blocks. Strzinkov? averaged 3.38 kills, 2.88 digs and 0.38 service aces at the tournament.
USA TODAY/AVCA TOP 25
Rank School Total 2002 Last (1st-place Votes) Points Record Week1 USC (59) 1613 24-1 1 2 Hawai'i (3) 1511 28-1 2 3 Florida (1) 1471 29-1 3 4 Stanford 1458 26-4 4 5 Nebraska (2) 1417 26-1 5 6 UC Santa Barbara 1276 28-1 7 7 Pepperdine 1211 23-6 8 8 Northern Iowa 1126 30-2 9 9 Minnesota 1109 29-4 6 10 Long Beach State 1076 26-3 10 11 Washington State 956 21-7 13 12 Arizona 782 16-10 16 13 Santa Clara 774 24-5 11 14 North Carolina 732 29-3 12 15 Wisconsin 656 21-8 14 16 Penn State 628 22-7 17 17 Georgia Tech 557 31-5 20 18 Eastern Washington 470 29-2 15 19 Missouri 349 24-6 22 20 Ohio State 329 17-10 25 21 UCLA 320 16-13 21 22 Kansas State 295 19-7 19 23 South Carolina 258 21-6 1824 UTAH 185 24-7 24 25 University of San Diego 184 25-7 23
Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: California (105), Washington (77), Texas (49), Louisville (28), Arkansas (26), Michigan State (23), Northwestern (16), South Florida (16), Colorado State (13), Fresno State. Nine teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 23 combined points.
MWC STANDINGS
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct.Colorado State# 12 2 .857 21 9 .700 San Diego State 11 3 .786 21 12 .636UTAH* 10 4 .714 24 7 .774 BYU 7 7 .500 14 17 .452 UNLV 6 8 .429 10 19 .345 Wyoming 5 9 .357 20 11 .645 New Mexico 3 11 .214 8 20 .286 Air Force 2 12 .143 8 22 .267
# - Regular-season champion * - MWC Tournament champion
TURNER NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Junior captain Kim Turner has been named MWC Player of the Week for the fourth time this season and eighth time during her career. Turner earned the honor after being named MVP of the MWC Tournament when she led the Utes to a 3-0 record and their second straight tournament title. She hit .348 with 11 kills, three digs and six blocks in an opening round victory over Wyoming and added 12 kills, six digs and nine blocks in a sweep of No. 2 seed San Diego State. In the championship, Turner led the Utes to a sweep over BYU with a .542 hitting percentage, 16 kills, six digs and three blocks. It was the second year in a row that she was named MVP of the tournament.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION:
Hawaii - No. 2 Hawaii (28-1) defeated Nevada 30-19, 30-32, 30-13, 30-23 in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship match on Sunday to win their third straight WAC Tournament title. The Rainbow Wahine are led by junior Kim Willoughby with 6.33 kills and 3.22 digs per game. Setters Margaret Vakasausau and Jennifer Carey average 8.20 and 6.83 assists per game, respectively. Lauren Duggins leads Hawaii with a 1.33 blocks per game average.
Arizona - No. 12 Arizona (16-10) closed out its Pacific-10 season with a 3-1 win over then-No. 21 UCLA last Friday. The Wildcats completed the Pac-10 season tied for third with Washington State in the conference standings behind champions USC and second-place Stanford. Freshman Kim Glass leads Arizona with a 4.78 kills per game average, while Lisa Ruteledge averages 2.73 digs per game. Setter Laurie Gardner averages 12.27 assists per game and Bre Ladd leads the team with a 1.10 blocks per game average.
QUOTING HEAD COACH BETH LAUNIERE:
On the upcoming matches against nationally-ranked Hawaii and Arizona - "When we scheduled these teams, we knew that they would be good matches for us to prepare for the NCAA Tournament. Both programs are traditional powerhouses in volleyball, so we knew they would be again this year. We are putting the MWC Championship behind us quickly so we can concentrate on these two teams and get ready for NCAA play."
SERIES SHORTS:
* The Utes trail the all-time series with Hawaii 0-9. The two teams met most recently on Nov. 23, 2001, with Utah losing 0-3. The Utes are 0-3 at home, 0-4 away and 0-2 at a neutral site vs. the Wahine.
* Utah trails the all-time series with the Wildcats 3-15. The last time the two teams met, on Sept. 5, 2001, Utah fell 0-3 at Arizona. Utah is 1-6 at home, 0-4 away and 2-5 at a neutral site vs. the Wildcats.
UTES ON TV:
Utah's match against Hawaii on Wednesday, Nov. 27, will be shown on tape delay from 7-9 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 28, on KJZZ (Channel 14).
MWC LEADERS:
As a team, Utah leads the MWC in hitting defense (.143) and blocks per game (3.38), ranks second in assists per game (13.99), kills per game (15.42), and service aces (1.80).
Individually, junior Kim Turner leads the conference in blocks per game (1.64), ranks second in kills per game (3.88), seventh in service aces (0.34) and ranks ninth in hitting percentage (.291). Senior captain Sylva Strzinkov? ranks third in kills per game (3.84), tied for eighth in service aces (0.32), 10th in digs per game (2.56) and 18th in hitting percentage (.248). Sophomore Lyndsey Phillips is third in blocks (1.38) and 15th in hitting percentage (.260), while senior Brenda Beal is tied for sixth in blocks (1.22). Jackie Morrill is fourth in digs per game with a 3.18 average, and sophomore Kelsie Kartchner is third in service aces (0.43) and fifth in assists (10.85).
LAUNIERE WINS 250TH MATCH:
Head Coach Beth Launiere grabbed her 250th career victory last Thursday, when the Utes swept Wyoming in the first round of the MWC Tournament. Launiere has guided Utah to its seventh consecutive 20-win season and is the winningest coach in school history. She is in her 13th season at the U.
SINGLE SEASON RECORDS:
With at least three matches (minimum) left this season, several Utes have moved into the top 10 in various single-season statistical categories. Kim Turner ranks third in block assists (154) and fourth in total blocks with 179. Setter Kelsie Kartchner currently ranks seventh in assists with 1,172 and 10th in service aces with 43. Junior libero Jackie Morrill ranks 10th in digs with 347.
MILESTONE WATCH:
Kim Turner ranks second all-time in block assists with 430 (just 19 away from first place), second in total blocks with 484 (13 away from first place), seventh in kills with 1,092 (two away from sixth place) and seventh in block solos with 54 (just two away from sixth place).
NEXT WEEK:
The Utes will find out which team they will face in the NCAA Tournament during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 7 p.m. (MST) on Sunday, Dec. 1.
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