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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Volleyball Notes
10/28/2003 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 28, 2003
SALT LAKE CITY -
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COMING UP:
The Utes (13-7, 7-2), currently in second place in the Mountain West Conference, host Air Force (13-9, 3-5) and New Mexico (3-19, 0-8) this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Friday's match begins at 6 p.m., while the Saturday match starts at 7 p.m.
A QUICK LOOK AT UTAH:
Utah went 1-1 last week, defeating Wyoming in five games (31-29, 26-30, 29-31, 30-26, 15-6) on Saturday, before falling to league-leader Colorado State in four games (25-30, 29-31, 30-22, 29-31) on Sunday.
Against Wyoming, Utah hit for .280, compared to the .214 of the Cowgirls. Both teams finished with 11 blocks on the night. Senior All-America candidate Kim Turner led a group of four Utes in double-digit kills with a career-high 23. She also had seven digs and four blocks. Sophomore Shelly Sommerfeldt added 14 kills, while juniors Lyndsey Henderson and Kelsie Kartchner, playing outside hitter, had 12 apiece. Henderson also added five blocks. Junior setter Tracy Neumeier finished with a career-high 61 assists. Senior libero Jackie Morrill had 13 digs to lead the Utah defense.
On Sunday, Utah out-hit the Rams .214 to .160 and out-blocked them 18-12. Sommerfeldt led Utah with 18 kills. Turner, Henderson and sophomore Danielle Leichliter added 11 kills apiece. Freshman Amie Toone had a career-high 10 blocks, while Turner added seven and Henderson had six. Kartchner, who started as outside hitter and switched to setter in game two, finished with 30 assists, eight digs, four blocks and three kills. Neumeier, who played in just two games, had 16 assists. Morrill posted a match-high 19 digs, while freshman Connie Dangerfield had nine.
On the season, the Utes are led by Turner, who averages 3.93 kills, 2.25 digs and 1.51 blocks. Sommerfeldt adds 3.81 kills per game, while Morrill averages a team-high 3.45 digs per game. Kartchner averages 8.88 assists per game, while Neumeier has a 9.68 assists per game average.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION:
Air Force
The Falcons (13-9, 3-5) went 2-0 last week with a four-game win over the University of Denver (30-25, 30-21, 28-30, 30-11) and a sweep of New Mexico (30-16, 30-28, 30-26).
Delvane Diaz, the MWC kill leader, leads Air Force this season with 5.03 kills and 2.74 digs per match. Setter Kristin Huitt averages 12.20 assists per match.
New Mexico
The Lobos (3-19, 0-8) went 0-2 last week, taking New Mexico State to five games (14-30, 30-28, 23-30, 30-27, 7-15) last Tuesday, before falling to Air Force in three games on Saturday.
On the season, the Lobos are led by Anna Reines, who averages 3.45 kills per game. Setter Monica Meihack averages 5.08 assists per game, while Adah Burke has a team-high 2.73 digs per game average.
SERIES SHORTS:
* Utah is undefeated all-time vs. Air Force (11-0). In their last meeting on Oct. 4, the Utes won 3-0 in Colorado Springs. Utah is 5-0 at home and 6-0 away against the Falcons.
* The Utes lead the all-time series with New Mexico 31-26. The last time the two teams met, on Oct. 3 of this year, Utah won 3-0. The Utes are 14-9 at home, 13-14 away and 4-3 at a neutral site vs. the Lobos.
QUOTING HEAD COACH Beth Launiere:
On this weekend's matches against Air Force and New Mexico - "At this point in the season, every match is important. We will prepare the same for all opponents from here on out. We'll be ready."
USA TODAY/AVCA TOP 25 OCT. 27, 2003
1 USC (65) 1,625 20-0 1 2 Hawai'i 1,549 22-1 2 3 Florida 1,505 22-1 3 4 Georgia Tech 1,411 22-0 4 5 Pepperdine 1,354 17-2 5 6 California 1,311 18-2 7 7 Kansas State 1,179 20-3 8 8 UCLA 1,147 16-4 9 9 Stanford 1,121 15-5 6 10 Washington 1,100 15-5 10 11 Nebraska 940 17-3 11 12 Northern Iowa 805 18-3 13 13 Loyola Marymount 794 21-3 17 14 Notre Dame 781 17-2 14 15 Santa Clara 662 14-8 12 16 Colorado State 572 18-4 18 17 Penn State 473 18-4 15 18 San Diego 456 15-6 16 19 UC Santa Barbara 415 13-6 19 20 Wisconsin 391 16-5 23 21 Texas A&M 320 16-5 21 22 Louisville 272 13-4 20 23 Minnesota 262 15-7 25 24 Missouri 213 16-4 24 25 Illinois 130 17-3 NR
Rank School Total 2003 Last (1st-place Votes) Points Record Week
Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Cincinnati 103; Michigan State 63; SW Missouri State 43; Florida A&M 28; Ohio 27; San Francisco 24; Arkansas 14, Maryland 8, Long Beach State 7, Cal State Northridge 4, Pacific 3.
MWC STANDINGS
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct.Colorado State 9 0 1.000 18 4 .818UTAH 7 2 .778 13 7 .650 BYU 6 3 .667 16 6 .727 San Diego State 4 4 .500 13 10 .565 Air Force 3 5 .375 13 9 .591 Wyoming 3 6 .333 14 10 .583 UNLV 2 6 .250 9 11 .450 New Mexico 0 8 .000 3 19 .136
MWC LEADERS:
As a team, the Utes rank second in the MWC in blocks per game (3.00), third in assists (13.72), opponent hitting percentage (.180) and hitting percentage (.240), and fourth in digs (13.13), kills (15.21) and service aces (1.69).
In conference-only statistics, Utah leads the league in hitting percentage (.271), ranks second in kills (16.00), assists (14.58) and opponent hitting percentage (.167), and third in digs (13.06), blocks (3.03) and service aces (1.67).
Individually, Kim Turner ranks second in blocks per game (1.51) and points (5.07), fifth in kills per game (3.93) and seventh in hitting percentage (.312). Sophomore Shelly Sommerfeldt is seventh in kills per game (3.81) and eighth in points per game (4.35). Junior Kelsie Kartchner is fifth in hitting percentage (.318), seventh in assists (8.88) and 10th in service aces (0.32). Senior Jackie Morrill is second in digs per game (3.45), while sophomore Danielle Leichliter is second in services aces per game (0.45). Junior Lyndsey Henderson is seventh in blocks per game (1.20), while freshman Amie Toone is 10th (1.10).
In conference-only statistics, Turner ranks first in blocks (1.52) and points (5.39), second in kills (4.21) and third in hitting percentage (.366). Morrill leads the league in digs (3.73), while junior setter Tracy Neumeier ranks third in assists (11.88) and sixth in service aces (0.36). Sommerfeldt is fifth in points (4.41) and fifth in kills (3.88), while Leichliter is third in service aces (0.56). Toone is fourth in blocks (1.29), while Henderson is seventh in blocks (1.15) and fifth in hitting percentage (.341). Kartchner is eighth in hitting percentage (.329) and ninth in assists (5.68).
CLOSING IN:
Senior All-America candidate Kim Turner currently has 1,425 kills on her career, good for second place all-time in the Ute record book. She needs 141 more kills to move into first place (1,566). Turner already ranks first in both total blocks (613) and block assists (541), third in block solos (72) and sixth in attempts (2,956).
STEADY SOMMERFELDT
Sophomore Shelly Sommerfeldt has posted double-digit kills in 19 of 20 matches this season, including 15 straight.
BLOCKING MACHINE
Kim Turner, the all-time Utah blocks leader, has recorded at least one block in the last 114 matches, dating back to her freshman year in 2000. In fact, the senior has at least one block in 116 of the 117 matches of her career at Utah. The only match in which she didn't record a block was Sept. 2, 2000, against New Hampshire, in just the third match of her career.
TURNER PRESEASON MWC PLAYER OF YEAR:
Senior Kim Turner, the reigning Co-MWC Player of the Year, was selected by the league's head coaches as the 2003 preseason MWC Player of the Year. Turner is the only two-time MWC Tournament MVP in league history.
Joining Turner on the preseason all-conference team was junior setter Kelsie Kartchner, who was named the Best Setter at last year's MWC Tournament.
TURNER MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK OCT. 12-18:
Senior captain Kim Turner was named MWC Player of the Week for Oct. 12-18, after helping the Utes to wins over UNLV and San Diego State. After dropping the first game of the UNLV match, Turner paced a Utah rally by recording her second triple-double of the year with 20 kills, 13 digs and 10 blocks, including three solo blocks, while hitting .467 vs. the Rebels. In the victory over San Diego State, she hit .500 with 14 kills, six digs and eight blocks. For the week, Turner hit .480 (34-10-50) and averaged 4.86 kills, 2.71 digs, 2.57 blocks and .43 aces per game.
TURNER MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK SEPT. 1-6:
Kim Turner was named MWC Player of the Week for Sept. 1-6. Turner was named MVP of the Utah Classic for the third straight year as she helped the Utes capture the championship. In a five-game win vs. Washington State, Turner posted a triple double (15 kills, 15 digs, 11 blocks) and set Classic five-game records with nine block assists and three aces. For the week, Turner hit .284 and averaged 3.55 kills, 2.82 digs and 1.82 blocks per game.
INTERNET AUDIO/VIDEO BROADCASTS:
All of Utah's home matches can be seen and heard on the Internet through live audio and video streaming. To listen/watch, go to: http://155.99.112.235/vball/. You can also go to the volleyball page at www.UtahUtes.com and click on "Watch/Listen to Ute Home Matches Live."
UP NEXT:
The Utes host instate rival Brigham Young at 7 p.m. next Friday, Nov. 7, at Crimson Court.
Players Mentioned
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