Utah Volleyball Sweeps BYU in Semifinals of MWC Tournament

Friday, November 21

San Diego, Calif.

4:00 PM

University of Utah

BYU - Mountain West Conference Tournament

Utah Volleyball Sweeps BYU in Semifinals of MWC Tournament

11/21/2003 12:00 AM | Volleyball

Nov. 21, 2003

Box Score

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Utah volleyball team swept past Brigham Young (30-22, 30-23, 30-24) in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament in San Diego this afternoon. It was the eighth time in a row that the Utes have beat the Cougars as Utah extended its MWC Tournament winning streak to 17 games, dating back to the 2001 championship match.

Utah hit for .252 on the match and held the Cougars to .122. BYU out-blocked the Utes 8-6, but Utah more than doubled the Cougars in kills (56-25).

With the win, Utah improves to 20-7 while BYU falls to 21-8. The Utes now advance to the championship match at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Nov. 22, against No. 1-seed Colorado State.

"We played really good defense," Head Coach Beth Launiere said. "Everyone played their roles and we did what we needed to do."

Sophomore Shelly Sommerfeldt led Utah with 18 kills on 26 attempts with just two errors for a season-high .615 hitting percentage.

Senior All-America candidate Kim Turner finished with 16 kills, four digs, three blocks and three service aces. Turner now needs just 17 more kills to become the all-time career kills leader at Utah.

Sophomore Danielle Leichliter added nine kills and junior Lyndsey Henderson had seven. Setters Kelsie Kartchner and Tracy Neumeier finished with 28 and 26 assists, respectively. Neumeier also posted a team-high seven digs, while Kartchner added six.

Utah came out on fire in game one, scoring the first three points and quickly jumping out to a five-point lead (8-3). The Cougars used a 3-0 run to cut the Ute lead to two (12-10), but Utah was quickly able to build it back to six on a Sommerfeldt ace, making it 18-12. The Utes went on to win it 30-22. Utah combined for a .368 hitting percentage, compared to the .238 of the Cougars. Turner had seven kills on the game to lead Utah.

After the Cougars took a 2-0 lead in game two, Utah went on a 7-1 run to make it 7-3. BYU immediately went on a run of its own, outscoring Utah 7-2 to take back the lead, 10-9. After three ties, the Utes began to pull away, leading by as many as eight, 27-19. However, the Cougars wouldn't give up, going on a 4-0 run and forcing a Utah time out. The Utes then scored the final three points for the 30-23 win. Utah, led by Sommerfeldt with seven kills, hit for .190 on the game. BYU managed just .100.

Game three started out close, with nine ties early before Utah pulled away and put it away for good. Utah hit for .213 on the game and held the Cougars to .065. Sommerfeldt led the Utes with six kills, while Turner had five.

UP NEXT:
Utah faces top-seeded CSU at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Nov. 22, in the championship match of the tournament. Utah's only two conference losses this season came at the hands of the Rams.