Utah Volleyball Wins Seventh Straight Against BYU

Friday, November 7

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

BYU

Utah Volleyball Wins Seventh Straight Against BYU

11/7/2003 12:00 AM | Volleyball

Nov. 7, 2003

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah volleyball team defeated rival Brigham Young tonight in four games (30-19, 23-30, 30-24, 30-27) in front of 1,320 fans, its biggest home crowd of the season. It was Utah's seventh win in a row over the Cougars. The Utes hit for .241 on the match and held the Cougars to .180.

"This was such a hard-fought, completely even-played match by both teams," Head Coach Beth Launiere said. "During the last time out in game four, I talked to my team about being more offensive. I told them to play to win, not to lose."

"It has been a gradual process of coming to this offense," she continued. "We have the luxury of having two very good setters. Right now it's working well for us."

Senior All-America candidate Kim Turner finished with 22 kills on 35 attempts with just three errors for a .543 hitting percentage. She also added 13 digs, four blocks and an ace.

Turner led a group of five Utes in double-digit kills. Joining the group was junior Kelsie Kartchner, who posted her second triple-double of the season - 25 assists, 12 digs and 11 kills. She hit for .381 on the match and also added four blocks and a service ace.

Junior Lyndsey Henderson and sophomore Shelly Sommerfeldt added 11 kills apiece, while sophomore Danielle Leichliter finished with 10.

Junior setter Tracy Neumeier dished out 31 assists on the match. She also had 13 digs, as did senior libero Jackie Morrill.

Utah dominated game one, leading throughout and building its lead to as many as 13. Utah won by 11, 30-19. The Utes hit .258 on the game and held the Cougars to .000. Utah also out-blocked BYU 4-1. Turner led the Utes with five kills and two blocks, while Morrill had seven digs.

After a close start in game two, BYU used a 6-0 run to take a 16-13 lead. The Cougars then outscored Utah 14-10 to win the game 30-23. The Utes hit .120 on the game, compared to the .357 of BYU. The Cougars also out-blocked Utah 4-0 on the game. Turner led the Utes with seven kills.

BYU had two early leads in game three before Utah went on a 6-1 run to take a 7-3 lead, which it maintained for the remainder of the game, winning 30-24. Utah hit .356 on the game and held the Cougars to .156. Sommerfeldt and Kartchner had five kills apiece on the game to pace the Utes.

After a 3-3 tie in game four, BYU used a 10-3 run to go up 14-6. Utah cut the lead to three (23-20), but the Cougars then scored three straight points, forcing a Utah time out. Both teams exchanged points after the time out to make it 27-21 in favor of BYU, but the Utes scored nine straight points to win the game 30-27. The Utes hit .250 on the game, compared to the .205 of the Cougars. Turner had six kills on the game to lead Utah.

UP NEXT:
Utah closes out regular-season MWC play next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14-15, at San Diego State and UNLV. Both matches start at 7 p.m. (PT).