Utah Volleyball Edges Lobos in Five

Saturday, October 2

Albuquerque, N.M.

TBA

University of Utah

New Mexico*

10/3/2004 12:00 AM | Volleyball

Oct. 2, 2004

Box Score

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The University of Utah women's volleyball team rallied to defeat the New Mexico Lobos, 3-2, this evening in preserving its eight-match winning streak and upping to 3-0 in Mountain West Conference play.

Utah bagged the victory on scores of 30-21, 27-30, 27-30, 30-28 and 15-8. The Utes win their 11th match for the season and improve to 11-2 on the year. New Mexico, on the other hand, drops to 6-8 overall and 0-4 in conference tilts.

"Everyone is coming out and playing great volleyball against us and we just keep weathering the storm," noted head coach Beth Launiere. "We had to play out of our minds to win game four and we were able to step up and take game five.

"Kate (Robison) stepped up and saved the match for us tonight. She only had six kills for us but she was solid on defense and did a good job of passing and serving. Kate played great."

The Utes claimed the win despite hitting .146 (54 kills, 32 errors and 151 attempts) to the Lobos' .169 (60-32-166). The home team stymied the Ute offense with 22.5 blocks (to Utah's 9.0), rallying around three Lobos who recorded 10 or more blocks. Leading the way was UNM's Samie Weber and Jennifer Heasty, both with 11 blocks.

Utah snagged the game-one victory by out hitting its rivals but found itself down 2-1 after three games. However, Utah rallied to steel the match, holding UNM to .000 hitting percentage (4-4-16) in game five while hitting a swift .333 (6-2-12).

Leading the way for the Utes was Lyndsey Henderson and her 14 kills. Her six blocks also led all Ute players. Bortoto bagged double-digit kills for the second match in a row with 12 and led the way with a match-high four aces. Kelsie Kartchner added another nine kills. Kartchner finished with a double-double in chalking up 15 assists. However, Tracy Neumeier's 30 assists led all Utah players.

Robison also had nine digs and one block.

Connie Dangerfield finished with a match-high 17 digs.

Aside from New Mexico's Weber and Heasty leading the way in the blocks column, Nicole Ryan led all players with 21 kills while Monica Meihack finished with a match-high 48 assists. Adah Burke led the Lobos with 15 digs.

The Utes, who have played five straight on the road, return home to host conference foes UNLV (Friday, Oct. 8) and San Diego State (Saturday, Oct. 9). Both matches are at Crimson Court and begin at 7 p.m.