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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Volleyball Notes
8/29/2005 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 29, 2005
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This Week: The University of Utah volleyball team (1-0 overall) begins its second week of action with three matches on tap. The Utes get back at it on Tuesday, Aug. 30, when they host Weber State on Crimson Court at 7 p.m. Utah will hit the road and play No. 21-ranked Missouri on Friday, Sept. 2, and then No. 9-ranked Tennessee on Saturday, Sept. 3, in the Tiger Invitational. Both of those matches will be played in Columbia, Mo.
Quoting Head Coach Beth Launiere:
On This Week: "I'm glad that we have a match on Tuesday. It's important that we get better with each match. Right now, we don't have a lot of information on our opponents so we are focused on ourselves and on showing improvement every time we go out there."
On the Season Opener: "We did a lot of good things against Idaho State but we did not have a lot of flow, especially in the beginning. But, when you factor in that it was of our first match of the year, we're a young team and we were in front of a great crowd, I think we did very well."
Scouting the Opponent:
Weber State - The Wildcats will be Utah's second straight Big Sky opponent as Tuesday's match is WSU's season opener. Utah owns the all-time series lead against Weber State, 41-19, and beat it in Ogden last year, 3-1. WSU returns five starters and six letterwinners from last year's 4-26 team. The Wildcats were picked to finish seventh in the conference's preseason coach's poll.
Missouri - The No. 21-ranked Tigers also open their 2005 campaign against Utah. This is only the second meeting between these two teams with Utah picking up the 3-0 home win in 2003. MU was picked second in the Big 12 preseason coach's poll and returns six of its seven starters from its 2004 NCAA Tournament squad.
Tennessee - The No. 9-ranked Lady Vols are 1-0 on the season after a 3-0 season-opening win over Lipscomb last weekend. Utah and Tennessee will meet for the third time in their histories with the Lady Vols owning a 2-0 lead in the series. UT got the 3-0 neutral-court win in the last meeting in 1994. The Lady Vols were picked second in the Southeast Conference preseason coach's poll. They return nine letterwinners and five starters from the 2004 squad.
Weekend Recap: Utah opened the 2005 season with a 3-0 win as it toppled Idaho State in the season opener on Crimson Court last Friday, Aug. 26. Game scores were 30-22, 30-28 and 30-27.
The team hit an impressive .316 for the match in holding the Bengals to a .126 efficiency. Freshman Airial Salvo led the way with 15 kills while Lori Baird chimed in with 12. Newcomer Shannon Krug set the attack in racking up 43 assists.
Kate Robison's 12 digs led the Utes on defense while Baird and Emillie Toone paced the team with five blocks each.
Racking up the W's: Head coach Beth Launiere hung her 300th career victory on the board last weekend when her Utes topped Idaho State, 3-0. She is in her 16th season with a 300-178 all-time. Launiere entered the 2005 season with a .627 win percentage, ranking 59th among active Division I coaches.
Off to a Fast Start: Freshman Airial Salvo got her collegiate career off to a sparkling start, garnering MWC Player of the Week honors in her first week. She led the Utes in their season-opening victory over Idaho State with 15 kills. Moreover, she didn't tally a single hitting error in 31 attempts and hit a match-high .484. She also turned in a double-double with 11 digs.
Stuck in the Middle: Lori Baird made her presence felt in the middle in the win over Idaho State. She stepped in and collected 12 kills in hitting .417 (12-2-24) for the match. She also tied for match-high honors with five blocks.
Middle By Committee: Emillie Toone and Lori Baird split time at middle and combined to rack up 17 kills, hit .484 and tallied 10 of the team's 23 total blocks. Amie Tingey and Carlee Kulovitz also stepped in and appeared in one game each at middle.
Shuffling Around: Kate Robison stepped in as the libero last weekend and led all Utes with a career-high 12 digs. Robison is filling in for the injured Connie Dangerfield who is recovering from offseason surgery. Dangerfield led the league in digs (4.28 per game) and was the 2004 MWC Libero of the Year in addition to the libero for the 2005 preseason all-conference team.
News and Notes: Three freshman were opening-day starters for the Utes. Newcomers Lori Baird, Shannon Krug and Airial Salvo made their first career start in the first match of 2005. Freshman Kathryn Lovell also saw a lot time, appearing in two games herself ... the Utes began the 2005 season receiving votes in the CSTV/AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll ... Utah was picked to finish second in the MWC preseason coaches poll. It received three first-place votes and finished two points behind the preseason favorite, Brigham Young.
At the Helm: Beth Launiere is in her 16th season as Utah head coach. She has a 300-178 career record. She has led her squad to NCAA Tournament appearances the last seven seasons, including a "Sweet 16" showing in 2001. Following her "Sweet 16" run, Launiere was named the 2001Tachikara/AVCA Division I West Region Coach of the Year. Launiere's Utes have recorded nine 20-win seasons, and last year, Utah posted a then-school-record 12 conference victories. A native of Grand Rapids, Mich., Launiere graduated from Aquinas College and was an assistant at Ferris State and Illinois before taking over the Ute program in 1990.
See Red: There are 12 home matches at Crimson Court this year. To see some of the best volleyball in the nation, contact the Utah ticket office at (801) 581-UTIX or by visiting www.UtahTickets.com.
On the Air: Fans can follow the Utes on the internet this season. By going to volleyball Web page at www.utahutes.com, you can watch and listen to Utah matches as they are streamed live across the Web. In addition to the internet, the Sunday, Nov. 9, match at Colorado State will be televised live on CSTV as part of its Sunday Night Spikes programming.
Up Next: Utah is in a stretch where it plays 10 of the next 12 matches on the road. After a road trip to Utah State on Tuesday, Sept. 6, the Utes will play in a tournament at Springfield, Mo., on Sept. 9-10. Among the opponents will be Missouri State, Arkansas and Iowa State. The lone home matches during the stretch are on Sept 15 and 17, against Idaho and Santa Clara.
Players Mentioned
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/ VolleyballGet to know new Utah Volleyball Head Coach Alyssa D'Errico.
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