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Volleyball
at Arizona
Friday, October 6
Salt Lake City
7:00 PM
University of Utah
3
vs
0
New Mexico
No. 16 Volleyball Tallies 3-0 Win
10/6/2006 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 6, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY - The No. 16-ranked University of Utah volleyball team (14-2, 6-0 Mountain West) saw its winning streak extend to 12 matches with a 3-0 home victory over league rival New Mexico tonight.
The 12th straight win ties the program mark for the longest winning streak. Utah will have the chance to set the mark with its 13th straight win tomorrow night when it hosts TCU here at Crimson Court. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
Tonight's victory was the result of a 30-15, 30-13 and 30-27 match. With the loss, New Mexico falls to 6-11 overall and to 2-4 in conference play.
"We keep talking about execution no matter who it is on the other side of the net," said head coach Beth Launiere. "Obviously, it dropped in game three but I thought that the team responded well to a tough situation.
"I wasn't upset that the team fell behind in game three. But, what I am happy about is how well the team rallied to come back and win it."
And, rally it did. The Utes found themselves in a hole in game three, down 18-12. Utah reeled off a 9-2 run that turned the tide, giving it the 21-20 lead. It never trailed from that point on and went on to bag the sweep despite hitting a meager .136 in the final frame.
Not only was the come-from-behind effort in game three impressive, but so too was Utah's serving. The Utes finished with 13 aces today, five of which came from Airial Salvo. Also shinning from the baseline were Sydney Anderson and Kate Robison with three aces each.
"We have been focusing on serving the last few practices," said Launiere. "We haven't served well recently so we have been working on serving more aggressively without missing so many of them."
Utah came out firing on all cylinders. It hit .452 (16-2-31) in game one and .400 (16-4-30) in game two. It cooled off in game three (.136, 16-10-44) and settled on hitting .305 for the match.
Leading the offense was Kathryn Lovell and Salvo. They both had a match-high 11 kills as Salvo edged Lovell in hitting .269. Lori Baird's .833 (5-0-6) led all Ute hitters.
The only other Ute in double figures was Whitney Webb. She collected 10 kills on .333 (10-2-24) hitting.
The attack ran through Sydney Anderson and Shannon Krug. Anderson got the start as she dished out 25 assists in two games of work. Krug came off the bench to play in two games, handing out 16 assists herself.
Utah's block was off tonight as it held the narrow 5.5-4 edge in team blocks. But, the defense still held the Lobo offense to a meager .048 hitting for the match. UNM hit .161 in game one and hit .000 in each of the last two games.
Leading Utah's defense was Chelsey Sandberg. She came off the bench to tally a match-high three total blocks. Salvo's 15 digs led from the back and she got help from Robison as she tallied 12.
Lobo's leaders were Joelle Ingram and Rose Morris (seven kills each), Srah Kwasigroch (25 assists), Ingram and Kelly Therkelsen (two blocks each) and Morris (13 digs).
Players Mentioned
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