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7:00 PM
Volleyball
at Arizona
Friday, August 28
Salt Lake City, Utah
7:00 PM
University of Utah
3
vs
0
Arizona State
Utah Volleyball Sweeps Arizona State, 3-0
8/28/2009 12:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 28, 2009
SALT LAKE CITY - Junior Karolina Bartkowiak recorded 11 kills and a career-high 11 digs as the No. 17 Ute volleyball team opened the Utah Classic with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-21) win against Arizona State Friday at Crimson Court.
"I was very pleased," Utah's 20th-year head coach Beth Launiere said. "I thought we played with some nice composure and that the team was pretty organized. Especially with having some new people on the court, I thought we were on top of things for our first match."
Utah (1-0) earned its 10th consecutive home victory since Sept. 13, 2008 by outhitting ASU .381 to .144 and also held a slight 8.5-8.0 edge in blocks. Launiere is now eight wins away from 400 for her career as she has a 392-212 (.649) career record as head coach at Utah.
The Utes compiled several new career highs in various categories during the match.
Bartkowiak led the way with 11 kills, while Cinthia Silva had 10 kills on 18 swings (10-3-18) for a .389 hitting percentage in the match. Sophomore Sarah Hibbert registered a career high with seven kills on 19 attempts on top of two blocks, while classmate Jennifer Lanting notched a career high of five kills on 11 swings with just one error for a .364 mark to go along with two blocks.
Senior co-captain Chelsey Sandberg served a career and match-high four aces to go along with seven kills on nine attack attempts for a match-high .778 hitting percentage.
Abby Simmons distributed a career-high 35 assists while Stephanie Neeley dished out 34 assists to coordinate the Ute offense.
Defensively, sophomore middle blocker Danielle Killpack registered a career high and led the team with six blocks. Junior libero Keisha Fisher controlled the back row with a match-high 14 digs.
"Keisha played very well tonight," Launiere said. "She really controlled things for us and had some great passes.
"That was what we knew heading into this season, everyone was going to have new roles. It doesn't matter whether it's new players getting a chance to perform now or [Bartkowiak] getting a chance to play all around the floor," Launiere said.
The Utes raced out to an 11-4 lead with a six-point run, including a pair of kills by Lanting, early in the first set. The Utes built their lead to as many as 10 points with a 19-9 edge and maintained their 10-point lead en route to a 25-15 first-set win.
Utah outhit the Sun Devils .650 to .111 for the set and were paced by four kills apiece from Sandberg and Silva. Sandberg was perfect on four attack attempts while Bartkowiak finished one dig shy of eclipsing her career high in digs in the opening set, collecting six in addition to pounding down two kills.
The Utes started the second set by converting their first nine attack attempts and took a 14-5 lead. The Sun Devils scored six of the next eight points to climb within two points, 19-17. Utah put together five unanswered points to assume a commanding 24-17 edge before taking the second set, 25-20.
Hibbert had a team-high four kills in the set on eight swings to help the Utes outhit the Sun Devils .303 to .200.
The third and final set was tied five times with the final instance at 15 points apiece, but the Utes strung together a 5-1 run to take a 20-16 lead, including a pair of kills by Sandberg. The teams traded points until a final kill by Bartkowiak gave the Utes a 25-21 clinching victory in the third set.
Cincinnati defeated UC-Riverside, 3-1 (25-27, 25-18, 25-19, 27-25) in the opening match of the Utah Classic.
The Utes continue Utah Classic action with a pair of matches tomorrow: against UC-Riverside at 10 a.m. and against defending BIG EAST Conference champion Cincinnati at 7 p.m.
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