No. 23 San Diego Defeats Ute Volleyball in Four Sets

Thursday, October 7

San Diego, Calif.

7:00 PM

University of Utah

San Diego

No. 23 San Diego Defeats Ute Volleyball in Four Sets

10/7/2010 12:00 AM | Volleyball

Oct. 7, 2010

Box Score

SAN DIEGO - - Senior opposite hitter Karolina recorded her 18th career double and libero Keisha Fisher tied her season high with 27 digs but the University of Utah volleyball team dropped a four-set decision (29-27, 21-25, 20-25, 16-25) to No. 23 San Diego Thursday at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Utah (7-9) gained an 8-7 lead in team blocks over San Diego but were outhit .290 to .244 in the match.

Bartkowiak turned in her sixth double-double this season and the 18th of her career with 11 kills and 10 digs.

"Karolina played well," Utah head coach Beth Launiere said. "Not only did she have a lot of kills and have a high hitting percentage for us, she passed a lot of balls and played good defense. She also served as well as she had served all season. That was the difference for us early in the match. We served tough and got them out of system then [San Diego] adjusted and started passing the ball a little bit better. [Barkowiak and Fisher] both had great matches."

Fisher had a match-high 27 digs and now has 73 double-figure-dig performances in her career and has led or tied for team-high honors 11 times this season. The Ririe, Idaho native has 1,362 career digs, which is 209 shy of the school record, with 16 matches left on the regular-season schedule.

Two other Utes hit for 10 or more kills during the match, including Morgan Odale, who posted a team-high 13 kills to go along with five digs and three blocks.

At the net, freshman Erin Redd totaled a season-high six blocks to go along with 11 kills on only 21 swings and two errors for a .429 hitting percentage.

"That was her best blocking match this season," Launiere said. "She's made huge strides in that area and I look forward to watching her continue to improve."

Danielle Killpack hit for a match-high .700 percentage with eight kills on 10 attempts and one error. Senior setter Stephanie Neeley dished out 46 assists to go with 14 digs for her 23rd career double-double and the ninth in 2010. The Saugus, Calif., native also had three blocks.

There were 11 ties in a tightly-contested first set. San Diego ripped four consecutive points early in the first set to capture a 4-1 lead. The Toreros extended their lead to four points at 7-3 before the Utes put together a 4-1 run to get back to within a point at 9-8. Utah would get to within a single point on three more occasions before capping another 4-1 spurt to take its first lead of the set at 15-14. The set would be tied four more times but Utah put together another 4-1 run to assume a 21-19 edge. Unfortunately, the Toreros fought back to tie the set five more times and would even lead the match three times but with the match tied at 27 points apiece, a USD attack error and a block by Neeley gave the Utes a 29-27 win in the opening set.

Utah outhit USD in the set, .317-.208, and outblocked its opponents, 4-2. Bartkowiak and Odale each registered five kills apiece and Fisher registered 12 digs in the frame alone.

"We came out prepared and ready [to play] and made some key plays at the end of the set that won it for us," Launiere said. "Bartkowiak was playing pretty well and [San Diego] didn't really have an answer for her. She was able to get loose and had a lot of kills against their block. Keisha [Fisher] played well during the entire match, including 12 digs in the first set. She was ready for anything and dug their outside hitters. We knew they were going to hit at her and she was tough."

The Utes are 4-4 this season when winning the first set.

The second set followed suit as there were 14 ties before USD put together a 5-2 run to assume a 23-20 edge en route to a 25-21 victory in the second set to tie the match at one set apiece. Bartkowiak paced the Ute attack with five kills during the set.

Utah was down 5-4 in the third set before scoring three of the next four points to take its first lead of the set, 7-6. USD answered with a 3-1 run of its own to take a 9-7 advantage, but Utah quickly tied the set at 10 points apiece and would assume a 12-10 edge after a kill by Killpack and a Torero attack error. USD maintained its two-point spread until 21-19 before closing the set on a 6-1 to earn a 25-20 win to take a 2-1 edge in the match.

USD led by the slightest of margins, 5-4, before taking three of the next four points to inch out to an 8-5 lead and would eventually manage to extend their lead to as many as seven points, 22-15, en route to 25-16 win to clinch the match.

San Diego (12-4) received 28 kills from Ali Troost, who totaled 28 kills on 47 attempts for a .511 clip.

The Utes' last win against a nationally-ranked opponent came against Colorado State on Nov. 22, 2008 in a four-set win over the then- No. 15 Rams at Crimson Court.

The Utes resume Mountain West Conference action with a road match at San Diego State Saturday at 7 p.m. PT.