Utes Fall to Bulldogs in Five Sets

Saturday, August 27

Salt Lake City, Utah

10:00 AM

University of Utah

1-1

Gonzaga

2-0

Gonzaga

Utah

8/27/2016 1:11 PM | Volleyball

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Three Utes post double-digit kill efforts in the loss

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Utes (1-1) dropped its first match of the 2016 season, falling in five sets to the Gonzaga Bulldogs (2-0) Saturday morning at the Huntsman Center.

Utah dropped the first two sets by the same score of 26-24, but battled back to take the third and fourth sets, 25-19 and 27-25, respectively. Gonzaga took the match though, winning the decisive fifth set, 17-15.

Gonzaga came away with a 26-24 first-set win, despite Utah out-hitting the Zaga, .200 to .140 in the frame. The Utes had 18 more digs in the set, but Gonzaga defended the net better, collecting six total blocks to Utah's only block, which came from junior Tawnee Luafalemanna.

Utah took an early 7-5 lead following a block from sophomore Berkeley Oblad, but the Bulldogs answered with a 5-0 run and later pushed its lead to 12-8 before a kill from Luafalemana stopped the run.

The Bulldogs led by as many as five points late in the frame before Utah climbed its way back into the set with a pair of kills and a block from Luafalemana, pulling the Utes within a point, down 18-17. A kill from Oblad and an ace from junior Adora Anae tied the match at 22-22, and Oblad then followed with a big block to give the Utes a 23-22 lead. Gonzaga countered though, winning four of the next five points to take the set 26-24.

Trailing 5-1 to open the third set, Utah climbed its way back to take a 14-13 lead following a kill from freshman Torre Glasker. Back-to-back points from Utah led to Gonzaga's first timeout of the frame and that helped the visiting squad get back into the set, tying things up at 16-16.

After trading points, sophomore Emma Kirst managed to put down a pair of kills to give Utah a 22-19 lead and senior Tess Sutton put the frame away with her service ace to give Utah the 25-19 win and force a fourth set.

The Utes forced a fifth and final set after taking the fourth frame 27-25. Utah led 16-13 midway through the frame, but Gonzaga called a timeout and later tied the set 17-17. Utah countered with three straight points, but the Bulldogs again came back to tie the set at 20-all. The Utes went up set-point on a kill from Anae, but Gonzaga managed to climb back before McKayla Ferris' attack attempt went into the net giving Utah the win.

The Utes would lead by as many as three points early in the frame, but the Bulldogs came back with a 5-0 run to take a 9-7 lead. Utah would climb its way back and later tied the set 14-14, but the Bulldogs won three of the final four points to take the frame 17-15 and the match 3-2.

Utah had three players finish the match with 14 or more kills as Oblad tallied 14 kills on the day, Luafalemana posted a career-high 15 kills and Anae led the Utes with 19 kills. Gonzaga's Emmy Allen led the match though, posting 29 kills for the visiting Bulldogs.

Utah out-hit the Bulldogs .246 to .216 and was led by Luafalemana's team-high .394 hitting percentage and Oblad's .393 attacking on the day.

Freshman Bailey Choy posted a team-high 37 assists and Jessie Openshaw followed with 23 assists for the Utes.

Anae notched her first double-double of the season as she added 24 digs on the afternoon – just one off her previous career-high of 25 digs she set last season.

Oblad tied a career-high with seven total blocks, but Gonzaga finished the match out-blocking the Utes 13.0 to 9.0 in total team blocks.

Utah will close out the Utah Classic later this evening, hosting Butler. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. inside the Huntsman Center.