Upcoming Event: Volleyball versus UVU on September 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
7:00 PM
Volleyball
vs UVU
Saturday, August 27
Salt Lake City, Utah
7:00 PM
University of Utah
2-1
3
vs
1
Butler
1-2
1
2
3
4
F
Butler
21
17
25
9
1
Utah
25
25
21
25
3
Team Stats
BU
UTAH
Kills
45
63
Errors
17
17
Attempts
145
136
Hitting %
.193
.338
Points
53.0
76.0
Assists
41
60
Aces
2
7
Blocks
6.0
6.0
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
20
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Kills
13
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Kills
10
Aces
0
Blocks
3
Kills
10
Aces
0
Blocks
3
Players Mentioned
OH/RS
/ Volleyball
S
/ VolleyballMB
/ VolleyballMB
/ Volleyball
S
/ Volleyball
DS/L
/ VolleyballOH/RS
/ Volleyball
Utes Wrap Classic with Win Over Butler
8/27/2016 10:37 PM | Volleyball
Anae and Choy record double-doubles in the victory
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Utes (2-1) picked up its second win on the weekend after downing the Butler Bulldogs (1-2) in four sets (25-21, 25-17, 21-25, 25-9) Saturday evening at the Huntsman Center.
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"The opening weekend is just so much about trying things and figuring things out," said head coach Beth Launiere. "This morning we got into a match that we started slow, but did well and you can't do that, especially when it's so new. We're just not a fine-tuned, well-oiled machine. Nobody is. It definitely showed this weekend.
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"We were up and down some, but I liked how we came back [tonight]. I thought we played pretty sharp tonight. I thought we had a little lapse there in set three, but I thought we played much better than the first two sets [earlier] against Gonzaga anyways."
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Utah took the first set, 25-21, behind junior Carly Trueman's six kills and junior Adora Anae's five kills in the frame. The Utes opened the frame with an 8-5 lead, but Butler came back to take a 10-9 lead before Trueman's third kill of the set tied the score 10-10. Utah would go on a 10-4 run to take a commanding 19-14 lead and later put the set away with back-to-back kills from Trueman and Anae.
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Utah took a commanding 2-0 lead into intermission after winning the second set 25-17. Both teams traded points to a six-all tie before the Utes started to run away with the frame. Utah went on a 4-0 run to take a 10-6 lead and later posted a 5-1 run to push its lead to 15-9. The Bulldogs never got back within more than five points in Utah's road to a eight-point win.
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Despite out-hitting the Bulldogs .382 to .351 in the third set, Butler came away with the 25-21 win to push the match to a fourth set. Butler led most of the way, but after going up 12-6 midway through the frame, Utah got back to within two points, down 14-12, on back-to-back service aces from sophomore Jessie Openshaw.
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Butler called a timeout and took the momentum away en route to a 4-1 run and an 18-13 lead. Utah got back to within three points, down 24-21, on a kill from sophomore Berkeley Oblad, but the Bulldogs' Maddie Freiwald countered with a kill on the other side to give the visiting squad the set.
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Utah went up early in the fourth set, 2-0, but Butler came back with two straight points to tie the frame at two-all. The Utes began a 5-0 run with a block from junior Tawnee Luafalemana and Anae later posted another kill to give the Utes a 7-2 lead. The Bulldogs would put down two more points, but a 7-0 run from the home team pushed the lead to 14-4. Butler would net just five more points the rest of the frame and Anae's 20th kill of the match gave Utah the set 25-9.
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Anae posted 20+ kills for the first time this season and for the 12th time in her career. She also finished the match with 18 kills for her second double-double of the tournament. Trueman finished the evening with 13 kills, while Oblad and Luafalemana tallied 10 kills each. Oblad posted a team-best .562 hitting percentage, while the Utes blasted a .338 hitting percentage as a team.
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"Adora is one of the top outside hitters in the whole country," said Launiere. "She's got the whole game. She's physical, she can pass, she can hit out of the backrow and she's got a great serve. There's not a lot of the game she doesn't do and we rely on her a lot. She's got a lot of experience under her belt now and I think she played really solid all weekend. Very consistent and I was really pleased with that."
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Senior Tess Sutton notched a season-high 21 digs on the day and freshman Bailey Choy totaled 10 digs and a team-high 43 assists for her first career double-double. Utah went on to tally a season-high 72 digs in the match.
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Choy, Oblad and Luafalemana led the Utes at the net with three total blocks each. Utah finished with 12 total blocks.
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"Our middles were really good all weekend, both Berkeley and Tawnee," said Launiere. "I think a lot of that is attributed to them and we passed the ball really well. We were in system a lot and Bailey Choy did a very nice job of feeding the ball to the middles pretty relentlessly all day."
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Utah is back in action next weekend, participating in the Missouri Tiger Invitational. The Utes will face Rice and Missouri on Friday, Sept. 2, before closing out the tournament against Illinois State on Saturday, Sept. 3. All three matches will be played at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo.
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Utah Player Quotes
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Berkeley Oblad | So. | MB
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On importance of blocking…
Blocking for me is such a big deal, especially because I am a middle blocker, that is our main role. Utah is always known to be a blocking team and I think that is something we want to be good at. We are going to take a lot of time to get better at it.
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Tess Sutton | Sr. | DS/L
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On the long match…
I don't think we walked into it knowing it was going to be long, but we walked into the third saying we have a lot to do right now and if we let down they are going to win it and that is what happened. Even though we told ourselves that sometimes I think we got caught up in we have won two and now the third one is going to be easy and that is never how it is. We just had to come back stronger than the third one.
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"The opening weekend is just so much about trying things and figuring things out," said head coach Beth Launiere. "This morning we got into a match that we started slow, but did well and you can't do that, especially when it's so new. We're just not a fine-tuned, well-oiled machine. Nobody is. It definitely showed this weekend.
Â
"We were up and down some, but I liked how we came back [tonight]. I thought we played pretty sharp tonight. I thought we had a little lapse there in set three, but I thought we played much better than the first two sets [earlier] against Gonzaga anyways."
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Utah took the first set, 25-21, behind junior Carly Trueman's six kills and junior Adora Anae's five kills in the frame. The Utes opened the frame with an 8-5 lead, but Butler came back to take a 10-9 lead before Trueman's third kill of the set tied the score 10-10. Utah would go on a 10-4 run to take a commanding 19-14 lead and later put the set away with back-to-back kills from Trueman and Anae.
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Utah took a commanding 2-0 lead into intermission after winning the second set 25-17. Both teams traded points to a six-all tie before the Utes started to run away with the frame. Utah went on a 4-0 run to take a 10-6 lead and later posted a 5-1 run to push its lead to 15-9. The Bulldogs never got back within more than five points in Utah's road to a eight-point win.
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Despite out-hitting the Bulldogs .382 to .351 in the third set, Butler came away with the 25-21 win to push the match to a fourth set. Butler led most of the way, but after going up 12-6 midway through the frame, Utah got back to within two points, down 14-12, on back-to-back service aces from sophomore Jessie Openshaw.
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Butler called a timeout and took the momentum away en route to a 4-1 run and an 18-13 lead. Utah got back to within three points, down 24-21, on a kill from sophomore Berkeley Oblad, but the Bulldogs' Maddie Freiwald countered with a kill on the other side to give the visiting squad the set.
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Utah went up early in the fourth set, 2-0, but Butler came back with two straight points to tie the frame at two-all. The Utes began a 5-0 run with a block from junior Tawnee Luafalemana and Anae later posted another kill to give the Utes a 7-2 lead. The Bulldogs would put down two more points, but a 7-0 run from the home team pushed the lead to 14-4. Butler would net just five more points the rest of the frame and Anae's 20th kill of the match gave Utah the set 25-9.
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Anae posted 20+ kills for the first time this season and for the 12th time in her career. She also finished the match with 18 kills for her second double-double of the tournament. Trueman finished the evening with 13 kills, while Oblad and Luafalemana tallied 10 kills each. Oblad posted a team-best .562 hitting percentage, while the Utes blasted a .338 hitting percentage as a team.
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"Adora is one of the top outside hitters in the whole country," said Launiere. "She's got the whole game. She's physical, she can pass, she can hit out of the backrow and she's got a great serve. There's not a lot of the game she doesn't do and we rely on her a lot. She's got a lot of experience under her belt now and I think she played really solid all weekend. Very consistent and I was really pleased with that."
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Senior Tess Sutton notched a season-high 21 digs on the day and freshman Bailey Choy totaled 10 digs and a team-high 43 assists for her first career double-double. Utah went on to tally a season-high 72 digs in the match.
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Choy, Oblad and Luafalemana led the Utes at the net with three total blocks each. Utah finished with 12 total blocks.
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"Our middles were really good all weekend, both Berkeley and Tawnee," said Launiere. "I think a lot of that is attributed to them and we passed the ball really well. We were in system a lot and Bailey Choy did a very nice job of feeding the ball to the middles pretty relentlessly all day."
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Utah is back in action next weekend, participating in the Missouri Tiger Invitational. The Utes will face Rice and Missouri on Friday, Sept. 2, before closing out the tournament against Illinois State on Saturday, Sept. 3. All three matches will be played at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo.
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Utah Player Quotes
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Berkeley Oblad | So. | MB
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On importance of blocking…
Blocking for me is such a big deal, especially because I am a middle blocker, that is our main role. Utah is always known to be a blocking team and I think that is something we want to be good at. We are going to take a lot of time to get better at it.
Â
Tess Sutton | Sr. | DS/L
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On the long match…
I don't think we walked into it knowing it was going to be long, but we walked into the third saying we have a lot to do right now and if we let down they are going to win it and that is what happened. Even though we told ourselves that sometimes I think we got caught up in we have won two and now the third one is going to be easy and that is never how it is. We just had to come back stronger than the third one.
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