Utah Volleyball Faces Utah State on Saturday

Saturday, September 17

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

Utah State

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9/16/2016 3:07 PM | Volleyball

Complete Match Notes (PDF)Live Stream Live Stats

Utes to play Aggies in final non-conference match of the season

MATCH 11 \| UTAH (8-2) vs. UTAH STATE (5-5)
DATE	Saturday, Sept. 17 \| 7 p.m. MT
LOCATION	Huntsman Center \| Salt Lake City
LIVE STREAM	Utah Live Stream
LIVE STATS	Live Stats

FIRST SERVE
The Utah volleyball team (8-2) returns home to the Jon M. Huntsman Center this Saturday, Sept. 17, to host in-state rival Utah State (5-5) in the team's final non-conference match of the 2016 campaign. First serve between the Utes and Aggies is set for 7 p.m.

COVERING THE UTES
Saturday's match between the Utes and Aggies will be live streamed. Links to the broadcast can be found at www.UtahUtes.com or www.Pac-12.com/live/university-utah.

Live stats will be available for the match, with links found at either www.UtahUtes.com or www.StatBroadcast.com.

ABOUT UTAH
The Utes are coming off a thrilling five-set road win at No. 9 BYU on Thursday. Utah downed the Cougars 27-25 and 25-20 to take a 2-0 lead into the locker room, but BYU came back to tie the match at 2-all with a 25-23 and 25-17 win in the fourth and fifth sets, respectively.

Utah trailed 13-11 late in the fifth set, but managed to score the final four points of the match on the way to escaping Smith Fieldhouse with the victory.

Junior Adora Anae set a new school record in the rally-scoring era with a single-match high 31 kills, while freshman Bailey Choy notched a career-high 57 assists in the win. Sophomore Megan Shughrou tallied a season-high 24 digs and junior Tawnee Luafalemana registered a career-high seven total blocks at the net.

Utah snapped a five-match losing streak to the Cougars, while also snapping BYU's 29-match home winning streak - which happened to be the longest current winning streak in the nation.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES
Utah State heads into Saturday's contest having won two straight and four of its past five matches. The Aggies had won just four of its first five matches to open the 2016 schedule.

Utah State defeated Utah Valley in Orem on Tuesday, downing the Wolverines in four sets (26-24, 6-25, 25-16, 25-20). Prior to the win at UVU, the Aggies went 2-1 while hosting the USU Invitational last weekend.

USU heads into Saturday's contest with a 2-1 record in road games this season. Along with the win at UVU, the Aggies defeated Denver, but fell to Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore.

The Aggies have a pair of players with 100-plus kills on the season. Lauren Anderson leads the way with 117 kills, while Kayli Kamalu-Smith follows with 110. Both players are averaging 3.44 kills-per-set. Erica Moscoso, who has tallied a team-best 285 assists on the season, leads USU in assists, while Kassidy Johnson follows with 104 assists for the Aggies.

On the defensive side of the net, Hannah Gleason leads the team with 138 digs, while Carly Lenzen has posted a team-high 36 total blocks.

The Aggies are hitting .232 as a team, while averaging 12.49 kills, 11.81 assists, 14.19 digs and 1.95 blocks per set.

UTAH PLAYER NOTABLES
• Junior Adora Anae set a new school record for most kills in a match during the rally-scoring era (2001-present) with 31 kills against BYU on Thursday. Anae broke the previous mark of 28 kills, which she set twice last season. In addition, Anae becomes just the second player in school history to become a member of the 30-kill club, joining Mailee Gee-Merrill, who holds the all-time school record with 33 kills that was set back on Oct. 27, 1984.
• Freshman Bailey Choy recorded career-high 57 assists in Utah's win at BYU on Thursday. She became the first player to record 50 or more assists in a match since Jessie Openshaw notched 54 assists against California last season and the first player to record 55 assists or more since Kiesha Fisher registered 58 kills against San Diego State back on Sept. 13, 2007.
• Junior Tawnee Luafalemana set a new season and career-high with seven total blocks on Thursday. Luafalemana collected two solo blocks and five assisted blocks on the way to helping Utah out-block the Cougars, 12.0 to 7.0.
• Sophomore Megan Shughrou registered a season-high 24 digs on Thursday. She is tied with Anae for most digs in a match so far this season.
• Junior Eliza Katoa matched a season-high with eight kills at BYU. She led the team on the night with a .353 hitting percentage. Katoa and Shughrou led the Utes with two service aces each.
• Junior Carly Trueman and sophomore Berkeley Oblad both notched 11 kills each on Thursday. Trueman has tallied double-digit kills in seven of her 10 matches this season, while Oblad has recorded 10-plus kills in four matches for the Utes.

POINT UTAH
The Utes have posted a higher hitting percentage than all 10 of its opponents during the 2016 season. Utah is currently outhitting the opposition, .292 to .199 on the season.

Utah has also managed to record more aces in every match this season. The Utes have tallied 59 services aces to just 29 aces on the year.

CLUB HOPPING
Junior Adora Anae is on pace to become the 17th player in school history to earn her membership into the 1,000-kill club. Anae has registered 958 kills in her three seasons donning the Red & White - just 42 kills shy of the 1,000 kill mark.

Senior Tess Sutton eclipsed the 750-dig mark this past weekend and with her 751 career digs, she is now just 249 digs shy from becoming a member of the 1,000-dig club. She would become just the 10th player in school history to collect 1,000 digs or more in a career.

BEATING RANKED TEAMS
Utah knocked off a top-25 team for the first time this season with its 3-2 win at No. 9-ranked BYU on Thursday. It marks the first win over a AVCA ranked team since defeating then No. 14-ranked Colorado back on Nov. 28, 2014.

It was Utah's first win over a ranked opponent on the road since defeating then No. 16-ranked Oregon back on Oct. 28, 2011.

Utah moved to 47-202 all-time against top-25 ranked teams, which now includes a record of 8-71 against teams ranked in the top-10. It was just the second win over a top-10 ranked team since Utah joined the Pac-12.

UP NEXT
The Utes begin Pac-12 play next week, opening the conference slate with a road match at Colorado next Wednesday, Sept. 21. First serve between the Utes and Buffaloes is set for 7 p.m. MT at Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo.

Utah will return home next Saturday, Sept. 24, to host its first Pac-12 match of the season at home, taking on Arizona State at the Huntsman Center. First serve is set for 7 p.m.