#18 Utes Top #15 Toreros in Top-25 Battle

Friday, September 8

Salt Lake City, UT

7:00 PM

University of Utah

6-1

San Diego

4-3

San Diego

Utah

9/8/2017 10:07 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Utes rally from fifth-set deficit to capture the victory

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah's Dani Barton and Carly Trueman both registered season-high kill efforts to help lead the No. 18-ranked Utes to a top-25 victory in a five-set thriller over No. 15-ranked San Diego (25-22, 17-25, 25-19, 22-25, 16-14) Friday evening at the Huntsman Center.

Trueman tallied 16 kills and Barton added 15 to go along with a team-best .464 hitting percentage, while Adora Anae (19 kills) and Berkeley Oblad (10) both collected double-digit kill efforts as well.

Utah's defense registered 13.0 total team blocks, giving the Utes back-to-back matches with 10.0 blocks or more for the first time since Sept. 21 (12.0, Colorado) and Sept. 24 (17.0, Arizona State) of last season. Tawnee Luafalemana led the way with five total blocks, while Oblad, Anae and Trueman added four total blocks each.

Both teams battled to a back-and-forth match in the first set, but Utah drew first blood, taking the frame 25-22. After going up 12-9, USD countered with an 8-2 run to go up 17-14, but the Utes rallied with four straight points to retake the lead can force the Toreros to call a timeout. USD took back the lead 22-21 later in the set, but Utah managed to take the set with a 4-0 run.

The Toreros jumped out to an early 10-4 lead before Utah's 3-0 run got them back into the match, but USD countered with a 4-0 run and never looked back. A pair of 3-0 runs gave USD its largest lead of the set and despite the Utes 4-2 run late in the frame, the Toreros would take the set 25-17. USD outhit the Utes .370 to .200 in the frame.

Barton opened the third set with a kill and later put the frame away with her fifth kill to give the Utes a 25-19 third-set victory. Utah hit just .235 in the set, but used five total blocks and 14 digs to limit the Toreros to just a .079 hitting percentage. Utah led by as many as 11 points before a mini USD run got the Toreros back within six points. Trueman registered a block on the ensuing possession and then kills from Luafalemana and Barton ended the threat.

Utah led early in the fourth set, 6-3, but neither team would take a three-point lead or more until USD came back to win the frame, 25-22. Utah led by a point or two throughout most of the frame until a 3-0 run put the Toreros up 18-17. Utah came back to take the lead with kills from Barton and Anae, but USD closed out the set winning seven of the final 10 points to notch things up at 2-2 and send the contest into a decisive fifth set.

Utah's 7-4 lead early in the fifth set quickly dwindled to a 9-7 deficit following USD's 6-0 run. The Toreros pushed its lead to 10-8 before another kill from Barton notched things up at 10-10. Anae would register three straight kills for the Utes to put Utah on top 13-12 and Berkeley Oblad later put the Utes up match-point, 15-14, with a pair of kills. USD's next attack was wide, giving Utah the win, 16-14.

Utah finished the match hitting .269 as a team, but USD led the majority of statistical categories including kills (70 to 67), assists (66 to 65) and digs (60-56). Utah out-blocked the Toreros, 13.0 to 7.0.

Utah is back in action early tomorrow afternoon, taking on Green Bay at noon. Green Bay fell to Missouri in the first match of the Utah Classic on Friday, 3-1.

GAME NOTES
• Utah picked up its first win over a top-15 ranked team at home since downing No. 13 Oregon back on Nov. 25, 2014.
• Adora Anae notched 10+ kills for the 33^rd straight game dating back to last season.
• Dani Barton collected five more kills than her previous career-high of 10 kills, which she just recorded this past Sunday at Hawaii.
• Carly Trueman's 16 kills were a season-high and her highest kill total since registering 20 kills against Illinois State last season.
• Bailey Choy notched her second consecutive double-double with 50 assists and 14 digs. This marks Choy's third time to record 50 assists or more in a match.
• Utah was held to zero service aces for the first time this season.
• Anae totaled eight digs on the evening. She now has 994 career digs and is just six digs away from becoming just the 10^th player in school history to become a member of the 1,000 dig club. She would also be just the fifth player to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a single career.