Utah Downs No. 20 Arizona in Five-Set Thriller

Friday, November 9

Salt Lake City, UT

7:00 PM

University of Utah

14-12, 6-9

Arizona

18-9, 7-8

Arizona

Utah

11/9/2018 10:21 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Choy Becomes Sixth Player in Program History to Record 3,000 Assists

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah volleyball got a huge win at home against No. 20 Arizona in five-sets in front of a great crowd at the Huntsman Center on Friday, November 9.

After storming out to a 2-0 lead in the match, the Utes had to gear back up in the fifth. With the final set tied at nine, Utah went on a 4-0 run behind three kills from Dani Drews. She followed that up with her 17^th kill of the night to give the Utes match point and they didn't waste the chance sealing the huge victory.

It was the fourth victory over a ranked team for the Utah this season.

The victory wasn't the only big thing that happened in the match as junior setter Bailey Choy became the sixth player in program history to record her 3,000^th career assist. Coming into the night, she needed 30 and finished the match with 37.

Utah took its first lead in the opening set after going on a 5-0 run to go up 11-9. The Utes kept surging as they pushed their lead out to six up 21-15. Arizona rallied late to tie the score up at 24, but Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres stepped up with the Utes fourth ace in the opening frame to give Utah the early lead.

Utah grabbed the lead in the second behind an offense that was clicking on all cylinders. They quickly took a comfortable lead at 15-9 and never looked back going up 2-0 in the match after a dominating 25-14 second-set win.

After only having one error in the first set, Utah came back in the second and had 15 kills with zero errors hitting .577. Through the first two sets, the Utes had 29 kills and only one error, hitting .429.

After dropping the third, Utah forced Arizona into an early timeout in the fourth after taking a 3-0 lead, but the Wildcats didn't stay down for long. They went on an 8-1 run to take control of the set and never relinquished control after that, pushing the match to a fifth set.

In the fifth, when Utah needed a kill they went to Drews, who sparked that late run to seal the match. She finished with four of the team's seven kills in the fifth set.

Kenzie Koerber was the other Ute with double-figure kills with 13.

Brianna Doehrmann finished the match with 20 digs. It was her seventh 20-dig match of the season.

This was the ninth five-set match for the Utes this season. The victory moves Utah to 14-12 and 6-9 in Pac-12 play.

They will play one more match at home this weekend against Arizona State on Sunday, November 11. First serve is at 1 p.m. The Utes swept the Sun Devils earlier in the season on the road.