Volleyball Falls to Stanford in Sweet 16

Friday, December 13

Stanford, Calif.

9:00 PM

University of Utah

24-10

Stanford

27-4

Utah

Stanford

Photo by: Kory Mortensen

12/14/2019 1:17 AM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

Utes Pushed the Cardinal to Five Sets

STANFORD – The No. 17 Utah volleyball team pushed No. 3 Stanford to their limits once again, but came up just short in five sets (25-22, 14-25, 10-25, 25-12, 15-11) in Maples Pavilion in the Regional Semifinal.

"First of all, congratulations to Stanford for finding a way to win tonight and advance," head coach Beth Launiere said. "I couldn't be more proud of this team. I absolutely love this team. They have more fight in them than I could ever have imagined. We've done this all season long. I said this coming in that I do believe it's one of the reason's we've been in a lot of five setters is this team will never stop fighting. We can get beat like we did and it doesn't matter. This team has a tremendous amount of heart, and I really love them."

Seniors Berkeley Oblad and Brianna Doehrmann went out strong as Oblad had 12 kills hitting .304 with 4.0 blocks and two digs and Doehrmann had 16 digs. They're the first seniors in program history to go to two Sweet 16s during their career.

They leave the program a different place as Oblad is one of four student-athletes to have over 1,000 kills and 500 blocks and Doehrmann is the all-time career digs leader.

Utah came out on fire in the first and forced Stanford to use an early timeout while pushing their lead to 12-5. The Cardinal stayed composed and got back into it eventually tying it up at 21. That's when Dani Drews took over with three kills and a block to help the Utes claim the first set. Utah hit .359 in the opening frame.

Stanford rallied in the second and third set controlling the play to edge out to a 2-1 lead in the match.

With their backs against the wall, Utah responded like they have all season throwing everything they had at Stanford. It paid off as the Utes were up 7-2 early and never let Stanford back into it. They used a 6-0 run to go up 19-10. They ended up forcing a fifth set with a 25-12 fourth-set victory.

The fifth set started with the team's going point-for-point until Stanford used a run to go up 10-6. Utah clawed back to within one twice, but couldn't get over the hump as Stanford closed things out winning three straight points.

Utah spread the offense around really well tonight as four players had double-figure kills. Drews led the team with 18, Kenzie Koerber and Oblad had 12 and Weatherington had 10. Koerber also had 16 digs.

The third senior, Kinga Windisch, transferred to Utah from Coastal Carolina after her sophomore season. She finishes her collegiate career having gone to the NCAA Tournament all four season's at both of her schools.

The Utes finish their season with a 24-10 record overall.