Utah Volleyball Drops Road Match At Colorado To Wrap Up Regular Season

Friday, November 25

Boulder, CO

3:00 PM

University of Utah

15-16,8-12Pac-12

Colorado

20-10,12-8Pac-12

Utah

Colorado

Photo by: Hunter Dyke/Utah Athletics

Utah Volleyball Drops Road Match At Colorado To Wrap Up Regular Season

11/25/2022 5:48 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Grace Hammond posts career high 48 assists and 18 digs to lead Utes.

BOULDER, Colo. – Utah Volleyball wrapped up the regular season on Friday afternoon, falling to Colorado in four sets (25-19, 25-21, 25-23, 25-17) at the CU Events Center. Utah collected career high marks from Grace Hammond and Lauren Jardine, while Madelyn Robinson led the team with her seventh match of 20 or more kills this season.

Hammond led the Ute offense after dishing out a career-best 48 assists, while also posting a career-high 18 digs to lead the defense en route to her first double-double as a Ute. Hammond also led the team at the net, posting a match-high five blocks. Half of her assists came from the hands of Robinson, who posted a match-best 24 kills. Adding to the offensive efforts was Jardine, who posted a career high 15 kills on Friday.

Powered behind the hot hand of Robinson, Utah was able to gain separation early in the first set against Colorado before a 4-0 run, which included a pair of kills from Robinson, pushed the score to 17-10 in favor of the Utes. Three consecutive points not too long after continued the momentum with the score extended to 20-11, and despite Colorado making a late push, the Utes would close out the first set 25-19. Robinson posted seven kills on .462 hitting, while the entire team combined for a .368 clip.

Colorado took an early lead in the second set, 7-3, and held on to the lead from that point on. Later trailing 22-15, the Utes put together a 4-1 run to cut the lead to just 23-19. Colorado earned a sideout for its first set point, but a kill from Jardine and another from Robinson extended the set as Utah cut the score to 24-21. After Colorado called timeout, the Buffaloes evened the match 1-1 after recording a kill to win 25-21.

The third set went back and forth with the Buffs striking first after a 5-0 run pushed the scored to 9-6. Utah countered with three unanswered points to even the set and shortly after used a 4-0 run to take a 13-11 lead. Out of a Colorado timeout, the Buffaloes recorded a 4-0 run of their own, regaining a lead at 15-13. From there, no team scored more than two points at a time for the remainder of the set.

Later tied 20-20, Colorado scored consecutive points before Jardine earned Utah a sideout from her fifth kill of the third set. A missed serve from Utah, followed by an ace from Colorado set the score at 24-21. Ashley West recorded a kill on the next play to keep the Utes in the set, while another kill from Robinson trimmed the score to 24-23.Colorado's Maya Tabron would go on to earn a set-winning kill to put the Utes behind 2-1 in the match. Jardine posted six kills in the frame to lead the Utes.

In the fourth set, Utah gave up a 4-0 run to head into the media timeout trailing 15-11. Robinson connected on a kill out of the break, but four straight points from Colorado broke open the set 19-12. After the Buffaloes extended the lead to 23-14, three kills in a row from Jardine trimmed the lead to six points, but it was too late as the Buffs would score consecutive points to end it 25-17 after hitting .387 in the final set compared to Utah's .200 hitting percentage.

Ramirez matched Hammond's 18 digs to tie for the match high, while Olsen added four blocks for the Ute defense. Robinson also tallied three aces behind her strong offensive night. Olsen and KJ Burgess each tallied seven kills with Burgess leading the team on .467 hitting.