SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Volleyball dropped its Sunday matinee match against the fifth-ranked Oregon Ducks in four sets (16-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-16) at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
Emrie Satuala led the team with 11 kills, which marks her fourth game of double-digit kills in the last five matches.
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Strong serving and blocking from Oregon caused the Utes to fall behind 10-6 early in the first set. Oregon pushed ahead to a 14-8 lead to send the Utes into a timeout. The Utes recorded a pair of points out of the break to chip away at the lead, but a 4-1 run from Oregon put Utah into a 18-11 deficit. Utah scored four of the next five points to trail just 19-15, however, the Ducks put away the set with a 6-1 run to win 25-16. Oregon opened the match with five blocks and four aces in the first set compared to one of each by the Utes.
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The Utes and Ducks traded spurts of points to behind the second set before Utah used a 6-1 run to take a 13-8 lead. Out of an Oregon timeout, the teams went back and forth as the Utes were able to maintain a lead throughout with their largest lead coming at 19-13.
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Later, the Ducks used three consecutive points to cut the Ute lead to 22-19, but a Duck service error and kill from
Lauren Jardine gave Utah set point 24-19. Utah let two points slide, but won the set 25-21 with a kill from
Kamry Bailey to tie the match 1-1. Utah hit .207 in the second set, while Oregon combined for a .083 hitting percentage to make the difference. Six Utes recorded a kill in the second set and three Utes tallied a service ace.
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In the third set, the Utes and Ducks played evenly until a 3-0 run from Oregon set Utah in a 10-6 deficit, forcing the Utes to call timeout. Utah recorded consecutive kills to cut the lead to two points, but the Ducks scored six of the next eight points to lead, 16-10. Oregon managed to hold on to the lead the remainder of the set, going on to win 25-17 after earning the early lead. Satuala was the main source of offense in the frame for Utah as she connected on five kills with zero errors on eight swings.
Utah fell into a 10-4 deficit to start the fourth set, but bounced back to trim the score to just 12-9 in the Ducks favor. Although the Utes managed to cut into the lead, Utah gave up a 7-1 run to suddenly trail 19-10. Utah couldn't put together large enough runs to make a late rally as Orgon went on to win 25-16 in the fourth set.
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Satuala recorded 11 kills on .400 hitting to lead the offense, while
Kamry Bailey added nine kills and
Kamryn Gibadlo tallied eight kills.
Viktoria Wahlgren recorded 31 assists and five digs. Leading the defense was
Vanessa Ramirez, who totaled 11 digs, and
Emily Smith, who added eight digs.
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Utah hits the road to face Washington State and Washington next weekend before preparing for a four-match home stand. Utah starts the road trip with a match at fourth-ranked Washington State on Friday, Oct. 13. The Utes and Cougars are set for a 7 p.m. MT match at Bohler Gym in Pullman, Wash. Then, Utah closes out the road trip in Seattle against the Washington Huskies on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 1 p.m. MT. The match will be televised on Pac-12 Washington.
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