Salt Lake City — Utah Volleyball battled eleventh-ranked Washington State in their final match of the two-game conference series from the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Cougars (26-28, 15-25, 22-25).
Lauren Jardine pushed the Utah attack for the second match in a row. Jardine would once again lead the Utes in kills for the second match in a row, putting down 14 against the Cougars. Hitting at a clip of .256 in the match, Jardine would go to work at the net, getting up on four block assists.
Utah would hang strong in the first set bringing the match back to even 11 different times as the scoreboard would show a different leader five times. Jardine jumped out quickly, putting down six kills in the opening set.
Emrie Satuala and
Kamryn Gibadlo added eight kills apiece for the Utes. Satuala would find her groove over the final two sets, putting down 6 of 8 kills in sets two and three. With a clean sheet in the second set, Satuala posted a .375 hitting percentage on eight attempts with three kills. Satuala would make her presence known at the net getting up on seven block assists with one solo block on the afternoon.
The Utes would put together a run at the end of the third set, chipping away at the Washington State advantage. Jardine and Gibadlo put down five and four kills each to keep the Utah hopes alive in the set. Jardine was flawless in the final set, displaying a .333 hitting percentage on 15 swings without an error.
Utah will travel to the Maples Pavilion to take on Stanford next Wednesday, Nov. 22, with first serve at 3 p.m. MT. Utah closes out their season on Friday, Nov. 24 back on their home court against Colorado at 3 p.m. MT. The match with Stanford will be broadcast on the Stanford live stream while Friday's match with Colorado will be available to watch on Pac-12 Mountain.