Volleyball: “A couple swings away”

by: Parker Lee on November 4, 2011

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Chris Reeves | The Daily Utah Chronicle

Utah sophomore Morgan Odale spikes the ball during Thursday's 3-2 loss to Cal. The Utes will take on seventh ranked Stanford Saturday at 2 pm at Crimson Court.

The Utah volleyball team suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 (22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-18, 15-13) defeat to the Cal Bears. They led 2-1, but were unable to seal the deal.

Despite the loss, coach Beth Launiere was extremely pleased with the way her team performed.

“We didn’t have as many kills, but we had less errors, and we out-blocked them. This was exactly the same formula we used to beat Oregon. We were just a couple swings away from getting [them],” she said.

Utah (9-16, 4-12 Pac-12) got off to a fast start to open the match by taking an early 7-2 lead. After getting a few spikes blocked, Cal (22-4, 12-4) adjusted by mixing in a few tips to keep the Utes honest, which enabled it to cut into the deficit. With Utah leading 10-8, the Bears went on a 6-1 run to take a 14-11 lead. Down 16-19, the Utes went on a 6-1 run of their own to take the lead, 22-20.
They maintained that slim lead for the remainder of the set.

The opening set was an impressive display of offense by both teams. Cal had a hitting percentage of .406, while the Utes hit .533. Remarkably, Utah did not have one attack error in the set and out-blocked Cal 3-0.

Cal took the first two points of the second game and led the whole set. Its biggest lead was six points, at 15-9 and 25-19. The Utes fought back from the first six-point deficit and pulled to within one at 18-17, but the Golden Bears won seven of the set’s final nine points.

The third set was easily the closest of the match. There were 10 ties and four lead changes. Neither team led by more than four and neither team scored more than three consecutive points. Given that, Utah led for most of the set. Cal’s only leads were at 3-2 and 22-21, both of which vanished on the next point. Morgan Odale was clutch toward the end of the set, recording kills on three of the final four points.

Set four started out close, but Cal pulled away about midway through the set to force a fifth game.

The Utes gave it a valiant effort in the fifth set but came up just short. They scored three straight points when Cal went up 14-10, but it wasn’t quite enough.

Middle blocker Danielle Killpack, who was one of five Utes with double-digit kills, said the team is disappointed about the loss, but they are looking forward to getting back out on the court to play Stanford.

“We are pumped and ready to go,” Killpack said.

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Posted by Parker Lee on Nov 4 2011. Filed under Sports, Uncategorized, Volleyball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.