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Sophomore setter Abby Simmons recorded her fourth career double-double with 12 digs and 11 assists Saturday at Colorado State.
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Oct. 17, 2009
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Sophomore setter Abby Simmons turned in her fourth career double-double but the University of Utah volleyball team dropped a three-set match (14-25, 13-25, 15-25) Saturday against Colorado State at Moby Arena.
Utah (13-7, 6-2 MWC) is now 20-2 in its last 22 Mountain West Conference matches. The Utes were outhit .382 to .078 for the match and were at a 70-40 disadvantage in digs.
"I thought we competed at times," head coach Beth Launiere said. "But for the most part, [CSU] dominated or had control of the match. We weren't ever able to get into the match. We just didn't get enough kills. We did a lot of good things but we just didn't have enough offense at the end of the match."
Simmons was second on the team with 12 digs and she also distributed a team-high 11 assists. The Phoenix, Ariz., native now had four career double-doubles with three coming this season. Junior setter Stephanie Neeley chipped in eight assists.
Five different Utes had at least four kills, led by five from Sarah Hibbert. Danielle Killpack, Chelsey Sandberg, Cinthia Silva and Karolina Bartkowiak each had four kills apiece
In the back row, junior libero Keisha Fisher dug up a team-high 14 Ram attack attempts. The Ririe, Idaho was credited with her first kill of the season in the second set of the match and her first since the Deseret First Duel match at BYU on Oct. 17, 2008.
Bartkowiak and Killpack were Utah's leading blockers. Bartkowiak led the way with four blocks while Killpack turned in three. As a team, the Utes were slightly outblocked by the Rams, 6 to 5.5.
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"CSU started off on fire," Launiere said. "We didn't have an answer for Danielle Minch. She had a lot of kills in the first set so that got us in trouble early. I thought we were able to slow them down a little bit as the match went on but we just weren't able to get enough kills."
CSU took five of the first seven points in the second set before Utah scored four consecutive times to take a 6-5 advantage, the Utes' first lead since a 1-0 edge to start the match. Unfortunately, the Rams responded with a 4-0 spurt to take a 9-6 edge. CSU extended its advantage to 11 points as it went on a 9-1 run to take a 22-11 lead and would eventually take a 25-12 second-set victory. The Utes were outhit .457 to .048 in the set while Bartkowiak, Killpack and Hibbert each recorded two kills apiece. Utah is now 0-4 this season after dropping the first two sets of a match.
The Rams jumped out to a 4-2 lead at the start of the third frame but the Utes fought back to force the first tie of the set at eight points apiece. CSU managed to climb out to its largest lead of the set at 18-12 margin thanks to six consecutive points. The Rams put together a 6-0 run near the end of the set en route to a 25-15 match-clinching win. Hibbert came up with two more kills but the Rams managed to outhit the Utes, .234 to .022, for the set. Utah did come up with a 3.5 blocks in the set, compared to just two for CSU. Killpack came up with all three of her blocks in the set during the final set.
Colorado State (16-3, 8-0 MWC) was led by a 19-kill, three-dig, and two-block performance by Minch. She took 23 swings with four errors for a .469 hitting percentage.
"We just have to get back into the gym for practice and work hard," Launiere said. "We're still trying to figure this out. We're still playing pretty good volleyball and the attitude [of the team] is still good so we just have to take a loss and learn from it."
The Utes travel to Provo, Utah to face BYU in the second Deseret First Duel match of the season Friday at 7 p.m. The match will be televised live on BYU-TV.
