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Morgan Odale had her first double-double of 2012 on Saturday against Portland State.
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09/08/2012
PROVO, Utah - Down 23-14 against Portland State, the University of Utah volleyball team put together a 10-1 run to tie the fourth set, but came up short in the final frame of a 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 17-25, 29-31) loss to PSU on Saturday in its second match of the BYU Invitational at Smith Fieldhouse.
Utah (6-4) had two players register double-figure-kill performances as junior outside hitter Morgan Odale posted 12 kills and 11 digs for her 16th career double-double and the first of this season.
| Utah | 0 |
| Portland State | 3 |
Sophomore outside hitter Chelsey Schofield barely missed her 12th career double-double, and her fourth this season, with 12 digs to go with nine digs. Classmate Shelby Dalton had a .357 hitting percentage with just one error in 14 swings for six kills.
Freshman Tjasa Kotnik registered her first career kill in the second frame and came away with a season-high mark of two kills on three attack attempts for a .667 hitting efficiency.
Freshman setter Kendall Cygan set up the Utes with a season-high 22 assists, while senior setter McKenzie Odale coordinated the Ute attack with 18 assists, while also contributing six digs and one block.
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PSU got out to another fast start in the second set by starting with a 6-0 run and eventually got out to a 15-5 edge over the Utes. Utah pulled to within five (17-12), but could not get any closer during a 25-19 second-set victory. Redd had two kills and a service ace in the set for the Utes.
There were five ties early in the third set before seven consecutive PSU points gave the Vikings a 13-6 edge. The Utes cut into their deficit with a 5-0 stretch to come within a pair (15-13), but PSU pushed its lead back up to seven points (21-14) en route to a 25-17 win. Redd produced four kills on eight attempts for a .500 hitting percentage in addition to two blocks in the frame, while Morgan Odale added three kills.
The fourth frame was tied twice before the Utes inched out to a three-point lead at 6-3 via a 3-0 spurt. The Vikings responded and came back to tie the frame two more times before edging out to a 15-11 advantage. PSU worked its way up to a 23-14 lead before the Utes put together an 11-1 stretch to tie the frame for the sixth time and take the lead (25-24). The set would be even five more times (25, 26, 27, 28 and 29) before a PSU kill by Jaklyn Wheeler and a Ute attack error gave the Vikings a 31-29 victory. Utah outhit PSU, .286 to .268 and held a 2.0 to 0.0 advantage in team blocking. Morgan Odale and Dalton came up with four kills apiece in the finale, while Schofield and Redd both added three kills.
Portland State (4-5) was led by a match-high 17 kills by Megan Ellis and 21 digs from Kasimira Clark.
The Utes conclude their BYU Invitational slate this evening against Bowling Green at 5 p.m. MT.
