We didn’t block a ton of balls. But we were in good position to allow our diggers to dig balls behind it. – Beth Launiere
SALT LAKE CITY — Dani Barton put her nervous energy to good use in her first Pac-12 volleyball game Friday night.
“I was kind of nervous at first,” she said after Utah defeated Colorado in a four-set win (25-14, 16-25, 25-20, 25-17). “First Pac-12 game, knowing it’s going to be really good competition and not just tonight, but every single game from here on out. I was kind of nervous at first, but once Bailey gave me the first set and we got the first point, I was like, ‘We’re good.’”
Barton put that first ball away, followed by a kill from senior middle hitter Tawnee Laufalemana. The third set went to senior outside hitter Adora Anae, who spent the week recovering from an injury, and it resulted in a hitting error.
“I didn’t hit a ball in a week,” said Anae, who led the team’s offense with 21 kills. “Being injured kind of makes you rattled, but I started getting my flow again, talking to the setters, communicating with the passers and everything flowed like normal.”
Setters Bailey Choy and Camryn Machado distributed the ball well as four players had double-digit kills – Barton (10), Laufalemana (10) and outside Carly Trueman (10). Middle hitter Berkeley Oblad finished with eight kills.
Defensively, the team had 12 blocks to Colorado’s 14 blocks. But the most important aspect of Utah’s net game wasn’t something the blocking stats would show.
“We didn’t block a ton of balls,” said Utah coach Beth Launiere. “But we were in good position to allow our diggers to dig balls behind it.”
Libero Brianna Doehrmann led the team with 14 digs, while Anae and setter Bailey Choy added 13 digs and Shannon Scully finished with 12 digs. The team finished with 82 digs compared to Colorado’s 63 digs. Choy earned 40 assists, while Machado added 13 assists.
“We had four players in double-digit digs, four players in double-digit kills so we’re getting the distribution offensively,” Launiere said. “I think that’s a nice recipe for us right now.
The coach said the team worked all week on ‘shoring up’ its defense, and it paid dividends Friday night in front of a crowd of several about 1,500 fans.
“I felt like in this match, I thought the team that was going to play better defense, make defensive stops, was going to win,” she said. “We worked a lot on that this week. We haven’t been holding opponents to contained hitting percentages. So we worked on that. I thought there were so many similarities between Colorado and us, I thought we needed to do something different tonight. And I thought the defense was the difference.”
Utah held Colorado to a .144 hitting percentage while earning a .218 percentage offensively. The Buffalo earned the edge at the net, earning 14 blocks to Utah’s 12.
Colorado’s Frankie Shebby and Alexa Smith led their offensive effort with 11 kills each, while Naghede Abu added 10 kills.
“I was pretty pleased,” Launiere said. “I was not happy with set two. …We can’t go from hitting .400 to negative in these matches. We talked about what can we do to try to steady out. It’s not just focus at this point.” Utah doesn’t have a lot of time to celebrate the win or work on deficiencies as another tough opponent comes to the Huntsman Center Sunday at 2 p.m. in Cal. The Utes plans to watch film at 10 a.m. and then practice on Saturday, and any analysis of Friday night’s game would wait until Monday.
“I have a list of things for Monday,” Launiere said. “Monday and Tuesday you can work on yourself. The rest of the time is getting ready for your opponents. You have to put together a good plan and carry out a good plan. These teams are too good.”