The Utah women’s volleyball team has made a habit out of not allowing inferior opponents to beat it this season.
No bad losses — combined with an impressive set of defining wins among 24 victories during the regular season — was one factor that head coach Beth Launiere said helped lead to the Utes earning the chance to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.
When Utah opened the NCAAs on Thursday night, it followed that ‘no bad losses’ mantra, beating an overmatched College of Charleston team in straight sets (25-21, 25-19, 25-16) at the Huntsman Center in their first-round matchup.
Simply put, the Utes never gave the Cougars the chance for an upset.
“That was a fairly typical Utah volleyball match in terms of we got contributions from a lot of different players at different times through the course of the match,” Launiere said.
“... That’s what we talked about in the locker room, that’s been a defining thing for our team, is that we have a lot of different people contribute.”
The win puts the Utes one victory away from advancing to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in school history, and with the homecourt advantage, that seems more than possible.
A crowd of 3,089 turned out for Thursday’s first-round match.
“I think that having the fans and the atmosphere of Utah volleyball keeps us steady, and being able to play with people that you know, we see our family in the crowd, and being able to have that support behind us really, really helps calm our nerves,” senior outside hitter Lauren Jardine said.
How many will turn up Friday at 7 p.m. MST when the No. 4 seeded Utes play No. 5 seed Marquette in the second round?
Utah gave those in attendance a good show — and a reason to come back.
The Utes finished with a .194 hitting percentage — that included a high of .270 in the second set — while holding College of Charleston to a .057 hitting percentage. Utah also relied on a balanced offensive attack and solid defense to turn back the Cougars.
Sophomore outside hitter Kamryn Gibadlo had a team-high 11 kills for Utah, while Jardine added nine kills and four blocks, serving as a catalyst in a key third-set stretch that pushed Utah’s lead to 15-7 and led to an eventual nine-point set victory to wrap up the match.
Junior middle blocker Emrie Satuala also had eight kills with no errors, and she finished with a team-high .727 hitting percentage.
Six different Utes finished with five or more kills in the postseason victory.
“This team is extremely selfless,” Launiere said. “It doesn’t matter to them who leads us in kills or who leads us in digs. They don’t look at that.
“They are as tight a group as we’ve had, and when you have that kind of team chemistry and you have that kind of selflessness, then teams could do good things, and that’s what this team is truly about.”
Utah didn’t trail in a set all night, earning its fifth 3-0 win during what is now an eight-match win streak.
“I think that recently we’ve talked about just going point by point, step by step, match by match,” Satuala said. “I think just really staying present and focusing on not getting ahead of ourselves has really just kept us in a lot of games.”
Defensively, the Utes had 57 digs on the night, with 16 from Kamry Bailey and 14 from Claranne Fletcher.
“We know that we’re a big, physical team at the net, but I was really proud of our defense tonight,” Launiere said.
For a tight-knit team that is making the program’s first NCAA appearance after a two-year hiatus, Thursday night’s effort couldn’t have gone much better.
“We have a team motivation that we do before every match, and ours was about when you loved the people you’re around you work really, really hard for them. We were fighting as hard as we possibly could, because we love the people we were next to,” Jardine said.
One area where College of Charleston was able to gain an advantage was in blocks — the Cougars had 13 to the Utes’ nine.
Eight of those came in the first set, though, including four during a five-point run.
“Their block was a big issue for us and we had to deal with that and we had to figure out how to hit high and with more range because they were imposing their block on us,” Launiere said.
After that early dominance from College of Charleston in the block game, Utah evened it out over the final two sets.
It sets up the opportunity for Utah to extend its season for another night, and maybe more.
“I was pleased with the composure that was shown at certain times. Somebody would be able to come up and get us out of — we got into some sticky situations, but this team, all year long, has found solutions to some of that, and it’s happened a lot,” Launiere said.
What’s next
Utah (25-5) advances to the NCAA’s second round, where it will play No. 5 seed Marquette on Friday at 7 p.m. MST at the Huntsman Center.
The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
Marquette beat Florida Gulf Coast in straight sets (25-20, 25-22, 25-22) in Thursday’s opening first-round matchup at the Huntsman.
The Golden Eagles (24-8) earned an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament after going 16-2 in Big East regular-season play before losing in the conference tournament championship match against Creighton.
“They’ve got some physicality,” Launiere said. “They’ve got some live arms that we’re going to have to contend with, and you know, they’re going to have the ability to terminate in long rallies, so who’s going to do it first? I think that’s going to be an interesting part of it. ... And I think we’re going to face some really aggressive servers so that’s going to be probably part of the storyline.”