Post by PukaPants on Sept 18, 2005 10:12:24 GMT -5
Utah's Airial Salvo spikes the ball in Saturday's match as the Utes beat previously unbeaten Santa Clara.
Utes spike Broncos with good teamwork
By Linda Hamilton
Deseret Morning News
With a young volleyball team, one of the important things is for them to learn to play together, learn to trust each other, believe in each other.
That's one thing the University of Utah's team worked on throughout its match Saturday night for the championship of its own Hampton Inn Classic at Crimson Court against 17th-ranked Santa Clara.
The Utes seemed to learn to believe, even in hard times, like the third game when the Broncos were ahead by six points and Utah came back to win.
Playing a team that was 7-0 and had lost but three games all season, Utah took the second and third games and the five-game match, 22-30, 30-20, 30-27, 28-30, 15-13. Santa Clara fell to 7-1 for the second while the Utes moved to 7-3.
A lot of the credit for the win went to Ute senior hitter Shelly Sommerfeldt, the tournament MVP who had a match-high 22 kills, though her eight attacking errors cut her percentage to .298. She had a team-high 15 digs and four block assists.
But a lot of the credit also went to two freshman substitutes who helped the Utes become the first team all season to take two games against the Broncos when they made a difference in Game 3.
Kathryn Lovell, said coach Beth Launiere, turned the tide against Santa Clara's powerful 6-foot-4 middle blocker Anna Cmyalo, who was putting every hit straight to the floor the first 2 1/2 games and finished with a match-high .486 hitting percentage.
Lovell "started getting touches on her" with her blocks, said Launiere, and that saved Utah some consternation, even though the Broncos took the intensely close fourth game.
"She had a good match," Sommerfeldt said about Cmaylo, "and we finally got a hold of her and figured out where to get the block on her and shut her down. I think we just worked on getting over on the block. We started blocking her 'angle,' instead of 'line.' We made a few tactical changes, and it helped a lot.
Lovell "did a great job in the front row. She's a banger," Sommerfeldt added.
The other change Launiere made was inserting freshman libero Lacey Lavarias to start Game 2, and that improved the Utes' passing against a hard-hitting, athletic Bronco club.
"That was the difference," Launiere said, calling Lavarias, Lovell and Sommerfeldt the keys, along with the way the Utes for the first time this season used the Crimson Court crowd to their advantage.
"Lacey came in and made some great digs, and I attribute at least one of those games to her," said Sommerfeldt, who during part of the match was surrounded on the court by five freshmen.
"It was definitely a confidence-builder," Sommerfeldt said of the victory. "Our freshman see we can beat top 25 teams. We're getting together as a team."
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Great showing for the MWC this past weekend, at least for two teams, BYU and Utah against 2nd tier teams.