Utah volleyball’s season ends in NCAA Tournament
SALT LAKE CITY (BVM) – The 14-seeded Utah Utes dropped their Round of 32 match in the NCAA Tournament 3-0 (16-25, 18-25, 19-25) to the Pittsburgh Panthers on Thursday.
Despite a match-high 20 kills from Pac-12 Player of the Year Dani Drews, the Utes were unable to close sets in the sweep.
“It was a really tough match,” head coach Beth Launiere said in a press release. “I have to give Pitt a ton of credit. They played a great match. I thought they were relentless at coming at us. I thought we played aggressive, but they kept making one more play than us. Slowly in every set they just started to widen the gap.
“We made some nice adjustments, but we really didn’t have an answer for them. Our offense started getting going and that made a big difference in sets two and three, but we just didn’t get enough stops. I have to give a lot of credit to them.”
Drews’ match-high kill total went along with seven digs and three blocks. Kenzie Koerber was the only other Ute with double-figure kills with 10 and added nine digs in the loss while Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres had 35 assists on the night.
Utah finished the season with a 13-5 record.