Utah Volleyball Team Beats Missouri State 3-2

Marriage agrees with Utah senior outside hitter Chelsey Schofield-Olsen. Schofield-Olsen, who recently married Runnin' Utes forward/center Jeremy Olsen, recorded a team-high 14 kills, and Makenzie Moea’i tallied a career-high six blocks as the Utes rallied from a 2-1 deficit to down Missouri State, 3-2 (21-25, 25-13, 23-25, 15-10), inside Crimson Court Saturday morning.

Senior Bailey Bateman put down four of her 11 kills in the decisive fifth set and the Utes improved to 2-0 on the season, while the Bears dropped to 0-2.

Utah would only trail by as many as five points in the first set, but a pair of blocks from Moea’i helped spark a 4-0 run and the Utes trailed 21-20 late in the contest, but the Bears closed with a 4-1 run to take the set 25-21.

The Utes would tally 14 kills and hit at a clip of .480 to take the second set 25-13. A run of 5-1 put Utah ahead 13-6 midway through the set and the squad would later close the set with a run of 6-1 to tie the match at 1-1.

Utah opened the third set with a 6-2 run and later led 12-6 before MSU rallied back to tie the set at 12-12. Both squads would later trade points until a 7-0 run gave the Bears a 22-17 advantage.  Down 22-17, the Utes rallied back to tie the set at 22-22, but MSU would score three of the next four points to take the set and go up 2-1.

Utah took a 17-11 lead following a 5-0 run, but MSU came back with three straight points to make it 17-14, forcing the Utes to take a timeout. Utah tallied four of the next six points and later closed with a 4-1 run to win the set 25-18 and send the match into a decisive fifth set.

The Utes fell behind 4-2 to start the fifth set, but a 4-1 run helped give Utah a 6-5 lead before Schofield-Olsen later collected her match-leading 14th kill to give the Utes an 8-7 lead as the teams switched sides. After MSU tied the set at 8-8, Utah went on a 3-0 run and then closed with a 3-2 run to take the set 15-10 and the match 3-2.

Utah hit better than .400 in two of the three sets and finished the match with a .289 hitting percentage, while limiting the Bears to just a percentage of just .116. The Utes recorded 61 team digs and were led by sophomore Tess Sutton, who finished the match with 13 digs. Carly Trueman added six block assists in the match as Utah notched three solo blocks and 18 block assists for a total of 12.0 team blocks.

Senior Kalee Kirby registered a career-high five kills on .833 hitting and led the team with 26 assists in the match. Senior Shelby Dalton added 13 kills to help give Utah three players with kills in the double digits.

The Utes will closeout the Utah Classic this evening against New Mexico State, with a first serve scheduled for 7 p.m.