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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah battled to the end to get a 3-2 win over California Sunday afternoon at the Huntsman Center.
The Utes, who have fought through injuries and adversity this season, found a groove and snagged their first Pac-12 win of the season in a five-set thriller against the Golden Bears.
That first Pac-12 win of the year feeling 🙌 pic.twitter.com/5td08DIJft
— Utah Volleyball (@UtahVolleyball) September 24, 2023
The first two sets saw a balanced scoring attack from both teams, but midway through both set, Lauren Jardine, the Utah native, found her swing and put the Utes ahead.
Utah took a 9-5 lead after scoring four straight points to take the opening set. The Utes continued to find the floor and scored 5 of the next 6 points to take a 14-7 lead. Cal rallied back to cut the deficit to 16-13, but a 3-point run from Utah brought the lead up to 19-13. The Utes went on to get the first-set victory with a 25-17 win. After the first frame, Jardine led the Utes' offense with six kills on .385 hitting.
She continued her dominance in the second set and recorded five more kills.
After Utah took the first two sets, California had an answer from Maggie Li, the freshman phenom from China who racked it up at the net. She challenged the Utah defense and gave the Bears a 26-24 advantage in the third set to force a fourth.
Much like the first three sets, the fourth was a back-and-forth battle as the two teams traded points until California rallied at the end to even the match two sets to two.
In the fifth and final set, the Utes found their service game and gave the Golden Bears trouble as they jumped out to an early 7-3 lead. But the Bears didn't give up there. Following 6 unanswered points by the Bears, the Utes had their lead dwindle and found themselves down by one, which forced coach Beth Launiere to call a time out.
Out of the timeout, sophomore Kamry Bailey found the floor with a kill to even the score at 1–13. After the swing from Bailey, the Utes were able to snag a service ace to give them the match point; and on the next play, California handed the Utes the 15-13 win off an attack error.
Jardine finished the afternoon with 17 kills, two aces, and five digs, while transfer Emrie Satuala recorded 11 kills and seven blocks.
The Utes move to 1-1 in Pac-12 play and will head to Los Angeles to take on UCLA and USC. California will go back home to Berkeley to face Arizona and Arizona State.
