No. 7 Utah Suffers First Loss Of Season, Falls 3-0 To No. 9 Washington
Nothing stays perfect forever.
The Utah volleyball team learned that the hard way when they were swept 3-0 (21-25, 23-25, 19-25) by No. 9 Washington in Seattle on Thursday night.
No. 7 Utah entered Thursday's contest undefeated at 8-0 on the season, but had a long road ahead of them considering everything they've been through the past two weeks.
Due to a COVID-19 protocols, the program was forced to cancel this past weekend's matches with No. 22 Oregon, meaning it had two weeks off before facing their first top-10 opponent of the season. That layoff was a large part in why the Utes were unable to get off too fast starts against the talented Huskies, and were primarily playing catch up in each set.
One of the top hitting teams in the nation, Utah struggled at the net when it hit .184, .297 and .182 in each set — the first time they've failed to hit under .300 in a set during a match this season.
Dani Drews and Kenzie Koerber were largely held in check but still managed to finish with 13 and 10 kills respectively, while Zoe Weatherington added six kills. Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres finished with 32 assists and eight digs while Phoebe Grace finished with five blocks.
Zoe Weatherington, Utah Volleyball — Courtesy of Utah Athletics
The first two sets were back-and-forth affairs that saw 19 ties between the two teams. But in each set, Washington rallied late to pull off the victories as the Utes were done in by hitting errors after appearing to tighten and press each time.
Utah went down early in the third set and despite cutting the deficit to four at one point, wasn't able to rally back.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 12 p.m.
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