Husky Win Streak Snapped By Utah

Sunday, September 30

Seattle, WA

12:00 PM

University of Washington

11-3, 3-1Pac-12

Utah

9-6, 1-3Pac-12

Utah

Washington

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

September 30, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score PDF WATCH: Highlights vs. Utah

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – Despite a major effort from Kara Bajema, who put down 22 kills on 50 swings, the 13th-ranked Husky volleyball team lost for the first time in Pac-12 play, falling at home to 25th-ranked Utah in four sets in front of 2,431 fans. The Utes (9-6, 1-3 Pac-12) came out red hot and put the Huskies (11-3, 3-1 Pac-12) on the defensive from the service line, getting the 25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 25-20 victory.

Washington looked like it was turning things around after taking the third set and then jumping out to a 7-3 lead in the fourth set, but out of a timeout the Utes scored six in a row and that turned into a 14-4 run that made the Huskies have to work from behind again.

Utah hit .284 for the match, compared to .236 for the Huskies. The Utes finished with one more ace, 7-6, and one more block, 11.0 to 10.0.

"It was a high level of serving from Utah," said Head Coach Keegan Cook. "They caught us in the first set, and they just kept that pressure the entire time. I thought we made some adjustments in the third and fourth to figure some things out, but they kept the service pressure on us and they didn't make a lot of errors either. They killed 19 balls in the first set and 16 in the second so they earned a lot of what they got, so I'm not surprised but certainly disappointed."

While Bajema was keeping the Huskies in it with her impressive match, no other Husky had more than nine kills, a symptom of Washington's passing struggles that gave limited options to setter Ella May Powell. Bajema hit .320 but no other Husky hitter was above .250 with the exception of freshman Shannon Crenshaw who had three kills on five swings. Samantha Drechsel had nine kills and Destiny Julye added eight with a team-high seven blocks. Shayne McPherson's 14 digs led the back row.

"Kara did a really nice job out of system. We had to set the ball high when they were keeping us off the net. Most of that lack of balance was from serve-receive, and when you have limited options you end up leaning on your left side too much. Kara carried a heavy load for long periods of time, and we certainly needed more from the rest of our offense.

UP NEXT: The Huskies will have a very tough road stretch ahead now traveling to Arizona on Oct. 5 then visiting Arizona State on Oct. 7. Both Arizona schools went 2-0 at the Oregon schools this week.

SET 1: After her career-high 11 kills on Friday, Marin Grote started things off with the first two kills for the Huskies in the first set. Kara Bajema's first put-away from the left made it 3-3. A transition kill by Samantha Drechsel and then the first block for the Dawgs by Julye and Niece put the Huskies up 7-6. The teams continued trading sideouts and hitting at a high level, with a Utah kill giving them a two-point lead at 9-11. Utah continued to hit in rhythm and opened up a 15-11 lead at the media timeout, as the Utes were hitting .500 at that point. Drechsel had a swing dug over and she jumped back up and tapped it down for 12-15, but Utah scored on the next two points for 12-17 and the Huskies called timeout. Avie Niece tipped for a kill out of the break but the Huskies then missed serve. Utah broke it wide open with two more kills and a block for 13-21. The Huskies crept a little closer with a block by Grote and Julye and an ace from Julye that cut it to 18-23 and Utah called timeout. Julye nailed a second-straight ace out of the timeout to get within four, but Utah converted in serve-receive on the next point to get to set point at 19-24. Bajema saved one on a kill and then the Utes hit long and Drechsel saved another by wiping off the block for 22-24. But after a Utah challenge that was not upheld, the Utes sided out on their next swing to end it, 22-25. Despite cooling off a bit late, the Utes still hit .400 for the opening set while the Huskies hit .256. The Utes out-dug the Huskies, 17-11, in the set.

SET 2: Bajema posted the first two kills of the second set for the Dawgs, but an early ace for the Utes and more hot hitting built them a 2-5 lead. The Huskies trailed by five when Shannon Crenshaw notched her first kill and then Niece had a solo block to make it 5-8. Another kill by Crenshaw and a solo block for Julye made it 7-9 Utes. A McPherson serve was overpassed and Grote hammered it down for 9-10. At 10-11, the Huskies gave up three points back to Utah and had to take timeout back down four at 10-14. The run continued as UW lost all the ground it had made up, falling behind 10-17 before Bajema finished to snap the 6-0 Utah run. UW tried to rally again with a Drechsel kill after a diving dig from Bajema, and then a stuff by Powell for 13-17 and a Utah timeout. Washington's momentum was lost quickly again on a couple Utah aces as it was back to a seven-point deficit at 14-21. The Huskies tried to make one big run, but kept missing serves to help Utah along. From 15-22, the Huskies outscored Utah, 5-2, but both Utah points were on Husky service errors. Utah got its first kill in nine points to end the set, 25-21. The Huskies hit .419 in the set but somehow still fell, as Utah was still hot at .355 and served three aces without an error while the Huskies missed three serves with no aces. Bajema had five kills in the set to lead the offense.

SET 3: Bajema ripped one for an early 2-1 lead. She finished another set from Powell and then Powell tapped down an overpass for a 6-6 tie. Utah scored three straight for a 6-9 edge before missing serve. Down 8-12, Julye put one offspeed that dropped and then Bajema found a sharp angle from the left for 10-12. Drechsel then dropped in a short serve for an ace and Utah hit into the net for 12-12 and the Utes called timeout with the Huskies on a 4-0 run. Out of the break, Niece and Bajema stuffed one and then Bajema ended two-straight long rallies to make it 15-12 before the Utes finally ended Drechsel's outstanding service run. All told it was a 7-0 Husky surge. Grote and Julye had a huge stuff after the Dawgs had freeballed over, making it 18-15. Utah rallied with three straight to tie it back up at 18, but Bajema tipped one to open space for 19-18. The Utes had a block and then the Huskies hit long to fall back down 19-20 and called their first timeout. Utah had a swing on the next rally but hit long for 20-all. Maria Bogomolova hit a bullet of a serve and Bajema had a nice dig that led to a Drechsel kill for 21-20. Bogomolova then drilled another that dropped for an ace and a 22-20 lead that forced Utah's last timeout. A Utah attack error got the Dawgs to set point, and then a roof put up by Julye and Niece ended it, 25-21. The Huskies got six kills on 13 swings without an error from Bajema to lead the way in the set.
SET 4: A couple early Husky stuffs and a tough crosscourt swing by Julye from the right helped the Dawgs out to the 4-3 lead. Julye dropped in an ace for 6-3 Dawgs. Bajema rocketed one up the line off a Ute defender for 7-3 to force the Utah timeout. Washington's lead was erased immediately as Utah came out of the timeout with a 6-0 run without a single kill. The Huskies missed serve, hit into the net, got blocked twice and aced twice and were suddenly down 7-9 and needed their own timeout. After McPherson kept the rally going with a dig, Bajema got the much-needed kill out of the timeout for 8-9. The gap grew to four at 9-13 before Powell dumped one for a kill and followed that with an ace to cut the gap in half. But UW then served long and got blocked on the next point for 11-15 and called their final timeout. Utah scored twice more out of the timeout to put the Huskies in dire straits down 11-17. Bajema bounced two in a row from the left to trim it to 15-19. Crenshaw tooled the block to make it 17-21 but then the Huskies made a couple errors, overpassing to give Utah an easy kill and hitting into the net to give the Utes seven match points at 17-24. Bajema and Niece saved the first two with kills and then Drechsel got a kill off a Utah block error and Utah called time at 20-24. Utah got a kill in serve-receive out of the timeout to end it, 20-25. The Huskies hit just .116 in the fourth set while Utah hit .212. Bajema put down seven more kills but Drechsel was the only other player with more than one kill in the set, and she had just two.