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Boulder, Colo. • Senior Chelsey Schofield-Olsen registered a season-high 17 kills and freshman Adora Anae added a career-high 14 kills, but it wasn't enough as Utah (10-2, 0-1 Pac-12) fell in five sets to Colorado (9-4, 1-0 Pac-12) Thursday night at Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo.
Utah fell behind 0-2 after dropping the first two sets, 14-25 and 16-25, but a more experienced line-up helped propel the Utes to a 2-2 tie with wins of 27-25 and 25-22 to force a fifth and decisive set.
In a set that had seven ties and five different lead changes, Utah managed to climb back and tie the set 12-12, but back-to-back kills from Katelyn Cuff and a service ace from Stephanie Shadley helped lead CU to the 15-12 win and take the match 3-2.
The Utes, who did not string together more than two straight points until late in the third set, hit just .094 in set one and followed with a percentage of .148. Head coach Beth Launiere mixed up the line-up though, placing senior Makenzie Moea'i into the starting rotation and the Utes came back to hit .325 in set three.
Utah finished the night hitting .244 overall after hitting .316 in both the fourth and fifth sets. CU tallied a .333 hitting percentage on the night and was led by Taylor Simpson's double-double of 23 kills and 11 digs. Cierra Simpson, Taylor's sister, added a match-high 44 digs and Nicole Edelman recorded 34 assists.
Senior Bailey Bateman added 10 kills and a team-high seven total blocks for the Utes and Moea'i tallied five kills in the final three sets. Senior Kalee Kirby collected a team-high 23 assists and junior Kendall Cygan recorded 23 assists on the evening as well. Five different Utah players had a team-high eight digs in the match.
Utah out-blocked the Buffs 13.5 to 9.0, but CU collected more kills (76-59), assists (70-58) and digs (61-50) throughout the five sets.
The Utes and Buffs will meet again, but not until the final regular-season match, which is set for Nov. 28 at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
The Utes return to action this Saturday as the team wraps up a seven-match road swing against Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore. First serve is set for 7 p.m. (MT).