Utah volleyball: Team hit with painful loss vs. Nebraska

Lincoln, Neb. • An injury, several statistical oddities and one painful loss.

Nebraska ended Utah's season Saturday with a 25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 17-25 and 15-11 win in the second round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

Utah (20-13) won more points (106-105), had more kills (69-61) and blocks (12-8) and a much higher hitting percentage (.298-.201), but came up short.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense," Nebraska coach John Cook said.

Nebraska (22-9) dominated serving, with six aces and three service errors while Utah had two aces and 11 service errors.

"One area got us in a lot of trouble," Utah coach Beth Launiere said. "We won just about every statistical category, except the service line."

Five Utes had service errors, including Lea Adolph with four.

"It's unacceptable. It's not in our standard of volleyball," Utah's Adora Anae said.

Anae, a freshman, had a match-best 20 kills and hit .308. Shelby Dalton added 18 kills and hit .424.

Utah setter Kalee Kirby injured her back during a fall in the fourth set. She laid on the court for several minutes, and needed assistance back to the locker room. She eventually return midway through the fifth set from what Launiere said was muscle stiffness.

Kirby, who is used interchangeably with Kendall Cygan, returned with Utah trailing 6-3 in the fifth set.

"We were spending a lot of energy getting the (one-setter) offense set up," Launiere said explaining the deficit. "Maybe it got away from us."

Nebraska led the entire fifth set, winning on setter Mary Pollmiller's 10th kill.

Utah used a 4-1 run to tie Set 1 at 23, but Anae's service error followed by a kill from Pollmiller gave Nebraska the win.

In the second set, Nebraska used a 6-2 run to take a 20-16 lead, but Utah cut the deficit to 23-22. Tess Sutton, whom came into serve for Anae, served wide and then Nebraska's Annika Albrecht hit the back line with an ace to win the set.

Launiere said her team was mad at halftime and used that anger to fuel a comeback. Nebraska's 11-9 lead disappeared midway through the third set amid an 11-3 Utah run. Nebraska later scored three straight points to cut Utah's lead to 24-23, but Kadie Rolfzen's shot to tie went wide.

Kirby was injured with Utah leading 16-10 in the fourth set. The Utes, though, were not rattled and led by at least five the rest of the set. Adora had six kills in the set while Nebraska hit .030.

This was the 11th straight year Nebraska has hosted the first two round of the NCAA Tournament.