After a competitive back-and-forth battle of a first set, the No. 16 University of Utah volleyball team (11-2, 2-0 Pac-12) earned the win after Adora Anae scored the match point to secure a 25-19 victory en route to a sweep over California (9-4, 0-2).

“What I’m most happy with is the things we worked on this week, we got better at. Of course it’s great to be 2-0, but we just have to keep getting better,” said head coach Beth Launiere. “We have to keep layering on top of the things we’re getting better at. We just have to keep layering and layering.”

The Bears came within one point of tying the score at 14 a piece, but kills by Dani Barton and Berkeley Oblad set the tone for the remainder of the match. Utah only had one block in the first set, but as a team, they totaled 17 kills while combining for a hitting percentage of .371.

Set two got off on the same foot as set one, but the Utes started to pull away earlier when they took a 14-10 lead. The Bears clawed back and got within one point again, but a kill from Carly Trueman sealed the deal for a Utah win, 25-21.

The third set for the Utes was a dominate one as they took a 25-12 triumph. Launiere challenged her players to shut the Bears down in the third set, which is exactly what they did. The Utes held the Bears to a -.037 percentage shooting.

“We came into the locker room after the second set, and we hadn’t held them throughout the whole match to under two but had like .300,” Anae said. “They were hitting the same, so we needed to make a defensive mindset switch, so we just got more blocks and more defensive stops.”

The Utes were up 8-6 before a kill by Trueman sparked a 7-2 run for the Utes. Utah then closed out the match going on a 7-0 run to clinch the sweep.

Defensive stops played an important role in the match results. One player in particular, Kenzie Koerber, had a solid defensive game for the Utes, finished the match with three blocks.

“That’s her number one job in there is to go in and be a defensive stopper for us on the right side,” Launiere said. “Her getting blocks for us is huge.”

Anae finished with 14 kills, 8 digs and a .545 hitting percentage. Oblad led the way with three aces and four blocks. Bailey Choy also had 24 assists, while Camryn Machado had 13 assists that afternoon.

Utah will continue conference action at home as it prepares to play No. 8 ranked Oregon on Friday, Sept. 29 night at 6 p.m. MT before facing Oregon State the following night at 8 p.m. MT.

c.mcmanamon@dailyutahchronicle.com

@curramac22

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