Utes Advance to Championship Saturday

Utah to take on winner of CSU-SDSU semifinal match.

Shelly Sommerfeldt led Utah with 18 kills on 26 attempts.
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Nov. 21, 2003

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SAN DIEGO ­ Two-time defending tournament champion Utah made it seven straight MWC Tournament victories with a sweep of No. 3 seed BYU (30-22, 30-23, 30-24) today at the MWC Championship in San Diego. With the win, Utah reached the 20-win mark for the eighth straight season and will advance to the MWC Championship finals for the third straight year. BYU slipped to 21-8 on the year.

Utah hit for .252 on the match and held the Cougars to .122. BYU out-blocked the Utes 8-6, but Utah more than doubled the Cougars in kills (56-25).

Sophomore Shelly Sommerfeldt led Utah with 18 kills on 26 attempts with just two errors for a season-high .615 hitting percentage. Senior All-America candidate Kim Turner finished with 16 kills, four digs, three blocks and three service aces. Turner now needs just 17 more kills to become the all-time career kills leader at Utah. Setters Kelsie Kartchner and Tracy Neumeier finished with 28 and 26 assists, respectively.

MWC Freshman of the Year Lindsy Hartsock led BYU with a .500 hitting efficiency (6-1-10) and four blocks, while Kim Wilson added eight kills. Utah came out strong in game one, scoring the first three points and quickly jumping out to a five-point lead (8-3). The Cougars used a 3-0 run to cut the Ute lead to two (12-10), but Utah was able to build it back to six on a Sommerfeldt ace, making it 18-12. The Utes went on to win it 30-22. Turner had seven kills on the game to lead Utah.

After the Cougars took a 2-0 lead in game two, Utah went on a 7-1 run to make it 7-3. BYU immediately went on a run of its own, outscoring Utah 7-2 to take back the lead, 10-9. After three ties, the Utes began to pull away, leading by as many as eight, 27-19. The Cougars threatened again with a 4-0 run before the Utes scored the final three points for the 30-23 win. Game three started out close, with nine ties early on before Utah pulled away for a 30-24 victory. Utah hit for .213 in game three and held the Cougars to .065.

UP NEXT:

Utah advances to the finals of the tournament at 7 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, Nov. 22, where it will face the winner of Colorado State vs. San Diego State. The championship match will air live on Fox Sports Net (RM).