ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Utah Valley dropped a pair of matches as they concluded play at the Kristen Dickmann Invitational at the United States Naval Academy. The Wolverines (1-5) fell behind to Old Dominion 2-0 before coming back to force a fifth set. In their second match, Maryland got the better of the Wolverines. Freshman
Evalyn Chism had her second double-double of the season with 26 assists and 12 digs against the Monarchs.
Avery Shewell had 16 kills in both matches for Utah Valley.
Old Dominion 3, Utah Valley 2
The Wolverines trailed 2-0 before mounting a comeback in third and fourth sets. Utah Valley built a 9-5 lead in the third set after an ace from
Abbie Medeiros, the 94
th of her career. After a short Monarch run, the Wolverines extended their lead to 15-9, following kills from
Hailey Cuff and
Tori Ellis. Chism added a service ace in the stretch, and later, UVU would win the set behind four kills from Ellis and three kills from
Vittoria Price, who also added three block assists in the set.
Utah Valley went on a 7-2 run to open the fourth set and was led by six Shewell kills in the fourth set, including the two set winners as ODU chipped their way to tie the match multiple times, but UVU would not give up the lead and force a fifth set.
A fast start by Old Dominion led them to an 8-3 lead at the media timeout, and the deficit was too much for the Wolverines to come back from in the fifth set.
Charity Wilson made her UVU debut in the match for the Wolverines
Match two - Maryland 3, Utah Valley 1
The Wolverines took the opening set from Maryland by outhitting them .310 to .121 as the Wolverines used a steady attack led by Shewell (four kills), Cuff, and Ellis with three each. A pair of kills from Shewell combined with two attack errors gave UVU a 17-12 lead and forced a Maryland timeout. The lead grew to seven after an attack error and a Cuff kill. The deficit proved too much for the Terrapins.
The Terrapin slow start did not last much longer, as the scripts were flipped on hitting percentage in the second set and used a 4-0 run to pull away from UVU and took a 15-11 lead into the media timeout. The Wolverines, however, with Cuff serving, found their own run a 4-0 and got within one at 16-15. Sam Csire held six consecutive serves as Maryland was able to even the match at one.
After the third set, and now a 2-1 Maryland lead, no one led by more than two points in the fourth set. The see-saw battle was led by six Shewell kills and five from Laila Ivey as the set came down the final two points, which went to Maryland on a kill by Ivey and a service ace from Csire.
In the match, Medeiros recorded her 95 career ace to pass Sierra Starley for eighth all-time, and
Kendra Nock moved up to 11
th all-time with her 19
th career solo block.
Utah Valley will head north next week for the Bengal Invitational hosted by Idaho State. They will meet ISU on Thursday, Sept. 8, at 6:00 p.m. MT before wrapping up the tournament on Friday, Sept. 9, at 5:00 p.m. MT against Gonzaga.