The Pac-12 gauntlet begins this weekend at home for the nationally-ranked Utah volleyball team.
The 16th-ranked Utah (9-2) begins its Pac-12 slate against No. 25 Colorado (10-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Jon M. Hunstman Center, then host California at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Utah has won eight of its past nine matches, with the lone loss in five games to rival BYU. Utah and Colorado are two of seven Pac-12 teams ranked nationally along with No. 4 Stanford, No. 7 Washington, No. 8 Oregon, No. 11 UCLA and No. 21 USC.
“What is it going to take to get up into maybe that top third of the conference versus that middle third? Boy, it’s a fine line,” Utes coach Beth Launiere said. “I’m not going to lie. We actually talked about this as a team. There’s just not one bad team in this conference, so I think we have to get better. We dropped a couple matches against teams we have to beat in the Pac-12, those type of teams.”
The Utes rank among the nation’s top 10 teams in assists (seventh, 13.8 per set) and hitting percentage (eighth, .302). Three Utes have averaged at least 1.00 blocks per set. Senior middle blocker Tawnee Luafalemana leads the team with 1.29 blocks per set, while junior Berkeley Oblad (1.07 blocks) and freshman Dani Barton (1.03) aren’t far behind.
Utah might play this weekend without senior outside hitter Adora Anae, an American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America selection last season. Anae injured her ankle against BYU and did not play in last weekend’s match against Utah Valley. Her availability likely won’t be determined until Friday.
Senior middle blocker Tawnee Luafalemana, who logged a career-high 18 kills against UVU, said the Utes’ main focus this season has been to create a “championship mentality.”
“It’s just everybody wanting to win, wanting to push that much more — because we know we can do it, and we know we’re ranked for a reason — and to believe in each other,” Luafalemana said. “I feel like the group we have now, especially with our freshmen [who] are amazing, we have such a deep bench now. Because we know that, I feel like we’re way more confident now.”