The challenge of weekends like this one — with two Top 25 opponents coming into Utah’s house — just adds fuel to the fire of Utes women’s volleyball coach Beth Launiere, and sophomore libero Brianna Doehrmann clearly falls into that same category.
Doehrmann, a 5-foot-7 ball of relentless defensive effort who grew up watching UCLA’s volleyball team, notched a career-high 30 digs in a four-set win for the 12th-ranked Utes over No. 13 UCLA (25-20, 22-25, 25-21 and 25-19) in a Pac-12 Conference clash in the Jon M. Hunstman Center on Friday night.
The Utes (17-3, 8-1) will host No. 19 USC on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Huntsman Center.
“UCLA, they’re an amazing defensive team, and coach said the only way we’re going to beat them is if we’re better at defense than them,” Doehrmann said. “This whole week we’ve been preparing for it, and it just feels good to leave it out on the court. Everyone did amazing defensively.”
Doehrmann, a defensive specialist, said she took Launiere’s edict as a personal challenge, and it showed several times in the way she chased balls into the outskirts of the playing area and nearly ended up in the stands to keep balls alive.
The Utes came into the weekend second in the Pac-12 standings behind Stanford and having gone 7-1 in conference play and having won five consecutive matches, the program’s longest conference match winning streak since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
Freshman outside hitter Kenzie Koerber recorded a season-high 12 kills to go along with 3 blocks and 14 digs, while senior outside hitters Adorae Anae (17 kills, three blocks) and Carly Trueman (11 kills, two blocks) and junior middle blocker Berkely Oblad (14 kills, three blocks) provided their usual steady. Senior middle blocker Tawnee Luafaleman added a team-high five blocks.
Koerber made her presence felt early. She led the way with five kills in the first set. The 6-foot-3 newcomer from Chino Hills, Calif., came into the match having played in 61 of 73 sets this season, but she’d registered just 50 kills (0.82 per set). Freshman hitter Dani Barton added five kills on just seven attempts.
“This is the time when it’s getting fun now because I know the coaches, you know,” Launiere said. “I was pretty sure they’d give a lot of attention to our left side, so we felt like our right sides could have a big night, and they came through. … This was a lot about a matchup and they [Koerber and Barton] stepped up.”
The match served as a “Pink Out” night for the Utes, who wore pink uniforms in honor of breast cancer awareness. Local breast cancer survivors were also recognized on the court prior to the start of the match.