Drews 31 Kills Pushes No. 8 Volleyball Past Arizona State in Five
TEMPE, Ariz. – With their backs against the wall, the No. 8 Utah volleyball team rallied to win the fourth and fifth set to clinch their fifth win in a row to start the season against the Arizona State Sun Devils in Tempe, Arizona in Wells Fargo Arena.
With Utah trailing for the first time this season, they went on a big 8-1 run to take control of the fourth set with Dani Drews serving. Utah was leading 24-16 and Arizona State tried to gain some momentum back, but Drews got the set-clinching kill to force the fifth set.
The Utes carried that momentum over from the fourth set into the fifth and kept rolling. Zoe Weatherington had three kills early in the set to give Utah the lead and from there Drews took control. She had six kills in the final set helping Utah to seal the five-set win on the road.
With Utah's back against the wall, Drews refused to let the Utes lose as she led the way with 31 kills hitting .354 while also having 15 digs. This is the fourth 30-kill match in her career.
Utah had a great start to the match behind some great serving. They had six aces in the first set and used a 9-0 run behind Kenzie Koerber serving to build a huge lead. The Utes closed the opening set out 25-8 for the early lead.
After falling behind early, Arizona State hung around in sets two and three and clipped the Utes late in each set to eventually take a 2-1 lead pushing Utah to have their first comeback of the season.
The win is Utah's fifth in a row and third in a row on the road.
Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres also had a good match posting 51 assists, 15 digs and five kills.
Weatherington was the other Ute to have double-figure kills with 12. Phoebe Grace was a spark on offense as well with six kills hitting .556.
Koerber led the team with 19 digs and Vanessa Ramirez was right behind her with 16.
Utah will stay in Tempe, Arizona and take on Arizona State one more time this weekend on Sunday, February 7 at 1 p.m. on Pac-12 Network.