Beavs Battle Utes in Five-Set Heartbreaker

Sunday, November 5

Corvallis, OR

12:00 PM

Oregon State

9-15,4-10Pac-12

Utah

10-14,5-9Pac-12

Utah

Oregon St.

November 05, 2023 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Athletic Communications

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Despite battling back to force a decisive fifth set in Sunday's contest, the Oregon State volleyball team fell to Utah by a 3-2 score.

Peyton Suess and Mychael Vernon led the offense with a combined 41 kills (21 for Suess and 20 for Vernon) while Amanda Burns contributed with 24 assists and Ryan White paced the defense with 24 digs. Vernon complemented her 20 kills with 15 digs for her fourth consecutive double-double and Burns tallied 12 digs to go alongside her 24 helpers for a double-double.

Suess' 21 kills marked a season-best for the graduate student.

After both teams had errors and split the first six points to start set one, Oregon State (9-15, 4-10 Pac-12) took control with a 4-0 run. Suess kicked off her season-best in kills with seven in the first set, including a pair of timely ones to stretch the lead when Utah looked to go on a run themselves and even the set-clinching one to lock up the five-point win. Burns aided the OSU offense with seven assists in the frame while Vernon used five digs to help hold the Utes to a .209 attack rate.

Three 3-0 runs from the visitors helped push them ahead to get them even with the Beavers for their 25-19 set win. Closing a Utah advantage to five at 20-15, Oregon State used three consecutive points of their own to bring it to 20-18 but it was met with the Utes with five of the next six to win it. Oregon State's defense couldn't find an answer for the Utah offense as they allowed a .475 clip by the Utes, and hit just at .222. Suess added four kills to her tally while Schuster logged five assists.

Utah took control late in the third set to push the Beavers on the edge with a 4-2 run to win it at 25-23. The Utes took advantage of a Megan Sheridan error to push their lead from 24-22 to set point at 24 and completed it at 25-23 with an Amelia Van Der Werff kill. Oregon State held a 19-16 lead before the Utes used another 3-0 run to even things. The Beavers were held to a .000 clip as they committed nine errors. Keeping the Beavers in the set from a defensive effort, White's six digs were a set-best.

14 kills - split evenly – from Suess and Vernon helped pushed the Beavers for the set win and a third-consecutive five set match with a 25-14 win in the fourth. Never trailing in the frame, OSU used a 5-1 run at 9-8 for separation on the way to the 11-point win which featured kills from Sheridan, Suess and Vernon. In the late stages of the set, Oregon State saw their smallest lead be seven on three instances. The Beavers got an impressive 18 kills on a .471 clip and held Utah to a .211 attacking percentage. White led the defense with seven digs.

In the decisive fifth set, Utah pushed with one final run – at 4-0 – to secure the comeback win over Oregon State. Following a timeout with the Beavs leading by a 13-11 line, Utah stunned the Beavers with a pair of Lauren Jardine kills, a block and took advantage of a Sheridan attack error to win 15-11.

Sunday marked the fourth instance of a five-set match in the last five for Oregon State. Utah outblocked the Beavers by a 13-to-2 line and committed six fewer attack errors.

The Beavers will head south to the Bay Area for their next two matches, starting a stretch of four on the road. On Thursday, OSU will meet California for a 7 p.m. match. Action against the Golden Bears is set to be seen on Pac-12 Networks Bay Area.

OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS)