Utah Volleyball Heads To Purdue To Continue Non-Conference Play

MATCH WEEK
Utah Volleyball will hit the road for the first time this season, traveling to West Lafayette, Ind., to compete in Purdue’s home tournament. Utah will open the tournament with a neutral site match against Milwaukee on Friday, Sept. 2, at 10 a.m. MT. Later that day, Utah will face No. 11-ranked Purdue at 4:30 p.m. MT. The match between the Utes and Boilermakers will be televised on the Big Ten Network. To close out the weekend, Utah will play Bradley on Saturday, Sept. 3, at 10 a.m. MT in Holloway Gymnasium.
 
QUICK HITS
• Dating back to the 2019 season and running through this past weekend, Utah Volleyball was ranked in the AVCA Coaches Poll for 45 consecutive weeks, which tied a school-record for most consecutive weeks ranked set during the 2000-02 seasons.
• Utah saw action from 14 different Utes in the opening weekend of play.
• Utah returns eight letterwinners from last year’s squad, highlighted by AVCA Pacific South All-Region selection Madelyn Robinson, and welcomes eight newcomers.
• Utah is coming off its sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 18th overall.
• The Utes finished third in the Pac-12 Conference for the third year in row, collecting a program-record tying 14 Pac-12 wins in 2021.
• Utah will play against 10 tournament teams from last year, including five Sweet 16 squads.
 
ROBINSON RUNNING IT BACK
Heading into her final season of college after taking advantage of a fifth year, Madelyn Robinson stepped right back into her leadership role this past weekend and led the Utes in kills every match. Robinson recorded double-digit kills all three matches and averaged 3.90 kills per set over the weekend. The AVCA All-Region and All-Pac-12 selection from a year ago also posted the second-most aces on the team in the opening weekend of play. Robinson ranked fifth among Pac-12 players in kills per set to start the year and was named a Preseason All-Pac-12 honoree prior to the 2022 campaign.
 
STARTING SETTER –> SMITH
Senior setter Emily Smith earned the starting setting spot for the Utes in the season opening weekend. Smith led the Utes to a .407 hitting percentage in the opener against Loyola Marymount as she matched a career-best 35 assists and saw three different pin hitters collect double-digit kills. Smith then went on to record a career-high 40…