Utes Head To Los Angeles, Play At USC and UCLA

MATCH WEEK
Utah Volleyball heads to Los Angeles for a pair of Pac-12 matches, facing USC and UCLA this weekend. Utah opens the weekend against USC on Friday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m. MT. The Utes and Trojans will play on Pac-12 Mountain at the Galen Center. Then, the Utes head across town to Pauley Pavilion on Sunday, Oct. 1, to take on UCLA. The match will be live streamed at 1 p.m. MT.
 
QUICK HITS
• Vanessa Ramirez is ranked second in the Pac-12 with 3.91 digs per set.
• Utah has won three of the last four matches against USC in the Galen Center.
• Utah won last year’s road match against UCLA and have won three of the last five road matches.
• The Utes are 6-1 when leading the match or tied in blocks.
• Seven Utes have recorded at least one match of double-digit digs this season, while six Utes have had at least one match with double-digit kills.

RAMIREZ RUNNING THE BACK ROW

Starting libero Vanessa Ramirez is leading the Utah defense once again as she has done sinceday one in Salt Lake City. She is second in the Pac-12 with 3.91 digs per set and has recorded double-digit digs in all but one match this season. The Pasadena, Calif., native recorded a season high 24 digs in just four sets against Weber State for her second match of 20-plus digs this season. Ramirez tallied 22 digs against NC State earlier this year and has 11 matches of 20 or more digs in her career. After this past weekend, she has now tallied 72 matches with double-digit digs as Utah’s starting libero. Last year, Ramirez led the team in digs 27 of the 31 matches, while she finished third in the Pac-12 with 4.04 digs per set. She has led the team or tied for the lead in digs in all but one match this season so far.

AUTOMATIC ALLIE

Starting middle blocker Allie Olsen is coming off a season where she recorded a .363 hitting percentage, which ranked as the sixth-best percentage in a single season in program history. Olsen is off to a hot start for her senior season as she has hit above .500 in more than half of the matches so far.  At the Utah Classic, she earned All-Tournament Team honors after hitting at a blazing .419 clip through three matches. Olsen recorded a season-high .692 hitting percentage against Tennessee State from nine kills and no errors, while hitting .538 against San Francisco. Earlier in the week, Olsen recorded…