(St. George, Utah – Oct. 2, 2023) - The Utah Tech volleyball team earned its first WAC victory of the season on Monday night sweeping Southern Utah at Burns Arena.

The Trailblazers (5-9/1-3 WAC), who snapped a four-match losing skid, topped Southern Utah (4-10/0-4 WAC) in sets, 25-15, 25-21, 25-21.

Utah Tech was led by a career-high 19 kills and a .469 hitting percentage from sophomore Kennedi Knudsen while senior Emma Ricks had a team-leading 14 digs and freshman Sydney Reese had a season-best three solo blocks.

The opening set saw the Blazers get out to a 14-9 lead and extended it to eight at 19-11 after a kill by Hannah Howard. With SUU cutting the Trailblazers' lead down to six, 20-14, Utah Tech closed out the set scoring five of the final six points in the set capped by a kill from Knudsen.

Continuing a strong start in the second set, the Blazers jumped out to a 10-4 lead and used a 7-0 run to push their lead to 17-9 after a service ace from Taela Laufiso. A 10-4 run for Southern Utah cut the Trailblazers lead down to two at 21-19, but Utah Tech fended out the late rally from the Thunderbirds notching four of the final six points of the set closing out with a solo block from Kate Hardy.

An even opening to the third set saw an 11-11 tie before a 3-0 run for SUU gave the Thunderbirds a 14-11 lead. An 8-1 run for the Blazers got Utah Tech back in the lead at 19-15 with a solo block from Knudsen, but the Thunderbirds quickly responded with a 6-2 run to knot the set at 21. It was all Trailblazers from there scoring the final four points of the match getting a service ace from Taela Laufiso to complete their second sweep of the season.

The Trailblazers held an advantage over the Thunderbirds in kills (37-31), service aces (10-5), blocks (7-6), assists (34-27) and digs (43-35).

Utah Tech heads out on the road this week traveling to Tarleton State (11-7/2-2 WAC) on Thursday and Abilene Christian (7-9/2-2 WAC) on Saturday.