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Show The Utes will try to stay unbeaten at home when they welcome Oregon and Oregon State to Ute Field this weekend. Utah (4-1-5) is coming off a conference opening draw with BY RYAN MILLER/STAFF WRITER r.miller@chronicle.utah.edu No.18 Megan Trabert, No. 11 California and hope to keep the momentum they gained from that performance. "We are real excited about how well we are performing," says head coach Rich Manning. "We're looking forward to another opportunity to get some good results:' The Ducks come into Friday's game with a 2-4-3 overall record. They opened conference play last week in a scoreless draw with Washington State. Oregon's outlook for success in Utah is bleak, given their recent past. The Ducks went winless in five conference road games last season and have not played a road game yet this year. The Utes are unbeaten at home with a record of 3-0-3. "We want to take advantage of being at home and the altitude we have here" Manning says. "We expect in the second halves of those games that we can take advantage of that" Though Oregon has only posted two victories this year, their defense has kept them in all of their games. They have yet to concede more than two goals in any game this season. Manning is not overlooking their strong defense. "Oregon has fantastic team speed, maybe the best in the conference," Manning says. "It's going to be hard to get behind them, so the other options are to go around them or combine and go through them:" Utah will look to get wide and cross it into the box to try and beat Oregon's speed. Coaches have emphasized set pieces this week in practice, and the Utes will need good execution on those to beat the Ducks defense. On Sunday the Utes will play host to the Beavers. Oregon State comes into the weekend with a 2-6-2 record. They are 0-0-1 in conference play after a draw with Washington. The Utes are being careful not to overlook either team, however. "We are prepared really well for each team," says defender Megan Trabert. "So hopefully we will play as good as we did Friday:' Trabert says last weekend's draw boosted the Utes' confidence, and they are heading into the weekend expecting victories. The Utes are halfway through their season and looking to conserve energy. They will do so by using more substitutions and shorter shifts CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 PHOTO BY CHAD ZAVALA The Utes have a busy weekend on their hands. Coming off its first conference loss of the season, Utah will try to bounce back, but the task won't be easy. The Utes will play host over the weekend, bringing in the Washington State Cougars (14-1, 1-1) tonight and the No. 1 Washington Huskies (10-0, 2-0) on Saturday. "I'm kind of excited about having a normal Friday to Saturday night weekend" says Utah head coach Beth Launiere. "We haven't had that kind of 'gear up for the weekend' yet." In addition to hosting the two teams from the Evergreen State, the Utes will be displaying the U campus to recruits who have verbally committed to play for Utah. The group was at last night's football game against UCLA and will watch tonight's match against Washington State. Although Launiere can't say much about the recruits until they officially sign, she stressed that current players are essential in recruiting on weekends like this one. "You have to train players to be good recruiters," she says. "Especially our freshmen who are hosts:' As far as the actual action on the court is concerned, the main challenge for the Utes tonight will be keeping themselves from looking past the Cougars to the top-ranked Huskies. "For me, I just take it day by day,' says senior outside hitter Morgan Odale. "I like taking things one at a time and try to do the best thing that I can based on the situation I am in" Though the marquee matchup of the weekend will be Saturday's match against Washington, Utah will certainly need to be prepared for Washington State. The Cougars are led by freshman outside hitter Kyra Holt, who has 218 kills on the year with a .302 hitting percentage. Senior middle hitter Marcelina Glab leads Washington State in blocks with 56 but is also a scoring threat with 99 kills. "They like to do a lot of tips and roll shots in their game" Odale says. "So we did a lot of practice [this week] with rolling and shooting and tipping:' Even though the Utes aren't looking past Friday's match, the Saturday match with Washington looms large. The Huskies are first in the nation when it comes to aces per set and are third in hitting percentage with a .337 clip. Junior outside hitter and AllAmerican Krista Vansant has 129 kills to her name with a .394 hitting percentage. The Huskies aren't big, but their efficiency makes them a formidable opponent. m 111111M16- OUNCIr BY BRANDON BARLOW/STAFF WRITER b.barlow@chronicle.utah.edu No. 6 Morgan Odale PHOTO BY BRENT UBERTY |