SALT LAKE CITY— Hahni Johnson and
Amanda Ollinger matched the Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball record for single-season wins and extended their winning streak to six as the Mavericks stopped a 5-match team slide while splitting a pair of tight 3-2 decisions on Friday afternoon here at the Utah Beach Classic.
The Mavericks, now 13-9 overall, avenged last Friday's 4-1 defeat to Concordia University Irvine with the 3-2 win in their first match before dropping their second to the host Utes.
Johnson and Ollinger won in both duals and improved to 24-2 on the year as they equaled Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer's year-old record for wins in a season after that partnership went 24-8 a year ago.
They posted a 21-14, 21-18 win at No. 1 over CUI's Kali Uhl and Kelissa Lemoine and then switched to the No. 2 spot in the dual with the Utes, defeating Rylee Johnson and Bella Vezzani by a comfortable 21-14, 21-10 margin.
Meanwhile,
Sabrina VanDeList and Spitzer also went 2-0 throughout the day at No. 5 while
Gracyn Spresser and
Barett Nolan delivered the match-winning point against the Eagles, claiming a 21-19, 21-16 win over Korah Nordin and True McCullough on Court 3 in the opener.
The Mavs came from 2-0 down in the team score against the Golden Eagles, who won the first two match-ups at No. 2 and No. 4 before Johnson and Ollinger's win put the Mavs on the scoreboard at the start of the second wave.
VanDeList and Spitzer then delivered a 21-13, 21-15 win over Makena Houston and Nicole Miller to level the team score at 2-2, setting up Spresser and Nolan for the victory.
Against Utah, the Mavericks trailed 1-0 and 3-1 before Johnson and Ollinger's victory.
The dual could have easily gone the other way as two of the Utes' victories at No. 1 and No. 3 came in three sets, by just seven combined points.
Ater the Utes picked up a straight set win at No. 4, VanDeList and Spitzer responded with a 21-19, 21-14 victory over Sonja Wessel and Gwen Fife before the Utes were able to clinch the team victory with their 15-12 and 15-11 third-set wins in the first and third flights, respectively.
The Mavericks will remain in the area for two more neutral-sand match-ups on Saturday. However, due to the threat of inclement weather, the location and times of those have changed and have been moved inside to the Sandbar. That is located at 680 S. Redwood Road in North Salt Lake (Zip Code 84054).
The Mavs will take on Texas A&M-Kingsville at 8 a.m. and then play CUI again at 10 a.m. in what will be the rubber match of their 3-match series over the past two weekends.
