USU volleyball surprised, frustrated with snub from NCAA Tourney selection committee
The Utah State women’s volleyball team does not want to be in the same position next year as it is this year.
The Aggies, who finished the season tied for fifth place in the Big West Conference with Idaho, did not earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the seventh-placed Pacific Tigers are still playing volleyball.
Six of the top seven teams in the BWC were invited to the tournament.
“We don’t hold anything against UOP, we just don’t understand how we were leapfrogged,” said USU Head Coach Burt Fuller. “We don’t have control over those situations, [though]. It’s frustrating because you never know how the decisions are being made and on what criteria.”
Fuller said he thinks if the Aggies were able to pull out a win at Riverside Nov. 14, instead of their 3-2 loss, and if they were able to finish off BYU, instead of a 3-2 loss, they would have had a better shot at making the
tournament.
But being skipped still hurts, and Utah State did the daunting task of cleaning out its lockers Monday in the Spectrum after a team meeting.
The meeting, however, was productive and the Aggies discussed what they improved on from the previous season and what they need to work on for next year.
“I thought that we as a program made the right choices and brought in some new kids who were pretty good,” Fuller said. “We’ve put people in place here to help this program develop.”
Especially with the additions of freshmen Beth Hodge and Mari Ruddick, both of whom were named to the Big West all-freshman team.
Fuller said he thinks Hodge and Ruddick are only going to get better, and he is excited to have redshirt outside hitter Carolyn Forbush on the floor next season as a freshman.
With only two seniors on the team this season, Erin Cartwright and Taubi Neves, Fuller is looking forward to working with his largest group during his time at Utah State during spring play.
“Everybody has contributed,” he said. “[The spring] is when you can make some of your big strides.”
And the team is going to specifically work on digging and serving.
Although the Aggies led the conference in kills per game (17.09) and got better from last season at holding opponents (14.5), they were near the bottom in digs (15.8) and last in the league in service aces (1.06).
Cartwright, who recorded 4.45 kills per game, has left big shoes to fill. The two-time, first-team, all-conference player is one of the shortest middle blockers in the league at 6 feet tall.
When teams loaded up on Cartwright, the Aggies had scorers on the outside, and when the outside couldn’t score, Cartwright was able to hammer the ball down.
“She is a neat kid,” Fuller said. “We are going to miss her. Unfortunately, there is always turnover in college athletics. We are very fortunate to have had her here with us.”
Fuller said there are players on the team who will look to earn Cartwright’s position, as well as a few new women coming in.
Neves, who recorded 3.29 digs per game, stepped into the role of libero for USU and has improved in her passing throughout the season.
“Taubi is one of the most genuine, nice kids you are ever going to come across in your life,” Fuller said. “I wish we had another year with her. That’s the nature of the game, though. These kids come and go and then we try and replace them.”
The same somewhat applies to international players who come to USU. Fuller said it is hard to tell if they are 100 percent happy in the United States and if they plan on coming back the following season.
The Aggies had four players who hailed from outside the U.S. – opposite side hitter Zuzana Cernianska (Prague, Czech Republic), setter Dominique Aresenault (Quebec City, Quebec), outside hitter Marijana Krodic (Rijeka, Croatia) and middle blocker Ana Mirkovic (Rijeka, Croatia).
“The fact that we’ve been able to sign some international players is both good and a little bad,” Fuller said. “They are all good players and it adds a bit of extra spice on our team, but you’re never sure how they are going to adapt into the program, the school, the area and the United States.”
Cernianska said having Krodic and Mirkovic on the team has been nice because they all speak a similar language.
For now, Fuller isn’t sure what kind of experience the international players had this season, but he will find out during individual meetings throughout this week.
“We hope we don’t have a lot of turnover so we can continue to improve and we’re not teaching things [to new people] again.”
-juag@cc.usu.edu