Revenge sweet against Fresno
The USU women’s volleyball team lost a hard-fought five-set match against Fresno State when the teams first played in September. Before Saturday’s meeting between the two teams, the Aggies had one thought on their minds – revenge.
“You don’t even know,” said sophomore setter Chelsea Fowles. “You don’t even know.”
The Aggies had their revenge Saturday, beating Fresno State in another hard-fought five-set match (25-14, 18-25, 25-21, 22-25, 15-13). Senior outside hitter Kris Hymas led USU to victory while recording career-highs with 15 kills and 15 digs.
“It’s fun to win,” said USU head coach Grayson DuBose. “They played hard, we played hard. I thought it was a real nice match.”
The Aggies found themselves down 3-8 in the final set, facing another disappointing five-set loss to Fresno State. Three kills and a service ace from Hymas sparked USU to a 15-13 win, clinching the match.
DuBose said the team, despite missing a couple serves in the fifth set, was able to grind it out and improve as the set progressed.
“Our team feels comfortable playing the fifth game, so that was kind of fun,” he said. “We were able to get better as the match went on, particularly in the end.”
Senior outside hitter Melissa Osterloh had 18 kills and 13 digs for the Aggies, her third double-double of the season. Sophomore libero Christine Morril continued her solid defensive play for USU, recording 23 digs in the match.
DuBose said the team served well and was able to keep Fresno State out of system.
“We started off playing really well,” he said. “The whole team served real well. That was a real credit to our team.”
The Aggies hit .258 in the first set while limiting Fresno State to a negative .143 hitting percentage on their way to an 11-point victory.
Fresno State came back and won the second set by seven, hitting .364 in the set while limiting USU to a .207 hitting percentage.
The Aggies came back from a 1-5 deficit in the third set to win by four.
“In the third game, we were just able to battle,” said DuBose. “And then we kinda did the same in the fourth game, although they won the fourth.”
Fresno State never trailed in the fourth as the teams fought through the set. The Bulldogs hit just .085 while the Aggies hit .094. Fresno State pulled out a three-point victory, pushing the match into a fifth set.
“It’s nice to win in five and to be able to have some character and some heart,” DuBose said. “It was good.”
The Aggies bounced back to beat Fresno State after a respectable effort in Thursday’s loss to No. 9 Hawaii.
Hawaii 3, USU 0
Jamie Houston and Kanani Herring had 12 kills each to lead the nationally-ranked Rainbow Wahine to a three-set victory over the Aggies (25-18, 25-18, 25-18) Thursday at the Spectrum.
Despite the loss, the Aggies felt positive about the match.
“We played really hard as a team,” Fowles said. “We never gave up. I think we just fell a little bit short, but we never stopped working hard.”
DuBose echoed her sentiments, saying the team played hard, which is all you can ask them to do.
“We missed only three serves, and the first game-and-a-half is when we missed them, so I thought we served well and kept them out of system,” he said. “(The Wahine) just have some guns.”
Hawaii had six players hit .333 or above, and hit .337 overall while limiting USU to a .079 hitting percentage.
“That’s just a loaded outside hitting team,” DuBose said.
The score was within two points in the first set until Hawaii went on a 4-0 run to pull ahead for good. The Rainbow Wahine finished the set outscoring USU 11-4.
The second set was very similar to the first. With the score tied 10-10, Hawaii began to pull ahead, outscoring the Aggies 15-8 to finish the set and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
USU trailed through most of the third set. After being down 11-18, the Aggies went on a four-point run, but were never able to catch up. At 18-22, Hawaii scored the final three points of the set to clinch the match.
Osterloh led the Aggies with 12 kills, while Fowles added five kills, 21 assists and five digs in the match.
Despite a solid effort, the team had breakdowns that allowed Hawaii to get ahead, Fowles said.
“We let them being physical affect us, and we shouldn’t do that,” she said. “We just broke down a little too much.”
Osterloh said the team is proud that they were able to compete. She said the team knew Hawaii was going to be tough, but she’s glad that instead of rolling over, they came out and worked hard.
“We didn’t let them just come in and dominate us,” she said. “I really felt like we came out wanting to win.”
Fowles said the Aggies always look forward to playing Hawaii because they’re such a great team.
“You always get better when you play a team better than you,” she said. “It’s exciting to play them, it makes us better every time.”
DuBose praised Osterloh’s performance, noting her ability to help the team.
“I thought she stepped up a little bit tonight. She’s done that for us all year long,” he said, pointing out her stats. “She just had a nice overall match for us.”
DuBose also commented on Fowles’ play, saying she is doing a nice job.
“She’s making good decisions, setting the right people at the right times,” he said. “She continues to get better and better, more and more confident. It’s kinda fun.”
After last week’s matches, the Aggies are 5-4 in WAC play and 7-13 overall this season.
USU will continue conference play Thursday as they host Boise State at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum.
–joseph.w@aggiemail.usu.edu