Spikers enjoy successful season
It was a season in which they surpassed expectations and surprised everyone but themselves.
The Utah State University women’s volleyball team finished by advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament and ended up ranked No. 21 in the country with a 20-11 record.
The Aggies also defeated the University of the Pacific for the first time in 20 years and were victorious over BYU in Provo, breaking a 17-match losing streak there.
“People around us, the community, didn’t expect us to be good,” middle blocker Erin Cartwright said. “We knew we could do it. I think it’s cool we topped everyone’s expectations of us. We showed them we’re better than whatever everybody else thinks.”
The Aggies got their season rolling early, picking up two preseason tournament wins over the University of Arkansas and the University of Cincinnati.
“I think what it did, beating Arkansas and beating Cincinnati, it showed our kids they could play at that level,” Aggie Head Coach Burt Fuller said.
Once the season started, Utah State lost an early Big West Conference match at home to No. 19 University of California Santa Barbara, but then reeled off seven straight wins.
Included in the streak was the win over No. 13 BYU, and the one surprise of the Aggie season, the win over No. 12 Pacific.
“We really didn’t expect to beat [Pacific] and when we did I think that gave us a lot of confidence and we went from there,” senior defensive specialist Heather Olmstead said.
Cartwright said, “Pacific was a huge win. I think we all wanted to beat them; we all wanted to play hard. Beating them was like a shocker to a lot of people.”
The Aggies then went into the NCAA tournament where they beat BYU in the first round before losing to the University of Utah in the second.
After the season, not only were the Aggies recognized for their success with a No. 21 ranking, but they also received honors off the court.
At USU’s Athletic department’s annual Joe E. Whitesides Scholar-Athlete Luncheon, senior outside hitter Tanya McArthur-Birch received the Joe E. Whitesides award as the top academic student athlete.
The volleyball team also received the team GPA award for teams with less than 20 members.
“I think it says a lot about our volleyball team that we cannot only perform on the court but we perform off the court as well,” Olmstead said.
It was at least the fourth year in a row volleyball has received the team award, Fuller said.
“That’s kind of a tradition now for this program and I would not like to see that slide,” he said. “I think it’s a reflection of how hard most of them work, and it’s a good example to those that could work a little bit harder.”
The Aggies were also recognized in the Big West Conference with a sportsmanship award, voted on by teams within the conference.
“That to me is a pretty nice award,” Fuller said. “We had some kids that were all-conference but when you’re recognized as the best bunch of sportsmen in the conference, then that’s pretty good.”
Olmstead said, “I wasn’t shocked, but I was really honored that the other teams in our conference nominated us for that award. It just adds to the fact that we’re good athletes, we’re good students and we’re good sports.”
After back-to-back trips to the NCAA tournament, Fuller said he is looking to build on the success of recent years.
“Things here are going in the right direction and I think we need to keep that direction going,” he said. “We want to be good over time and we want to be better. We want to be able to be the best team in the state from time to time.”