Volleyball struggles in weekend tournament at SUU
The Utah State volleyball team had a tough opening to its 2011 season during the weekend at the Southern Utah Tournament, losing two of the three matches.
After graduating four seniors, the defending Western Athletic Conference champions are still looking for an identity early in the season.
“We’re a little up and down,” USU head coach Grayson DuBose said. “There were some things we did really well and, there were some things we didn’t do very well. We kind of knew that going in. We lost a lot of experience from last year, so we’re looking to try and rebuild our identity here.”
USU left Cedar City with 1-2 record after dropping matches to University of Pacific, host Southern Utah University and defeating Drake University.
Pacific 3, USU 0
Senior All-American outside hitter Liz McArthur led Utah State with nine kills while junior setter Kassi Hargrove, who started her first-ever match for the Aggies, finished with a career best 23 assists and 17 digs.
In the first set, the Tigers jumped out a 5-1 lead and never looked back en route to a 25-13 victory. The Tigers hit .432 and held Utah State to a .129 hitting percentage.
“They’re offense is faster than anything I’ve seen in women’s volleyball, and we just hadn’t prepared for that,” DuBose said about Pacific. “You can only simulate in practice what you are able to do. We weren’t able to simulate their speed and it got us a little uncomfortable.”
Utah State cut the deficit to 20-10 on a kill from freshman outside hitter Rachel Orr assisted by Hargrove before the offense sputtered and only managed three more points in the remainder of the set. The Tigers only held a three point advantage over the Aggies late in the second set, but USU did not get any closer and dropped the set, 25-18.
The Aggies held a small lead in the third and final set before falling 25-17.
USU 3, Drake 0
McArthur came up strong against the Bulldogs, recording her 13th career double-double with 13 kills and 11 assists.
Junior opposite side hitter Shay Sorensen put the Aggies on the board first in the opening set with a kill, and the Aggies never gave up the lead. McArthur notched one of her 13 kills on a pass from Hargrove to give the Aggies the victory.
Utah State fell behind early to Drake in the second set but rallied and outscored the Bulldogs 9-4 to regain the lead and cruised to a 25-16 blowout.
“That’s a good team from a good conference (Missouri Valley),” DuBose said. “They sent four teams to the NCAA (tournament) last year. RPI-wise that will help us out a little bit. They were good. I thought they were experienced and it was a good match for us to finally get one and kind of start to re-establish who we are.”
Drake pushed the Aggies to the brink in the third set, but a timely block from Sorensen and an attack error from Bulldog junior outside hitter Bentley Mancini gave Utah State its first victory of the season.
SUU 3, USU 2
The Aggies dropped a heart-breaking loss to the T-birds in their final day of action at the Southern Utah Tournament. The two teams traded sets before the T-birds pulled out a 2-point victory in the fifth set to take the match.
The Aggies narrowly took the first set from the T-birds, 25-23, but the Southern Utah rebounding on the next set edged out Utah State, 26-24.
“When you are a little inexperienced, things will matter. Little things will matter,” DuBose said. “I thought Southern Utah was a little more aggressive than we were and I think that was the difference.”
The Aggies nearly pulled out the fifth set and had a great opportunity with the score knotted up at 13 apiece, but sophomore middle blocker Nicole Gneiting-Theurer and McArthur committed back-to-back errors to give the T-birds the victory.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu