Spikers get NCAA berth
After finishing tied for second in the WAC tournament over the Thanksgiving weekend, the Utah State women’s volleyball team will face No. 6 Arizona Friday night in Salt Lake City.
“I don’t think we’re intimidated,” Utah State Head Coach Burt Fuller said. “Arizona is a very good Pac-10 team. They’ve got some outstanding athletes on that team. We’ve got to put a game plan together that will challenge them.
“We’re a good team; we can compete with teams across the country. We’re going to have to see if we can slow down their outside hitters.”
The Aggies received an at-large berth to compete in their third-ever NCAA tournament.
The last time USU saw action in the tourney was the 2001 season.
Fuller said he is proud of the turnaround his team has had from last year’s injury-ridden season. With another player injured nearly every game last season, USU struggled to put up wins finishing the season at 9-18.
With a 21-12 record, the Aggies’ third in six years, USU is far ahead of where it finished last year.
“I would just like to commend out kids for a great season so far,” Fuller said. “We’ve reached and suprassed all of our goals. I’m really happy for our seniors and the rest of the team. This is a really good opportunity.”
Utah State picked up the bid after a strong performance in the WAC tournament.
On Thanksgiving day, the Ag volleyball team faced Fresno State and came out with a four-game win.
“We felt Fresno is a good team,” Fuller said. “They played us very tough this season.”
Despite coming out with the win, Fuller said the team felt it could have played better. And it would have to play better against New Mexico State. The Aggies stayed focused for the next night.
But five games later, Friday night, Utah State scratched out a win over the southern Aggie team and it was on to face No. 8 Hawai’i in the championship game.
“We were very excited to be in the finals. We knew that we had a pretty tough road ahead of us against Hawai’i,” Fuller said. “We spent a lot of energy in that New Mexico State match. We won the second game after losing the first. We came from behind to win in the fourth. We put a lot of physical and emotional energy into that match.
“I won’t take anything away from Hawai’i. [But] we were spent.”
The Rainbow Wahine took the championship in three games.
Friday’s match will be played on the Crimson Court on the campus of the University of Utah campus. The match starts at 6 p.m.
If the Aggies win they will face either host Utah or Loyola Marymount Saturday night at 7 p.m.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu