Aggies set for Utah State Invitational
Utah State volleyball will play its first competitive match on Kirby Court in the brand new Wayne Estes Center on Friday at 7 p.m., when they take on Idaho State in the Aggies’ first match of the Utah State Invitational.
USU will also welcome two other teams to the weekend-long invitational, facing Oregon State on Saturday at 10 a.m. and closing out the tournament against Saint Mary’s at 7 p.m.
The invitational marks the start of the Aggies’ second season in the Mountain West Conference. Picked in a preseason poll to finish in third place behind perennial conference champions Colorado State and New Mexico, head coach Grayson Dubose and his roster of veteran athletes have their own expectations for the season.
“Our goal is to compete at a high level,” DuBose said. “They pay me a lot of money to win volleyball matches, so we want to win as many as we can. We think we can compete, and we think we can be one of the top teams in the conference.”
The Aggies finished the 2013 season with a 13-7 conference record and an overall record of 20-11.
“This year our goals are to win the mountain west of course, and we want to go to the NCAA tournament,” said senior outside hitter Rachel Orr. “I think just if we play like we know we can, and if we can stay focused and do our best, then we can come out on top.”
Orr is one of five seniors returning to the USU’s roster this season, and hopes the team’s chemistry will provide the lift needed to be successful in a notoriously competitive conference.
“We like to say that we are sisters,” Orr said, “and I feel like that is definitely true, because we care about each other on and off of the court.”
Dubose also noted his team’s cohesion as an advantage.
“We have a really nice team,” DuBose said. “The kids get along, they like each other, they compete hard every day, they get after it, so that’s a big positive for us.”
The team will take on a challenging schedule this season, a calculated risk made to better USU’s chances of an NCAA tournament bid. With a tournament appearance in their sights, the Aggies look forward to settling some unfinished business against conference powerhouse Colorado State next month, after failing to finish off the Rams in a five-set thriller in the Spectrum last year.
“You’ve got to beat Colorado State and you’ve got to beat New Mexico,” DuBose said. “Those are the top big dogs in our conference and we’ve got to show that we can compete with those guys by doing it, not just talking about it.”
Junior standout Elle Brainard, joined by seniors Ashlan Rodgers-Court, Paige Neves and Kaitlyn VanHoff, make up the core of a team looking to advance an already storied program at Utah State.
“We are going to be good,” DuBose said. “We are fun to watch, we’re exciting. We have the best crowd in the country and we now have one of the best volleyball venues in the country. it’s going to be great and in this setting it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
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