Spikers split on road trip to NMSU and La Tech
Although USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose refused to talk about his team’s recent road trip in terms of a moral victory, he had to be somewhat pleased after his Aggie squad took top Western Athletic Conference team New Mexico State to four games and blew Louisiana Tech out on their home court.
USU took the powerful other Aggies to four games on Thursday night, then followed that strong losing effort up by crushing the Bulldogs of Louisianna Tech Saturday night.
“You always want to win,” DuBose said. “But it was nice to compete hard against a good team and see how we measured up. I thought we measured up really well. Under stress, they were just a little bit better than us.”
After dropping the first game 30-26, Utah State rallied in hostile territory for a 29-31 win in game two. Unfortunately, the Ags couldn’t keep it rolling off that win, and they lost the next two games, 30-17, 30-26.
“We were tied up for most of the match except for that third game,” DuBose said. “We had chances and we struggled to take advantage of them. Their experience level played out a little better over time than ours did.”
People shouldn’t blame the loss on senior opposite-side hitter Amanda Nielson though, as Nielson did all she could for the old blue and white. Nielson recorded her second career triple double against the other Aggies, with 19 kills, 10 digs and a career-high-tying 10 block assists.
USU’s other strong performance came from Danielle Taylor, who tied her career high with 11 kills and also achieved a new career high in blocks with eight.
In his typical understated fashion, DuBose remarked, “Nielson played really well. She and Danielle Taylor did a really nice job blocking.”
DuBose did not sound afraid to play the other Aggies again, saying, “I’m looking forward to playing them at our place. I think it will be an entertaining match.”
Four of New Mexico State’s players achieved double-digit kill totals, led by Kim Oguh’s 16. After hitting just .022 in the first game, USU hit .152 in the second game, which they won. NMSU then came back with a strong performance in the decisive game three, hitting .405.
DuBose heaped credit on his assistant coaches, Shawn Olmstead and Taubi Neves, for formulating offensive and defensive game plans.
“Against New Mexico State, here’s a ranked team and we were able to stay in the match because the girls stayed in the game plan really well,” DuBose said.
Two nights later, USU took the court against a Louisiana Tech Bulldog team that had no idea what it was in for. DuBose’s team took its frustrations from the NMSU game out on another WAC foe, improving the conference record to 3-1 while dropping La Tech to a 0-4 record in WAC play.
“It is hard to be on the road in the WAC,” DuBose said. “We had to take two flights to get there and then drive a little more. We felt fortunate to come out and play well on a long road trip.”
Nielson led USU again with a match-high 16 kills.
“Amanda once again had a real nice match,” DuBose said. “Melissa Osterloh had a nice match as well, as did Monarissa Ale.”
Nielson hit a smoking .464 percentage in the match with just three hitting errors. She also had five digs, four blocks and a service ace, showing a well-rounded game to go with her lethal killing ability.
USU used Nielson’s typically outstanding performance to reach a season-high team percentage, .360.
The Aggies could have easily lost game one, as they were out-killed in that game 18-13. Luckily for the team in Aggie Blue and Fighting White, the Lady Techsters also won the hitting errors contest, 8-5, in that game. After sliding by in game one, USU took over in game two with a .414 hitting percentage and rode to an easy match win in game three, hitting .423.
“Our team is getting better at making adjustments within the match,” DuBose said. “Louisiana Tech did most of the things we thought they would, but they also did some things they hadn’t shown on video, and we were able to make adjustments within the game. In the third game, we were able to make some big adjustments and take care of it.”
The next challenge for DuBose’s team is another road trip, this time to San Jose State, where the volleyballers look to exact some revenge on the Spartans for the loss the football team suffered on Homecoming. DuBose’s second straight road trip kicks off Thursday night in San Jose.
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu