Volleyball spikes Wildcats
Short, sweet, and to the point.
So it was Tuesday night for the Utah State volleyball team in its home opener against the intra-state rival Weber State Wildcats.
In just under 90 minutes the Aggies held the Wildcats to a -.063 hitting percentage to put them away in three straight games, 30-25, 30-20, 30-20.
Though the Wildcats (4-6) were missing three key players due to injury, the Aggies (4-2) weren’t expecting to get out of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum so soon.
But junior outside hitter Beth Hodge didn’t have a problem with it.
“You don’t ever expect it to be a short game,” said Hodge, who recorded a team-high 12 kills and seven digs on the night. “We knew they were short players, but we didn’t know what players and who was playing. You expect it to go five and to play hard. It went short, that’s great. Now I can go home and do homework.”
Because the Wildcats are a rival, USU first-year head coach Grayson DuBose wasn’t expecting a sweep.
“I didn’t. I didn’t,” DuBose said. “In-state rivalries are funny. It doesn’t matter what the record is. They go out the window in those matches. You never know what’s gonna happen. Emotions get involved, and all those kinds of things. To come out and sweep them was a nice win for our team.”
Blocking proved to be a key to the Aggies’ success.
Middle blocker Monarisa Ale led USU with eight assisted blocks. She frequently combined with freshman outside hitter Hailey Jeppson, who tallied seven assisted blocks, as well as eleven kills.
“I think we did bond really well on the court,” Jeppson said. “It was good. I’ve had problems blocking in all my other games.”
Game one was the tightest of the three. The score was tied twelve times and the lead changed four times.
With the score tied at 23 in that first game, the Aggies then went on to outscore the Wildcats 7-2, courtesy of blocking by Ale, Jeppson, and Amanda Nielson.
DuBose credited his team’s quick work of the Wildcats to one of his assistant coaches’ efforts going into the game.
“(Assistant coach) Shawn Olmstead puts together our scouting reports,” DuBose said. “I thought we had a real nice scouting report for those guys. We got on some (of their) tendencies. It took us two-thirds of the first game to figure it out. But once we did we got on some people.”
After they cleared that hurdle, the Aggies never looked back and never lost their lead in games two and three.
On the night the Aggies had a .200 hitting percentage, including a .219 percentage in game two. The Wildcats recorded a -.152 percentage in game two.
Was that the Aggie defense, or a poor Wildcat offense?
“The right answer of course is that it’s our defense,” DuBose said with a wry smile on his face and a little laughter in his voice. “”That’s a team that’s kind of been desemated by injuries a little bit…But the truth is that it’s a combination of both.”
USU senior libero Kelsi Peterson tabbed a game-high 15 digs.
The Aggies have now beaten the Wildcats seven years in a row.