NMSU Ags dominate
A real shot at upsetting one of the Western Athletic Conference’s top volleyball squads slipped away from USU Thursday night, with six service errors in Game 2, sealing a 3-1 loss.
After losing Game 1, 30-24, Utah State grabbed an early lead in game two and ran out to as far ahead as 18-10, but couldn’t close the deal. Fueled by Lindsey Yon’s powerful hitting, NMSU came back to tie things up and eventually take Game 2, 31-29, essentially ending the match. USU showed good character in fighting to a 30-19 win in game 3, but then succumbed to the Other Aggies patient defense.
“I think when we’re up we have a hard time staying up,” was how senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson characterized the loss. “We think ‘oh, we’re up, it’s going to be okay.’ We’ve got to learn to stay up and finish games off.”
Nielson, who had 14 kills, 10 digs and nine block assists, was nevertheless part of the problem in game two, where she had a negative .071 hitting percentage.
USU’s best player in the match was senior Monarisa Ale, who had a career-high 14 kills on a .448 hitting percentage to go with seven block assists and six digs.
Melissa Osterloh had her team-leading seventh double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs.
“We were right there with them,” Ale said. “I wanted this match so bad. I told the girls we are going to get them in the WAC [tournament.] We’ll be tougher.”
The missed serves seemed to bother USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose the most.
“Too many missed serves by us,” he said. “Against a good team like New Mexico State you can’t miss that many serves.”
While the Aggies were missing their serves, the other Aggies were hitting their serve opportunities with accuracy, achieving a season-high 11 aces.
Nielson said she was mystified as to why serving was so difficult for USU.
“I’ve been a player where you come in and you just serve and that’s all you do,” she said. “It’s hard because you’re not warm and you know that’s all you’re in there for so you’ve got to be good at it. It’s hard because the pressure is on. We’re a really good serving team usually. We practice it a lot.”
New Mexico State hit .161 on the match, while holding USU to .159 hitting. NMSU also had 14 more digs (63-49) and 13 more assists (60-47) than the Aggies, a statistic which demonstrated their methodical approach to defense and their patient, precise attack.
DuBose took heart in his team’s defense of New Mexico State’s hitting.
“We were kind of able to force them into doing some things where they weren’t comfortable,” DuBose said, noting that the .161 percentage is significantly lower than NMSU’s season hitting percentage of .265. “We watched a bunch of matches of these guys so we were really familiar with their tendencies and we were able to get on them and make them a little uncomfortable.”
NMSU was led by Krista Altermatt, who had 17 kills and 11 digs.
The southern Aggies maintained their first-place spot in the WAC and improved 15-3 overall and 6-1 in league action.
Now USU must regroup before they face Louisiana Tech on Saturday night.
“It’s an important match now at home,” DuBose said. “We just have to play better under stress.”
USU recently beat Louisiana Tech on their home floor in Ruston, Louisiana, three games to none, but no games are automatic wins or losses in the competitive WAC, DuBose said.
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu