Ags sweep road trip
The San Jose State Spartans had an eyebrow-raising 50 kills against Utah State, but it wasn’t enough as USU blocked 17 shots en route to a 30-25, 30-28, 30-28 sweep on the road. USU moved its record to 7-7 on the year, with a 4-1 mark in Western Athletic Conference play.
USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose credited his team’s preparation for the block party they held in San Jose’s backyard.
“We had a good scouting report and we stayed on their tendencies,” DuBose said.
The tag team of Amanda Nielson and Melissa Osterloh led USU, as they have all year. Nielson had a match-high 13 kills while Osterloh had her fifth double-double of the year with 10 kills and 10 digs. Osterloh also contributed four blocks and hit a high .429 percentage. Rebecca Anderson led USU with eight blocks, and Danielle Taylor chipped in six blocks.
“That was a big deal for us,” DuBose said of the outstanding defensive statistics USU compiled. “They had more digs and kills, but we had a lot of blocks.”
The two teams had identical .152 hitting percentages, and USU got its winning edge from a powerful blocking presence and by making fewer errors. The Aggies had only four service errors to SJSU’s 10 and had seven service aces to SJSU’s four. USU’s win sent the Spartans to 0-3 in the WAC.
USU 3, FRESNO ST. 1
The Fresno State Bulldogs were able to force a fourth game against USU by scoring 10 of the last 11 points in game three, but the Aggies took care of business, hitting .196 in the final game to go home with a 2-0 road trip under their belts. USU took the match by scores of 30-26, 30-19, 28-30 and 30-28.
DuBose said getting two road wins was his teams “whole goal going in. It’s hard, we flew to San Jose and then we drove two hours to Fresno. Those things are distractions if you let them be.”
Nielson took advantage of the fourth game to set season highs with 28 kills and 15 digs. Her partner Osterloh had her sixth double-double of the year, scoring 18 kills and 16 digs.
USU moved its overall record above .500 with the win, to 8-7, and now stands at 5-1 in the WAC, with the only loss coming in four games to a tough New Mexico State team. The Aggies are now officially on a roll, having won six of their last seven games. Fresno State dropped to 4-12 overall and 2-4 in the WAC.
After taking some lumps in the preseason against nationally ranked opposition, DuBose’s team is now right where he wants them to be.
“You look at the season and say these are the games where we have a good chance, and these are the games where we will have to play really well to win,” DuBose said. “We knew we had a good team going in. Preseason prepared us for this because we played really good teams, so now every time we step out onto the court, we are confident in our team.”
USU hit .276 overall in the match and held Fresno State to .148 hitting. USU’s best performance was in game two, when the team hit a ferocious .484 percentage.