Long trip ahead: Ag volleyball faces Nevada, No. 15 Hawai’i
They say road trips are tough, but they don’t get much harder than what the USU women’s volleyball team will face this week.
The Aggies (10-8, 3-1in WAC play) will play their first WAC road game of the season tonight in Reno, Nev., at 8 p.m. against the Nevada Wolf Pack (9-6, 3-0).
The Wolf Pack is tied for first place in the WAC with Hawai’i, after defeating Louisiana Tech and the same No. 22 New Mexico State Aggies who trounced all over USU in the Spectrum last Thursday.
The NMSU Aggies were the second ranked team to fall victim to the Wolf Pack this season.
After facing the Wolf Pack, USU will be on a plane to Hawai’i to face the 15th-ranked Rainbow Wahine Friday at 10 p.m.
“It’s a really long trip,” Aggie outside hitter Beth Hodge said. “We leave Tuesday and get back Sunday morning. We play Hawai’i, which is always a fun trip. It’s a long trip; lots of school we miss. Take your books and study a lot.”
With the USU’s struggles this season against ranked opponents, it’s no surprise that USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose says it will be a trying week for his young team.
“We’ve played well on the road,” he said, “but this will be a little different because they are conference matches and those guys are gonna be real prepared … [This is] a hard road trip because it comes right in the middle of the week.”
USU (7-15 all time against the Wolf Pack) has lost four straight in Reno, with a 1-9 record overall there. The Aggies’ last win came in 1997.
“Nevada is a nice team, and traditionally they’ve done a nice job,” DuBose said.
The Wolf Pack rank third in assists (13.59 per game) and kills (15.00 p.g.) in the WAC.
The Wolf Pack is led by junior middle blocker Teal Ericson who is hitting .238 and averaging 4.13 kills and 0.50 blocks per game.
As a team, Nevada is hitting .195 on the season as compared to a .198 hitting percentage for its opponents.
USU will continue its quest to become a little bit better each game, while bettering the volleyball basics like passing and decreasing the amount of service errors, which will prove to be key.
Last Thursday’s 0-3 collapse against NMSU was a frustrating thing to take for DuBose, who thought his team was ready to compete.
Coming back last Saturday to defeat Louisiana Tech was a step forward for more reasons than the fact that it was a victory, DuBose said.
“We didn’t always execute it real well, but we were trying to run the game plan,” DuBose said. “So that was kind of nice. [The NMSU loss] was a hard loss for me, personally, because I thought we had a nice game plan going in and I didn’t think we executed.”
The Aggies are led by junior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson, who is averaging 5.13 points, 4.10 kills, 2.02 digs, 1.05 blocks and 0.45 service aces per game, while Hodge is averaging 3.84 points, 3.44 kills, 2.24 digs and 0.60 blocks per game.
As a team, USU is hitting .167 on the year and holding opponents to a .166 hitting percentage.