One and done for Ag spikers
The Utah State Aggie volleyball team, fresh off of a sweep of then-No.10 Hawaii in Honolulu, lost in five games to San Jose State in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament, Thursday night.
In only the second five-game match of the season for USU, the third-seeded Aggies lost to a No. 6 seed Spartans’ team they had beaten in their previous two matches.
The games the Aggies won – Game 1 and 3 – weren’t close contests. The six-point margin in USU’s Game 1 win was the same as the combined scores of the three SJSU wins, 30-28 in games 2 and 4 and 17-15 in the final game. Game 3 was even more lopsided, with Utah State winning 30-19 to take a 2-1 lead into Game 4.
Game 5 came right down to the wire. Utah State reeled off five straight points in the final game to tie the score at 14. After being tied up again at 15, a kill by the Spartan’s Brianna Amian and an attack error by USU junior outside hitter Melissa Osterloh ended the final game, the match and Utah State’s season.
As a team, Utah State hit well, recording 67 kills on .267 hitting. On defense, they had 16 total blocks and 62 digs. They had 10 aces, but 12 service errors as well.
In her last match as an Aggie, opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson had a team and match-high 27 kills on .318 hitting. Fellow senior, outside hitter Monarisa Ale, recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs, while hitting .206.
Osterloh was the third Aggie with double-digit kills, recording 13 for a .167 hitting average and four aces. Sophomore middle blocker Danielle Taylor ended her season with a nine-kill performance. She also hit .353 and joined Osterloh with four service aces.
The loss also comes on the coattails of five Aggies receiving WAC honors.
DuBose, in only his second year in Logan, was named WAC Coach of the Year – the first such award for a Utah State coach. Setter Chelsea Fowles received WAC Freshman of the Year honors, becoming the third Aggie to do so. She ranked second in the WAC and 48th in the nation with 12.52 assists per game.
Nielson was named first-team all-WAC. She ranked third in the conference and 10th in the nation in kills per game, at 5.15.
Osterloh and Taylor were both second-team all-WAC, and, along with Fowles, could be the pillars of next year’s Aggie squad.
In other WAC Tournament action, No. 8 seed Boise State beat the ninth-seeded Lady Techsters of Louisiana Tech in five games for the right to get beaten by top-seeded Hawaii in the quarterfinals. BSU went on to get swept the Rainbow Wahine.
In the 4-5 match up, Nevada knocked off Idaho, 3-1, to move on to a semifinal match with Hawaii Friday at 5 p.m. San Jose State will take on the winner of No. 2 seed New Mexico State and No. 7 seed Fresno State at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
-da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu