USU volleyball falls to 0-2 in conference

The Utah State volleyball team fell to 0-2 in Mountain West play with a 3-1 road loss to Wyoming on Saturday night.

“At the end we made a few mistakes where we just need to pay attention more,” said head coach Grayson DuBose.

With the match tied at one set apiece, USU took a 15-13 lead in the third set on a kill by freshman Simone Gibeau. Wyoming responded with a 4-0 run that included two attacking errors by the Aggies. An assisted block by Gibeau and freshman Hannah Smith and a kill by sophomore Carly Lenzen brought the score to 18-17 before a 7-2 Cowgirl run ended the set.

USU never led in the final game as Wyoming closed out the match with a 25-19 win in the fourth set.

“I thought we did a great job for 80 percent of the match tonight,” DuBose said. “We are going to get better as we pay attention to those details for a longer amount of time.”

In the first set, USU and Wyoming battled through 10 ties and 12 lead changes. The Aggies came as close as 23-22 after a Cowgirl service error and a block by Lenzen and sophomore Rachel Gale, but Wyoming took the final two points to claim the set.

Wyoming took an early lead in the second set, but the Aggies used a 5-0 run to open up a 16-13 lead and went on to win the game 25-20.

“We always just want to come out and compete, and I think that we showed tonight that we can compete with the best of them,” DuBose said.

The Aggies saw the return of two players who have missed time with injuries in sophomore opposite side hitter Kayla DeCoursey and junior setter Erica Moscoso. Both women played in all four sets, with DeCoursey recording six kills and three errors while hitting .150 and Moscoso scoring a double-double with 23 assists and 10 digs.

“It was nice to have a few of our players back,” DuBose said. “I think we knocked off a bit of rust, and I think we’ll continue to knock off more of that rust as we head into next week.”

Junior outside hitter Kaylie Kamalu led all players with 15 kills on the night while hitting .250. Gibeau finished the match with seven kills and three assisted blocks. Junior Hannah Gleason led the back line with 17 digs and also recorded one service ace.

The Aggies will return to Logan to play Fresno State in the Wayne Estes Center on Oct. 1.

— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @tomcat340