Utah State volleyball loses in straight sets to Boise State

The struggles continued for the Aggies as the Utah State volleyball team lost 3-0 at home to the Boise State Broncos on Tuesday.

USU has now lost its first five games in conference play and is now 4-15 overall for the season.

“Every time we got any kind of juice, we’d go back and miss a serve or hit a ball out of bounds or miss a dig,” said head coach Grayson Dubose. “Those things kicked us in the butt.”

Boise State came into the game with a very potent offense, ranking second in the nation in both kills and assists per set.

“They’re a very mature team,” DuBose said. “They returned all their starters from last year, so they’re very polished.”

The Aggies put themselves in a hole early, dropping the first two sets 25-16 and 25-17, respectively.

“We talked about why does it take us being down 2-0 for us to come back and really play hard,” DuBose said. “Part of that is learned, and part of that is having been there before. We’re getting there, but it’s just frustrating.”

It’s been a slow process, but the players recognize it needs to improve.

“We just need to start off really positive,” said freshman middle blocker Lauren O’Brien said. “Once we have that energy out there, it’s a whole different situation, so we just need to start out that way.”

USU came out with more energy in the third set, holding the lead for much of the game and eventually opening up a 20-17 lead after one of the longest rallies of the night. The Aggies had the Bronco defense scrambling on the point as they fired attack after attack. Sophomore outside hitter Rachel Gale had five attacks on the point, but it was a block assist by O’Brien and sophomore Kayla DeCoursey that finally scored.

“It was a long rally, and we haven’t won many of those, so it was kind of nice,” DuBose said. “I thought there were some good things we can pull out of that.”

The Wayne Estes Center was as loud as it was all night after the point, but the excitement was short-lived as the experienced Broncos responded with a 4-0 run. The visitors went on to win the set 25-23.

“I think we just need to manage our runs,” said junior setter Erica Moscoso. “That’s something we emphasize in practice and it needs to transfer to games.”

Winless in their last five games, the Aggies have focused on controlling what they can control: effort and hard work, DuBose said.

“I was happy with the third game and the effort we came out with,” DuBose said. “We’re figuring it out, but losing sucks.”

The attention for USU now turns to San Jose State, who will be visiting Logan on Saturday.

“We need to do what we did in the third game and go back to that,” Moscoso said. “We need to create our own energy and not rely on the crowd or the coaches getting on us. It comes down on us in the end.”

Gale paced the Aggies with 12 kills and a .158 attack percentage. DeCoursey added 10 kills with a .346 attack percentage and O’Brien added five kills with a .556 attack percentage.

For the Broncos, sophomore Sierra Nobley led all scorers with 19 kills and a .432 percentage. BSU had 52 kills as a team, compared to 38 for USU.

— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @tomcat340