USU loses to San Diego in five sets
In a season full of frustrating losses, the Utah State volleyball team’s 3-2 home loss to San Diego State on Saturday is near the top of the list.
“At the end of the game we had chances and we just made errors,” said head coach Grayson DuBose.
The Aggies had 12 service errors on the night, including three in the final set.
“It’s an individualized skill, and it’s really mental,” said sophomore opposite side hitter Kayla DeCoursey. “It’s like a free throw [in basketball]. It’s something you can control but sometimes your mind’s not in the right place and it shows.”
USU took a 12-9 lead in the fifth set after a kill by DeCoursey, forcing a San Diego State timeout. The Aztecs responded after the timeout, eventually tying the game at 14 apiece.
The Aggies took their first match point at 15-14 after a kill attempt by junior outside Kaylie Kamalu slid along the top of the net and landed just in bounds on the sideline. A USU attacking error tied the game again, though. The home team had another match point at 17-16, but a service error leveled the match again and SDSU went on to take the set 21-19.
“They played a great game, but they definitely weren’t unbeatable. I think we put that on ourselves with those errors,” DeCoursey said.
Hot starts and cold finishes have been a common scene for the Aggies this season. It seemed that Saturday’s match would have the same script as USU won the first set 25-14, but fell behind by as much as 11 in the second.
Sparked by two kills from Kamalu and three kills from sophomore outside Rachel Gale, USU went on a 7-1 run to get as close as four points. SDSU won the set, but they run gave the Aggies the confidence they needed to keep the match close, DuBose said.
“It gave us a little bit of momentum, and we had some stuff going,” DuBose said. “We kept that third set close and then that fourth set we were able to prevail.”
Neither team led by more than four points at any time during the fourth set, which featured eight ties and three lead changes. A kill by Kamalu tied the game at 24-24 and another Kamalu kill gave the Aggies a 26-25 lead. An attacking error by the Aztecs gave the Aggies the set win and pushed the match to a fifth set.
The Aggies had one of their best offensive performances of the season, tying the season mark with 65 kills and registering four players in double-digit kills for the first time this season.
“Overall, we’re just being aggressive,” said sophomore middle blocker Carly Lenzen. “Sometimes it kicks us in the butt when we’re just tipping it, trying not to get blocked and it’s like ‘Let’s just go down swinging.’”
Lenzen recorded a career-first in the fourth set when she scored a point after it deflected off her face and back over the net.
“It hit off the block and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is going kind of deep,’ so I’m thinking I’m going to put my hands up and it just came a lot faster and nicely hit me on the forehead and over,” Lenzen said.
Lenzen, DeCoursey and Gale all finished with 14 kills on the night. Kamalu led the team with 15 kills. Junior libero Hannah Gleason recorded 21 digs, her eighth game of the season over 20.
Utah State will take to the road for a match against New Mexico on Wednesday before playing its final home game of the season against Air Force on Nov. 21.
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340