USU volleyball starts four-game home streak with New Mexico and UNLV

The Utah State volleyball team will start into a four-game home streak this weekend as it takes on conference opponents New Mexico and UNLV on Thursday and Saturday.

Right now the Aggies are 2-4 in the Mountain West and 7-10 overall on the season.

The team has seen what head coach Grayson DuBose would call massive improvements since last year and is experiencing growth each week.

At the beginning of USU’s conference play, the team experienced struggles with hitting errors and defensive lapses that allowed too many runs from the opponent.

But after a strong week on the road, with a 3-1 win against Air Force and a hard-fought loss to Boise State, the Aggies are ready to take on their next two home games.

Utah State is seventh in the Mountain West going into this week’s games and is led by Kaylie Kamalu-Smith and Lauren Anderson with 199 and 193 kills respectively, Hannah Gleason with 238 digs, Erica Moscoso with 544 assists and Carly Lenzen with 67 blocks.

New Mexico is ninth in the conference and has one conference win. They rank second in the league in aces per set and lead the all-time series against Utah State 16-10, five of those wins have been the last five matches between the two teams.

UNLV is second in the conference with only one loss to Colorado State, who defeated the Aggies 3-0 in the week of conference openers. The Rebels’ only other loss was to nationally-ranked BYU. UNLV has won the last four matches against Utah State.

USU has three players seeking to continue streaks, including Gleason’s double-digit dig streak in seven of the last eight matches, Kamalu-Smith’s double digit kills in 10 of the last 11 and Anderson’s double-digit kills in five of the last six.

Aside from continuing these streaks, the Aggies will have a big advantage on their opponents by being at home this week while the Lobos will host UNLV the night before they leave to Logan and the Rebels will play in New Mexico before they head north for Saturday’s match.

Overall, Utah State is looking to finish strong, DuBose said.

“We need to continue to develop our ability to close out matches,” DuBose said, “and not just keep them close.”