Ag spikers finish week in style
Following two Big West Conference road losses a week ago, the Utah State University women’s volleyball team was in need of a shot of momentum.
The Aggies got just that, winning three straight home matches, including a 30-22, 30-21, 30-23 sweep of California State Fullerton Saturday night in the Spectrum.
With consecutive victories over BYU, UC Riverside and CSF, USU propelled itself over the .500 mark (9-8, 3-4 in league play).
“We’re going in the right direction,” said USU Head Coach Burt Fuller. “And to get three matches, our record needed that, our team needed that, and our conference record needed that.”
The Aggies were certainly headed in the right direction at the start of Saturday’s match. USU opened the first game with two runs of four points as it took a commanding 12-4 lead over the Titans (4-16, 0-7).
While Utah State enjoyed a solid night attacking the ball, (.326 hitting percentage for the match) it was the Aggie defense that set the tone for the rest of the match.
USU held Titan outside hitter Lauren Goins to a measly one kill in game one. Neutralizing Goins, who entered Saturday’s match with nearly twice as many kills as any other CSF player, was something Fuller said USU focused on in practice.
“That’s something we wanted to focus on,” he said. “She still finished with 10 kills, but didn’t have a good percentage [.054].”
The rest of the Titans didn’t fare much better in the first game. CSF hit a paltry .053, and the Aggies tallied 21 digs in the opening game.
Leading the way for the Aggie defense was junior college transfer Taubi Neves, who finished with a match-high 15 digs. Neves was able to help fire up the Aggie defense, helping to give the Aggies the emotion they needed to continue to be successful, she said.
“I know I get really excited sometimes, and the other players make fun of me about that,” she said jokingly.
As they did in their two previous matches, Fuller said, the Aggies encountered success early and often on the right side. Middle blocker Erin Cartwright and Zuzana Cernianska combined for more kills (11) in the first game than the Titans did as a team (9).
Cernianska led the Aggie attack with a match-high 16 kills, posting a hitting percentage of .448. The freshman outside hitter/setter finished the match three digs short of the triple-double as she finished with 28 assists and seven digs to go along with her 16 putaways.
When asked about her performance, Cernianska said she was shocked considering how tired she was after playing three matches in five days.
“I’m surprised, because I am so tired,” she said.
Cartwright continued her hot play as of late, hitting a match-high .458 with 13 kills – seven in the first game. In USU’s three-match homestand, Cartwright hit a sweltering .488 with 50 kills.
However, Cartwright was quick to deflect credit. Improved passing on her teammates’ part is the main reason behind her gaudy numbers, she said.
“We’ve been focusing on passing in practice lately, so I really think our passing has improved a ton,” she said. “We’re getting the ball where it needs to go, and then you can run whatever you want on offense. It’s awesome.”
As a result, USU was able to increase its hitting percentage in each game, eventually hitting .375 in the third game. The Aggies’ improved passing, as well as their ability to attack from the right side, Fuller said, limited the Titans to a season-low four block assists for the match.
“We still need to attack some more balls out of the middle,” Fuller said. “But if we can load up on the right [side] and get people leaning that way, that’s going to help our left side out a little bit more.”
For the Titans, Goins finished with 10 kills, with outside hitter Alyssa Opeka adding nine kills. Setter Kim Levey finished with a team-high 10 digs.
Tereza Cernianska added nine kills for the Aggies, while Shauni Fluckiger (10 digs) gave USU two players with more than 10 digs for the match.
The Aggies will return to action Thursday when they travel to Stockton, Calif. to take on the University of the Pacific.