Aggie spikers finish tough road swing
After suffering a tough loss to the University of Utah on Tuesday night, the No. 25 ranked Utah State University women’s volleyball team will discover a lot about the charter of its team when it travels to Southern California this weekend.
USU will conclude its five-match road trip with crucial Big West Conference matches against California Polytechnic University on Friday and No. 23 University of California, Santa Barbara on Saturday. Both matches will begin at 8 p.m.
“This is probably our toughest week,” USU head coach Burt Fuller said. “But it’s a good test [for us]. We keep stressing to the kids the importance of rising to the occasion.”
While Fuller and the rest of the players are disappointed they didn’t come away with a win on Tuesday, Fuller said he is very happy with the progress the team has made.
After all, the Aggies (11-5, 7-1 in league play) were riding a season-best seven-match winning streak.
“We looked at [Tuesday’s] match as being a good test,” Fuller said. “We didn’t win, but we didn’t fail. I’m unhappy we lost, but I am not unhappy with where we are as a team.”
Junior outside hitter Shauni Fluckiger said, “I think the [Utah] match could have gone either way.”
The Aggies are going to have to continue to play solid volleyball if they want to be successful come Friday and Saturday. Both the Mustangs and Gauchos were picked to finish above the Aggies in the preseason, and both qualified for the NCAA Tournament last year.
Utah State has already played both teams at the Spectrum this season, defeating Cal Poly 3-1 and suffering a harrowing 3-2 loss to UCSB.
While the Aggies are confident they can win both matches, Fuller and Fluckiger said it is imperative they beat Cal Poly.
“Cal Poly is a very good team,” Fuller said. “Starting off with them on Friday is a very big match because a win would keep us in second place in the conference.”
Fluckiger said, “If we can beat Santa Barbara, that would be great, but Cal Poly is our really big match.”
Cal Poly (12-6, 6-5) is led by middle blocker Worthy Lien. A second-team all-conference selection from a year ago, Lien leads the Mustangs with 214 kills.
When the Aggies and Mustangs faced off last month, the Aggies were able to take control of the match with quick sets to the middle and by involving the back row in their attack. Fuller said USU will look to do the same thing.
“It’s an effective strategy for us,” he said.
Prior to USU’s first match with UCSB, Fuller said both teams were very similar – smaller teams that play well together and are solid defensively.
In addition to having many of the same attributes, the Aggies and Gauchos both played brutal preseason schedules and have been playing well as of late.
UCSB (10-8, 8-2) had a five-match winning streak, before losing 3-0 to No. 1 ranked and undefeated Long Beach State University last Saturday.
“They run a similar offense, similar defense,” Fluckiger said. “I think a lot of the things they do are similar [to the things we do].”