Aggie spikers to play the tough No. 24 ranked Southern Aggies in the Spectrum
After two straight weekends spent on the road, Head Coach Grayson DuBose’s Aggie volleyball team returns to the Spectrum Thursday night to battle 24th-ranked New Mexico State University. The match begins at 7 p.m.
Although the Aggies have an 8-7 overall record, they have been on fire since Western Athletic Conference play began, running out to a 5-1 league record, with the lone loss coming against the other Aggies in four games in Las Cruces, N.M.
The two key players for USU are senior opposite-side hitter Amanda Nielson, who averages 4.69 kills and 2.21 digs per game, and Melissa Osterloh, who averages 3.4 kills, 2.85 digs and .65 blocks per game.
DuBose’s team has played 13 of its first 15 matches on the road, due in large part to a tough early-season slate against top-ranked competition at tournaments. Beating the highly regarded New Mags would serve notice to the rest of the WAC that the Aggies are for real. Over the last eight years, USU is 61-26 in the Spectrum, including 14-4 at home against WAC opponents.
The New Mexico State game is a chance for the Aggies to make a real statement and reverse a bad recent record against ranked opponents. USU is 8-45 over the last eight years, including 14 straight losses to ranked teams. The last time USU beat a ranked team at home was way back in 2001, when it took them five games to get by Pacific.
The USU players will have to stop or at least slow down junior opposite-side hitter Lindsey Yon, who hits .250 and averages 4.39 kills a game for the New Mags. She leads a team that is 4-1 on the road thus far hits .272 and holds its opposition to .166. Three starters for NMSU are back from a team that was 33-4 overall and 14-2 in the WAC last year.
Saturday night, also at 7 p.m., USU will try to extend what will hopefully be a four-game winning streak at that point. Louisiana Tech will be the opponent in that game. The Bulldogs have a 1-5 record and just got their first WAC win, beating Boise State in five games. The Lady Techsters have already met the Aggies in Ruston, where they lost largely due to their inability to put the brakes on Nielson’s powerful hitting. Nielson led USU to a season-high .360 hitting percentage against La. Tech.
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu