Aggie volleyball closes out first half of year
The Utah State Valley College women’s volleyball team isn’t up to Division I par yet – and for just reason.
The Wolverines played their first ever Division I match against BYU Sept. 19. The Cougars swept UVSC 30-18, 30-26, 30-24 at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Tuesday’s meeting between the Utah State women’s volleyball team and UVSC turned out similarly. The Aggies came out on top 30-24, 30-20, 30-19.
The match was not pretty on either side.
“We started off a little bit slow, but we picked up our numbers along the way,” said USU Head Coach Burt Fuller. “UVSC has some talented kids, but it is going to take them awhile to learn and catch up to the Division I level. I don’t know if we played at a Division I level, though.”
The teams combined for 25 errors in the match, including 21 in game two alone.
Fuller said he thought UVSC’s 14 service errors hurt the team because it didn’t give the Wolverines a chance to even put the ball in play.
The Aggies finished with 11 service errors of their own.
“I think it was just kind of an ugly match,” he said. “We weren’t very focused in our serving.”
Fuller said he thinks UVSC (5-9) has a “long road” ahead of its team this season in every sense of the phrase. At the end of the year, the Wolverines will have played 20 of their 23 matches on the road.
The only home contests came against the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Montana Western earlier this month, and next Wednesday’s match against Westminster College.
UVSC returned three starters and six letterwinners from last season when the team went 26-5 and tied for first in the NJCAA Conference with a 12-2 league record.
Utah State (12-7 overall and 5-4 in Big West Conference action) moves into the second half of league play Saturday as it takes on Idaho in Moscow.
Fuller said that although he would prefer his team to come out with more energy, if it had to be flat at all, it was best to come against the Wolverines.
“[The match against Idaho] is where our focus really lies,” Fuller said. “That is no excuse, though, for coming out here and not giving our best effort.”
Utah State defeated Idaho 3-0 Sept. 26 in the Spectrum.
Middle blocker Ingrid Roth said the team is looking at the victory as another mark in the win column and it was satisfied they did it in three games.
“I learned as a group that we can’t choose when we want to be good,” she said. “I don’t think we looked past UVSC, we just didn’t give them all of the respect that they probably do deserve. They do have some good hitters and they do have some good defense.”
Lacee Koelliker was one of only a few Wolverines who finished on the positive side, with seven kills hitting .357.
As a team, the Wolverines hit .009 for the match, while the Aggies finished at .240.
Utah State recorded 14 more kills (43-29) and 4.5 more team blocks (10.5-6) than UVSC.
Opposite side hitter Mari Ruddick led Utah State with 12 kills and a .321 hitting percentage. She also added six blocks. Middle blocker Erin Cartwright finished with 10 kills and hit .389. She also added 10 digs.
The victory against UVSC marked the sixth of its type this season at home for USU, five of which were sweeps.
The Aggies have a 37-13 record over the last four years, and have won nine straight matches against non-conference opponents dating back to 2000. The last time Utah State fell to a non-conference opponent was in four games to Weber State Sept. 20, 2000.
USU travels to BYU Nov. 25 for its final game of the regular season and its last non-league foe.
-juag@cc.usu.edu