Aggie volleyball team looks for consistency in California
A visit to Northern California for its second Big West Conference road trip is up next for the Utah State University women’s volleyball team.
The Aggies will be in Stockton, Calif. to play the University of the Pacific Thursday, followed by a Saturday match-up against California State University Northridge in Northridge, Calif.
With three home wins last week, Utah State (9-8 overall, 3-4 BWC) is carrying a three-match win streak into the trip.
After starting conference play 1-4, right side hitter Hailey Seedall said the recent wins have changed the outlook for the team and has it playing better together.
“It’s a total different feel on the team from coming from a weekend losing to coming from a weekend winning,” she said. “We’re also playing well as a team, which I think will carry over to this week.”
USU middle blocker Erin Cartwright said, “We have the confidence we need to win and we’re just on a roll so I hope that it keeps going.”
Against Pacific (10-6, 5-2), the Aggies will have to deal with the threat of middle blocker Jennifer Joines. After being named National Player of the Week Oct. 7, Joines picked up her 1,300th career kill against the University of California Irvine Saturday.
Despite her presence in the middle, USU assistant coach Amy Crosbie said the Aggies aren’t worrying about Joines. Crosbie said the team will watch game film and work on how to approach Joines, but ultimately must focus on their own game.
“Right now, we’ve got to focus on our block and how we react to [Joines’] hitting and the entire [Pacific] team,” Crosbie said. “Right now, we’re really focused on our side.”
Although Utah State will meet Northridge (7-8, 2-5) Saturday, Crosbie said USU isn’t looking ahead to the match.
“We’ve just stressed to these girls how important each single match is and we don’t worry about Northridge until we’re done with UOP, so we’re real focused on Pacific,” she said.
One key for the Aggies going into the two matches will be defense, Crosbie said. She said in the Big West statistics, USU is ranked last in defense but has been working on defensive drills during recent practices.
“Defense is incredibly rewarding for any type of player hitter, setter, whatever,” she said. “Anybody who can dig a ball, that’s a ton of momentum going into the whole entire rally.”
Seedall said, “I think defense is going to be huge for us for both of these matches, it’s what we’ve worked on a lot in practice the last couple of days.”
Utah State is averaging 13.5 digs per game while Pacific is at 14.2 and Northridge is averaging 14.6.
Passing consistency is an additional factor that continues to be key for USU.
“Over the last three games our passing has been very consistent and I’d have to say that’s a huge help so we can run our plays,” Seedall said.
Crosbie said, “If we pass the ball well and react to [opponents] serves and stay calm, I think our offense will go from there. Every match is a different stepping-stone.”
-slbk5@cc.usu.edu