Aggies earn first conference win in sweep

Utah State women’s volleyball earned its first conference win Saturday, downing San Jose State University in straight sets at home in the Wayne Estes Center.

The Aggies recorded a season high .309 hitting percentage in the contest.

“All wins feel good,” said head coach Grayson DuBose. “I thought we stayed on task and remembered the scouting report tonight. I thought our offense was clicking and our block was good. It was just a complete match.”

Junior Kaylie Kamalu led the way with 11 kills, closely followed by sophomore Carly Lenzen’s career-high 10 kills. The win snapped an ugly five-game losing skid for the Aggies, dating back to their first conference matchup on Sept. 24.

“I thought our serving was really good tonight and we were able to keep them out of system,” DuBose said. “That made it easy on our block. I thought things just tied together — because we did this well, we were able to block and because we passed well, we were able to hit well.”

The solid all-around effort started early in the first set, when USU broke a 7-7 tie with a four-point run. The lead would sustain them the rest of the set, winning 25-19 on two straight SJSU errors.

Set two saw Utah State continually digging out of deficits, first trailing 0-3 then again in the middle of the set 10-13. Behind excellent blocking by Lenzen and junior setter Erica Moscoso, the Aggies claimed the second set 25-21.

Following the break, the Aggies came out determined to complete the sweep, leading early 15-5 and taking advantage of several SJSU errors. The Spartans couldn’t regain control of their hitting and fell to Utah State 25-15 in the final set.

Utah State next face a San Diego State team that gutted out a 5-set win over Fresno Saturday.

The Aztecs, now 2-4 in conference play, will host the Aggies on Thursday.

— logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @logantj