Aggies go winless at USU Invitational
Utah State volleyball endured a weekend of defeat by losing all three of their games during the USU Invitational. The first match for the Aggies was on Friday against University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, which ended in a three-set sweep in the Vaqueros favor. In the first set, the Aggies had a late lead and were about to take the first set at 23-21, but a four-point run boosted UTRGV into the winners spot. USU had 39 kills in the first set compared to UTRGV’s 47.
“We need to kill the ball better,” commented USU head coach Grayson DuBose. “We need to get more kills. We need to find a way to do that. I didn’t think we did that very well today, killing the ball. Those are things we need to take care of so we can be where we want to be at the end of the season.”
The Vaqueros went on to win the next two sets and finish out the match 25-19, and 25-20.
The last game of day one of the Invitational for Utah State was against Loyola Marymount University. In the first set, the Lions took the lead early on while the Aggies trailed by a single point for a majority of the game, and ended set one 25-22. During the second set against LMU, the teams experienced six lead changes, 17 ties, and five deadlocks past the 20-point mark which sent the the set into extra points. While tied 24-24, LMU had back-to-back kills to end the set 26-24 and then proceeded to win the next set 25-21.
Iain Laurence Bailey Downing (9) hits during USU’s game against Loyola Marymount University.
Utah State finished out the weekend against top 20 ranked Cal Poly on Saturday. The first set ended 25-19 with Cal Poly on top, but during the second set of the match the two teams were neck-and-neck with at least eight ties within the set.
“I think the whole neck-and neck thing is just us staying focused,” stated senior setter Kassidy Johnson. “We don’t let them go on runs, and if they do go on a run we stop it as soon as we can and then we go on our own runs. That’s the most important part to us, as soon as we let them start going on a run, we dig ourselves in a hole. We are just not very good at coming back and catching up. Playing catch up is not our game. We just have to stay with them, if not keep the lead, and that’s how we win.”
Sophomore outside hitter Gabbi Shumway was able to add another kill and tie the game at 22-22, while freshman middle blocker Corinne Larsen followed suit with another kill to bring them to 23-23 before the Mustangs finished off the set 25-23.
Cal Poly took control of the final set early on by adding five points to the board and leaving Utah State behind with nothing. USU was able to tie the game 10-10 before going on a five-point run and propelling themselves ahead in the match. Next came five more deadlocks, and a 16-16 tie before Cal Poly took the lead with a four-point run. After back-to-back kills by USU, the Aggies were not able to pull through and ended the final set 25-21.
Iain Laurence USU and Cal Poly Womens Volleyball teams shake hands before their game on Saturday
“The biggest thing to take is we’re going to be better by the end than we are now. I like where we are gonna go. This tournament was as hard of a tournament than we have been in, in a few years,” DuBose said following the closing match of the weekend.
The Aggies will play next on Tuesday night at 6 o’clock in Orem, where they will take on an in-state rival in Utah Valley University.