Aggies receive nod to NCAA
After finishing its regular season with a 3-0 sweep of Boise State University Friday, members of the Utah State University women’s volleyball team were confident their victory would serve as a tune-up for a second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
They were right.
The Aggies (19-10, 12-6 in league play) were among the teams selected to the field of 64 on Monday and will travel to Salt Lake City to play No. 19 ranked BYU Thursday at 6 p.m. at Utah’s Crimson Court.
“We are really happy to be playing in the tournament,” USU Head Coach Burt Fuller said. “It is something that we strived for from the beginning of the season.”
Due to the NCAA’s recommendation of putting teams within a close geographical area in the same bracket, the Aggies will play in the state of Utah for the second straight year.
“They’re just trying to keep as many teams as close as they can,” Fuller said.
Although the players and coaches were hoping for a chance to travel, both Fuller and senior defensive specialist Heather Olmstead said the chance of having Aggie fans at the match is a good tradeoff.
“Sure we would love to see other teams, but we don’t have that option,” Fuller said. “But we do have the chance to play in front of our family and friends.”
Olmstead said, “It’s a little disappointing [not to travel], but is probably for the better for us to stay close to home. We’ll have our home crowd, some of them coming down with us, so I can’t complain.”
One thing for certain, the Aggies know a lot about their opponent.
Not only do the Aggies play the Cougars on a yearly basis, Thursday’s match will mark the second straight year the two teams will have faced off in the NCAA Tourney. BYU (20-8 overall) eliminated USU 15-9, 15-10, 15-10 in the second round last year.
“I didn’t think we would play BYU again, so I was a little bit shocked,” Olmstead said. “But I’m happy because we’ve already beaten them, we know what we can do [against them] and we already have a scouting report.”
Olmstead is referring to the Aggies 3-0 defeat of then No. 12 BYU on Oct. 16 at BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse. It was USU’s first victory over the Cougars in Provo in 17 years.
Although the Aggies emerged victorious in that match, Fuller said beating the Cougars twice in the same year will be an extremely difficult challenge.
“By no means do we think just because we were able to get a win over BYU that it’s just going to happen again,” he said. “They’re one of the top programs in the country.
“Everybody that [we have the possibility of playing] is very, very good. BYU is a very, very good team,” Fuller said. “We’ve got to put a great game together, a better game [than last time].”
Leading BYU’s attack is All-American middle blocker Nina Puikkonen. Puikkonen paces the Cougars with 419 kills, including an astounding 32 kills in BYU’s recent five-game win over California Polytechnic University. Puikkonen finished that match with a triple-double (32 kills, 20 digs and 11 blocks).
USU will also need to contain first-team all-Mountain West Conference selections Sunny Mahe and Puikkonen’s sister, Karina, if they want to advance to the second round, Olmstead said.
“We know their weapons, we just have to shut them down,” she said. “We have to play well as a team.”
Should the Aggies beat the Cougars, they will play the winner of the University of Utah/Texas Tech University match on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Crimson Court. Because the Utes are the top-ranked team (No. 14) in this bracket, they have home court advantage for the first two rounds.
“It’s going to be a good four-team region,” Fuller said.