Aggies stun No. 10 Wahine
What started out with baggage issues, a missed flight and doubt, ended in the biggest win of the year – and maybe the decade – for USU’s women’s volleyball team.
“It was just a bad trip,” senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson said. “We couldn’t get in the gym because our bags got lost, and it was just going downhill, like, ‘Man this is going to be rough.’ Everyone was kind of worried because everything was going wrong, but we just ignored all that. We just said, ‘We’re going to play Hawaii.’ And we did what we needed to do.”
With baggage delayed, causing USU head coach Grayson DuBose and freshman setter Chelsea Fowles to miss the team’s flight to Hawaii – they arrived a few hours after the other Aggies – it certainly was an ominous start to a daunting away match at the then-No. 10 University of Hawaii.
In the middle of it all, it was advice from a friend that put the situation in perspective for DuBose.
DuBose said: “I talked with a friend of mine one time, and he said, ‘The bottom line is, when the whistle blows, you have to go out and play volleyball. Either you’re a volleyball player, or you’re not.’ And I thought that was a pretty good way to look at it. There are lots of things that are out of your control. Losing your bags or missing flights is a little bit out of your hands. So, the bottom line is just get ready for the things you can control, which is your ability to go and compete hard.”
That’s exactly what the Aggies were able to do, sweeping Hawaii 3-0 on its home court, breaking the Rainbow Wahine’s 97-match Western Athletic Conference home winning streak. The win also broke a 20-match losing streak the Aggies had against Hawaii and handed the Rainbow Wahine their third loss in WAC play since Hawaii joined the league in 1996. UH was 169-2 in WAC play going into Sunday night’s match.
“I woke up this morning and it felt like a dream,” Nielson said. “It’s hard for it to sink in when it’s so unbelievable that we did that.
“It was kind of surreal. We played just out of our minds. I haven’t seen us ever play that good, I think. Everyone just had a great match.”
Couple the travel headaches with a warm-up Nielson described as dead, less than crisp and lacking focus, and the story of the Aggie victory has even more of a storybook quality.
It gets better.
Utah State came out the first two games and got down by as many as eight points, but never gave up, Nielson said. In both two-point Aggie wins – 30-28 and 31-29, respectively – USU rallied to score the last few points of the match to put Hawaii away.
During the first two games, Utah State’s defense held Hawaii under a .200 hitting average, as the Rainbow Wahine hit .128 in Game 1 and .180 in Game 2.
DuBose attributes the defensive effort to a good scouting report by his assistant coaches, Shawn Olmstead and Taubi Neves, execution by the Aggie block and good play behind the block by players like freshman libero Christine Morrill, who led the team with 16 digs. He said with the combination, they were able to keep the Rainbow Wahine uncomfortable all night, limit the touches and keep Hawaii’s best player, Jamie Houston – who finished with 10 kills and hit .029 – out of rhythm.
“Blocking has been a big factor for us all season long, so it was nice to see our block take charge at the net,” DuBose said.
A big part of the defensive effort, the Aggie block picked up 13.5 in the match, outblocking Hawaii by 7.5. Individually, junior outside hitter Melissa Osterloh had seven block assists and one solo block, and middle blockers Rebecca Anderson and Danielle Taylor recorded six and five block assists, respectively.
Although Utah State finally let Hawaii hit over .200 – just barely, at .209 – the defense was still solid enough for the Aggies to come back and get the last four points of Game 3, sealing a 30-27 victory, and the sweep.
Nielson led the Aggie attack, notching 17 kills while hitting .227. But she wasn’t alone. Taylor earned WAC Volleyball Player of the Week honors for her 11-kill, .533-hitting night. Osterloh also added nine kills on .233 hitting to add to her defensive effort. Senior outside hitter Monarisa Ale also had six kills, nine digs and hit .333 as she returned to her home state.
Obviously, the win and the celebration that followed were fun, but Nielson said making fun a priority during the match helped pull off the upset.
“We had nothing to lose, they had everything to lose,” she said. “No one expects us to win, and I think we were just there to have fun. That’s what we said, ‘This is our last WAC game.’ I just wanted to have fun. I think a big deal was having fun and maybe that helped us.”
To further sweeten the story, the upset of Hawaii was USU’s first win over a top-10 team since a Sept. 12, 2000, win over then 10th-ranked BYU in three games in Logan.
“It’s probably the biggest win of my career,” Nielson said. “The other day I was just thinking about it. Before we beat Utah, it was probably the BYU match my freshman year. Then it was Utah, because that’s a big rivalry. But this tops all of it. It’s the biggest match of my career, and it’s so fun to end my senior year this way. It’s amazing.”
“Obviously it’s big,” DuBose said. “It’s a nice statement for the team and the efforts they put in from the first days in August. It’s nice to have a culminating event that allows us to be successful here at the end.”
But it’s not over for the Aggies just yet. The win cinched up the No. 3 seed in this weekend’s WAC Tournament, held in Las Cruces, N.M.
– da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu