Aggies Tame WSU Wilcats
Senior Michelle Matheson hit a sweltering .682 with 16 kills and the Aggies hit .358 as a team, as the Utah State University women’s volleyball team thumped Weber State University 30-21, 30-17, 30-18 Tuesday night in the Spectrum.
After losing three straight on the road, the Aggies concluded a successful three-match homestand with three victories and improved to 14-7 on the season.
“Chelsi [Neves] did a good job again of isolating [our hitters] and the hitters put the ball away,” USU Head Coach Burt Fuller said.
When asked about her success, Matheson was quick to defer credit to Neves, who enjoyed a solid match of her own with 47 assists and a match-high four block assists.
“Chelsi did an awesome job of setting me,” Matheson said. “[It seemed like] there wasn’t a blocker in front of me the entire night.”
The Aggies took control of the match soon after the opening serve, taking advantage of suspect passing by the Wildcats and moving the ball around well offensively to go up 10-5.
“They [Weber] didn’t pass that well,” Fuller said.
After Weber (12-13 overall) picked up its intensity to cut the Aggie lead to 16-13, the Aggies went on an 11-5 run to effectively put the game away.
USU enjoyed a balanced offensive attack in the first game, including five kills by middle blockers Erin Cartwright and Hailey MacKay.
MacKay was back in action after missing the Aggies last match due to knee troubles.
“We were just trying to hit the seams and make their blockers chase us a little bit, and I thought that’s what we achieved,” Fuller said.
Like the end of the first game, the Aggies put pressure on the Wildcats early and often to start the second game, taking a 7-0 lead.
While Matheson enjoyed a solid first game, it was during the 7-0 run she really started to assert herself offensively – notched three straight kills. Besides finishing with a match-high in hitting percentage and kills, Matheson also led all players with 11 digs.
“Michelle was on fire tonight,” Fuller said.
Despite finding itself on the wrong side of a 7-0 deficit, Weber State battled its way back into the match, thanks to the strong hitting of outside hitter Stephanie Metcalf (13 kills on the night).
With momentum on their side, the Wildcats were in position to continue to cut into the Aggies 11-9 advantage when they decided not to play a ball. The ball painted the line, ultimately giving the Aggies the momentum they needed to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
Following the aforementioned point, the Aggies went on a 12-2 run, culminating with a Neves solo block.
A Wildcat service error and Lisa Borom block later, and the Aggies were up 2-0.
For the game, Matheson torched WSU with seven kills – four less than the entire Wildcat team.
“Our whole team does a great job,” Matheson said. “Someone always steps up when we need someone to.”
Unlike the second game, the first half of game three was nip-and-tuck as neither team put together a run of more than three points.
It wouldn’t last.
After picking up a couple of attack errors at the beginning of the game, USU took control offensively, hitting .459 in the third game.
Up 12-11, the Aggies finished the match with authority, outscoring the Wildcats 18-8 to end the match.
One of the keys to the match, Fuller said, was the Aggies’ ability to effectively work the quick set up the middle.
Because the Aggies are adept at tooling the ball to the outside – tooling the ball means to slide the middle blocker to the outside in hopes of creating one-on-one situations – USU threw WSU off guard by attacking the Wildcats up the middle.
“I think when people watch us play, they know how much we like to go behind, they know how good Michelle is at tooling the block,” he said. “We used that to our advantage tonight.”