Ags drop one more on the road in Idaho
The road hasn’t been good to Aggie spikers lately.
USU volleyball lost it’s second straight road match 3-1 at the University of Idaho Tuesday night. The loss dropped the Aggies – 9-5 in conference play and 15-12 overall – to fourth place in the Western Athletic Conference.
“A sign of maturity is playing well on the road, and we’ve ebbed and flowed with that,” USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose said. “There are times we’ve played really well on the road, and there are times that we haven’t, and I think that’s just a sign of maturity.”
Tuesday night was one of the latter.
“They came out and they played with a lot more emotion than we did, and that was evident in the first game when they kind of got on a little run, and then we just didn’t answer the bell,” DuBose said.
The Aggies’ cold hitting followed them from last Thursday’s match in Orem, and in Game 1 USU only recorded 11 kills and 10 attack errors to hit .022 in a 30-19 loss.
Something then flipped on for Utah State’s offense, as they came back to hit .438 with 19 kills and only five attack errors in Game 2. Even with the hot hitting, the Aggies were only able to pull out a two-point win, 33-31.
Whatever heat USU’s offense had generated dissipated rapidly in games 3 and 4, as the Aggies only hit .064 and .059, respectively. This cool-off allowed the Vandals to pick up a 30-22 win in Game 3 and a 30-28 win in Game 4 to send Utah State home with it’s fifth WAC loss of the season.
DuBose said Idaho came in with a good game plan and executed it well, attacking the USU left-side block with some effect. Although Utah State had some good runs, he added, they were never able to consistently do things well.
One bright spot for USU was outside hitter Melissa Osterloh, who had 12 kills and 19 digs to move her double-double streak to six-straight matches. The Aggies’ two seniors, opposite-side hitter Amanda Nielson and outside hitter Monarissa Ale, also put in good performances for the Utah State. Nielson led the team with 16 kills, and Ale had 11 kills and a career-high 16 digs against the Vandals.
SENIOR NIGHT THURSDAY
The Aggies will look to rebound against the University of Nevada-Reno Thursday night as they honor seniors Nielson and Ale.
This last home match of the year is especially significant, since the Wolf Pack leapfrogged the Aggies to take over third place in the WAC after USU’s loss to Idaho.
With only two matches left – the other at Hawaii Nov. 4 – WAC wins are at a premium as teams jostle for position heading into the WAC Tournament Nov. 15-17 in Las Cruces, N.M.
“That third seed is a good seed to be in because you won’t have to play Hawaii until the finals probably,” DuBose said.
A win Thursday night will go a long ways in the Aggies quest for the No. 3 seed, but win or lose, DuBose said he sees a fun match ahead for USU and its fans.
-da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu