Spikers hang with top-ranked Hawai’i
Amid talk of moral victories and being in a position to win, the Utah State women’s volleyball team held their heads high after taking number one ranked Hawai’i to five games.
The Aggies, led by Carolyn Forbush, jumped out to a two game lead but ended up losing 3-2.
“They have battled through tons of adversity,” Fuller said. “Tonight we showed a lot of courage and a lot of guts.”
The Aggies won the first game 30-16. Hawai’i’s 16 points was their lowest total in a game this season.
“We were a little too relaxed,” Teisa Fotu of Hawai’i said. “We didn’t have an edge the first two games.”
Halfway through the second game Hawai’i had come back to tie the game at 24 after being down by as many as nine points. Forbush added two kills down the stretch to win the game 30-26.
“We got a little greedy on the left side after the success of the first two games,” Utah State Coach Burt Fuller said.
In the fourth game Hawai’i had 13 block assists. Four Hawai’i players had at least five block assists. As a team, the Aggies had nine block assists after all five games.
Hawai’i won games three and four 30-20 and 30-21 respectively to lead into a fifth game.
The Aggies gave up two quick points to start the game, which they chased until the teams were tied at seven. However, Hawai’i went on a 4-0 run to make it 11-7. The rest of the way every two points would see one team or the other call a timeout. At first the interruptions helped the Aggies as they climbed back to within one at 13-12.
Hawai’i used their final timeout and put the match away with a kill from Alicia Arnott and a block from Fotu.
The Aggies and Rainbows will face each other twice next year as the Aggies move to the Western Athletic Conference.
Fuller said this match shows that things will be very competitive in the WAC next season since the Aggies will return most everyone and the team will have time to recover from the injuries that have plagued them this season.
Because of Dominique Arsenault’s injury, Zuzana Cernianska was the setter for most of the game. After Hawai’i’s performance in the fourth game, Arsenault set for half of the fifth game, as her injury would not allow her to play on the front row.
Cernianska was moved to outside hitter when Arsenault was setter, a position Cernianska hadn’t played for five weeks.
“It was hard for me,” Cernianska said. “But I felt comfortable.”
All the changes were in an effort to switch things up against the Hawai’i blockers. Fuller said the switch did provide an adjustment that was helpful in the match.
-krn@cc.usu.edu