Spikers look to regroup on the road
There’s certainly no place like home, but for the second consecutive week, the USU women’s volleyball team won’t be there.
After ending a road trip last week which spanned five days, two five-hour flights and two losses to two of the Western Athletic Conference’s best in Nevada and No. 15 Hawaii, the Aggies (10-10, 3-3 in WAC play) are back at it Wednesday morning.
“The WAC didn’t do us any favors, I can tell you that,” USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose said of the Hawaii trip after practice Tuesday. “[But] I thought the girls handled it pretty well. We were able to kind of go and compete well.”
USU, currently fifth place in the WAC, leaves at 11:15 a.m. today for California where they will take on the Fresno State Bulldogs Thursday at 8 p.m.
The Aggies are finally at the part of their conference schedule where they are playing opponents for the second time.
The Bulldogs visited the Spectrum Sept. 21, losing in four games (17-30, 30-28, 40-42, 22-30).
It was a match that seemed to hinge on whichever team won the high-scoring Game 3, which USU did.
The Bulldogs (2-14, 0-5) are tied for last place in the WAC and have continued to struggle.
They are on a six-match losing streak that started with their loss to the Aggies in Logan.
In five of those six losses, the Bulldogs have been swept by their WAC foes.
But DuBose is in no way taking Thursday’s match lightly for an easy Aggie victory.
“They’re a good team,” he said. “They’ll be at their place, so they’ll be a little more comfortable. Hopefully we can do the same things we did here, which was ball control and block well. If we can do those two things, we’re going to have a nice, nice weekend.”
Overall, the Bulldogs are averaging 13.1 kills, 12.1 assists, 15.9 digs and 19.10 points per game.
Fresno State opponents are averaging 15.9 kills, 14.7 assists and 17.8 digs per game.
One major positive for the Aggies going into their match with the Bulldogs is the improvement in serving that was made against the Rainbow Wahine Friday night.
Whereas USU had been averaging about 10 service errors per game in WAC play going into Friday night, it only tallied three of them in front of more than 7,000 fans in Honolulu against one of the nation’s premier volleyball programs.
“I think that serves are a big thing because we’ve been kind of struggling with our serves,” freshman middle blocker Melissa Larson said. “It’s definitely an area we’re improving on I think. We only missed three serves in Hawaii. That’s good for any team. That’ll help us a lot.”
Sitting at the top of the individual statistical categories for the Aggies are junior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson and freshman outside hitter Hailey Jeppson.
Nielson is averaging 5.08 points, 4.14 kills, 1.95 digs, .98 blocks and .41 service aces per game.
Jeppson, who was named the 2005 MVP by both the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune, has recorded 3.49 points, 3.03 kills, 2.77 digs and .56 blocks per game.
“It’s gonna be more of a challenge (Thursday),” DuBose stressed. “But if we take care of our side, I think the match takes care of itself. Our team is getting better and better. That’s the encouraging thing for me. They continue to work on the things we’ve asked them to work on so that those things become the norm, and not the random outlyers.”
The Aggies are 5-4 all-time against the Bulldogs, winning three of the last four between the two schools.
Last season’s game at Fresno was won by the Bulldogs.
“We know that we can beat them,” Larson said. “We know what we have to do already. We know things to work on that we could have done better. I’m excited to see how it goes.”