Straight set loss to no. 12 BYU
Utah State Volleyball played host to number 12 ranked BYU Saturday night at the Wayne Estes Center.
Just two hours after Utah State Soccer beat number one ranked BYU, volleyball was looking to ride that momentum in front of a sold-out crowd.
Tickets to the game sold out days before the match, students included, who are typically let in at the door without prior ticket reservation. A standby line of students hoping to fill in any empty seats curled into the parking lot an hour prior to game time.
Club Estes was as loud as ever and the Aggies were able to feed off the energy to go up early. An attack error by BYU’s Mia Lee put the Aggies up 8-4, a lead they would hold until a Whitney Bower block put the Cougars up 13-12. The Aggies would fight back to regain the lead and found themselves tied at 19-19 after a timely kill by sophomore setter Leah Wilton-LaBoy. BYU would respond with four straight points to put the Aggies out of reach and take the set 25-20.
The second set started off similar to the first with Utah State leading early off a stellar play by graduate outside hitter Shelby Capllonch. They found themselves up 4-1 after a kill by all-conference team outside hitter Tatum Stall and were able to maintain that lead for the majority of the set. They did not trail in the set until an attack error by Stall conceded a 16-15 lead. Just like in the previous set, the Cougars went on a lethal scoring run to go up 20-16. The Aggies responded with a three-point run of their own, but the Cougars took the set to go up 2-0.
Utah State struggled early in the third set as they went down 3-0. They battled back and led by as many as five when a service ace by senior libero Jordi Holdaway put them up 15-10. The crowd was back in it when Tatum Stall’s eighth kill of the night put the Aggies up 21-17. But the Cougars went on a late set run to even the score at 22. The Aggies were unable to hold them off and a kill by Whitney Bower cemented the sweep for the Cougars.
“They’re a great team,” Capllonch said. “They are ranked number 12 in the country and we really pushed them to their limits. But they’re amazing, they just did things we couldn’t solve.”
Capllonch had 11 kills in the contest and played a crucial role in keeping the Aggies close.
“We just talk about Shelby as a winner,” head coach Rob Nielson said. “She’s won at every place she’s gone, every season she’s played, so we are lucky to have her.”
The Aggies will continue their homestand on Thursday when they host Wyoming at 7:00 p.m. in the Wayne Estes Center.