Sweet Revenge for USU volleyball
In the middle, on the outside and even on defense, the Utah State women’s volleyball team wasn’t slowed down by California State University Northridge.
The Aggies (14-13, 7-8) swept through the Matadors (11-13, 5-10) 30-24, 30-16, 30-23 Thursday in the Spectrum to extend their winning streak to four, and avenge an early season Big West loss to Northridge.
“It’s nice to beat somebody the second round that beat you the first round,” said Aggie Head Coach Burt Fuller. “Four wins in a row for us, we haven’t done that in a while and that feels pretty good.”
After picking up game one, the match clearly swung in the Aggies’ favor in game two behind a solid defensive effort.
Utah State’s defense held CSN to -.154 hitting percentage, with only 8 kills on 39 attacks in the game, as well as picking up six blocks.
“Defensively we’ve kind of lacked some heart sometimes,” said Aggie outside hitter Rickie Rigby. “Tonight we just put some skin on the floor and just went for balls.”
Ahead 11-8 in the second, the Aggies went on a 13-2 run to go up 24-10, and then closed out the game with a 4-0 run.
In game three, the momentum appeared to have shifted as Northridge jumped out to a 8-5 lead, but USU responded.
Utah State tied the game at 9-9 when outside hitter Zuzana Cernianska put back a long Matador dig. Northridge fought back to go ahead 12-10, but it was the last lead it would have.
Behind a pair of Rigby kills, a block by Rigby and middle blocker Erin Cartwright, and a CSN error, USU took a 14-12 lead and never looked back.
The Matadors were able to fight back within one at 20-19, but three Cartwright kills and a Rigby put-back ended the threat. Utah State scored four of the final five points en route to the victory.
For the match, the Aggies hit .328 compared to .083 for the Matadors. USU also had more kills, 55-36, and blocks, 11.5-2.5.
“Our block was really well,” Rigby said. “We scout teams and we know basically where they’re going to go. We really applied it tonight. We knew where they were going to go and we were a step ahead of them.”
Once again Cartwright paced the Aggies in the match, picking up 18 kills and hitting .567. She also had one solo block and five block assists.
In the their last match against Northridge, the Aggie outside hitters weren’t too productive, but the Aggies were successful this time with two outside hitters in double digits.
“We were three negatives and a zero [in hitting] from our outsides last time we played them,” Fuller said. “That’s something that we wanted to change a little bit.”
Tereza Cernianska led the USU outside attack with 12 kills, while hitting .579.
“She really picked it up,” Cartwright said. “That’s what we needed at Northridge. That was what we were missing, so that’s what we got tonight.”
Rigby picked up 10 kills for the third time in four matches, tying a career-high.
The Aggies will hold senior night when they play their final home match against the University of the Pacific Saturday at 7 p.m.
Earlier this season Pacific (14-10, 9-5) swept the Aggies in California, but has lost its last two home matches.
“I think we definitely have a shot at beating them, especially the way we’re playing now,” Rigby said. “We’re playing really well now as a team. Cohesion is great so I definitely think we have a shot of beating them.”
-slbk5@cc.usu.edu