USU spikers aim for NCAA tournament
If the Utah State women’s volleyball team is looking for a fast way to prepare for Big West Conference play, it will find it in the Sprint Hawaii Invitational this weekend in Honolulu.
The Aggies not only take on the winner of the Weber State vs. No. 4-ranked Stanford contest, but they also match up with the No. 2-ranked Hawaii Rainbow Wahine.
“It’s never a vacation when you are going to [Hawaii] to play,” said Utah State Head Coach Burt Fuller in a Big West teleconference on Monday. “We are looking forward to the trip, though.”
Fuller is especially eager for his team to play against top competition and a larger crowd of fans than it is used to. The atmosphere in Hawaii could give the Aggies a glimpse of what it would feel like to make it to the NCAA tournament, a goal Fuller said the team is eager to accomplish.
USU last saw action in the tournament in 2001 when it played the BYU and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
“It’s probably the best volleyball environment in the country,” Fuller said. “It’s never a hostile crowd in Hawaii. It’s a very volleyball savvy, appreciative crowd. It will be nice to put our kids in that environment.”
Simply, the atmosphere of being away from the Spectrum is something the Aggies are getting used to. Utah State has played six of its last seven games on the road, and do not return home until Sept. 23 for a non-conference match against Utah.
The Aggies begin the Big West season on Sept. 18 and 20 with matches at Cal State Northridge and Pacific, respectively.
The Rainbow Wahine defeated the Pacific Tigers 27-30, 30-24, 30-18 and 30-21 in the championship match of the Aston Imua Whaine Volleyball Challenge on Sept. 6.
The Tigers were picked third with three first-place votes in the Big West preseason poll. UC Santa Barbara, with six first-place votes, and Long Beach State, with one first-place vote, were picked first and second, respectively, while the Aggies were ranked seventh.
“It was probably a pretty accurate ranking, given where we finished last year and given that we’ve got a lot of new faces again,” Fuller said. “I think we can use that maybe as a little bit of a motivator. We know that our goal is to make it into the NCAA tournament and to do that you have to finish fourth, possibly third, in our conference.”
And to do that might be somewhat of a challenge this year. Fuller said that over the last few years he has seen a trend of the teams that were at the bottom of the conference getting better and better.
UC Riverside, which was picked to finish last this season, recorded a win over Sacramento State 30-23, 30-23, 19-30 and 30-17.
“I think the teams that have been in the lower end of the Big West have definitely made some improvements,” Fuller said. “I don’t know if the top has come down a little bit … but I think it’s a combination of maybe the bottom coming up.”
The first home conference match is Sept. 26 against Idaho.
-juag@cc.usu.edu