USU spikers set for final conference push
It doesn’t matter who their opponents are, but rather how they play on their own side of the net.
Utah State women’s volleyball assistant coach Amy Crosbie said the Aggies are going to prepare for their upcoming road matches the same as they would prepare for any other team. The Aggies are going to focus on what they need to do to be successful with their own game.
The Aggies travel to California for Big West Conference play against California State University Fullerton on Friday and the University of California Riverside on Saturday.
After three straight losses, two against top 25 teams, Utah State (10-13, 4-8) will be looking to build some momentum to finish the season.
“We need to set the tone for the rest of the year,” Crosbie said. “We’ve got the ability to end off really strong.”
Cal State Fullerton (4-22, 0-13) has lost 20 straight matches and is last in the Big West.
“Fullerton, they’re looking to get their first conference win, and we’re hoping not to be their first conference win,” Crosbie said. “This team will be strong as far as they’re just wanting to win a volleyball match.”
Like Fullerton, Riverside (6-17, 2-11) is near the bottom of the Big West conference in ninth place. The Highlanders have lost 12 of their last 13 matches. The Aggies swept both teams earlier this season.
In preparation, the Aggies have been focusing on several aspects of their game. The biggest being
consistency.
Last week, the Aggies were swept twice but managed to win a game from then No. 5 University of California Santa Barbara. Crosbie said there were times when the Aggies played well, but at times they didn’t.
“That’s characteristic of a young team, and I think that’s been the theme all year,” she said. “We just keep saying we’re young, but it comes down to the fact that we need to start growing up and become a little more consistent.”
Freshman Ingrid Roth said, “After Santa Barbara, we bonded a lot more. I can’t explain it other than we just felt like we were all working together like one solid unit.”
It will also be important for the Aggies to attack well and not give their opponents chances to dig the ball, Crosbie said.
“We just need to terminate the ball,” she said. “We just need to put the ball away, and not keep giving teams digable balls and they come back at us and put a ball away.”
Crosbie said to accomplish this, the Utah State outside hitters will be key.
“I just think our pin hitters, our outside hitters and our right sides, need to be really productive as well as our middles,” she said.
After solid performances in USU’s recent matches, one outside hitter who may see more time is Rickie Rigby, Crosbie said.
“I thought Rickie went in and did a good job against the block,” Crosbie said. “You can be really successful just playing around with the block.”
Roth said the team has also been working on perfecting technique and the little things in the game.
“We’ve been working on our ball control and our little effort plays that end up making big differences in matches,” Roth said. “Like the smallest little twitch of your arm could send a play into turmoil, [when] it could have been an easy point.”
The Aggie roster should also be back to near strength with players returning from illness.
Crosbie said outside hitter Tereza Cernianska will be back, but middle blocker Hailey Seedall had not completely recovered by Wednesday, and it was still pending on whether she would travel with the team or not.
-slbk5@cc.usu.edu