USU to host Gossner invitational this weekend

The Utah State volleyball team will be hosting an exhibition tournament for its home opener this weekend.

Coming off of a rough season last year, head coach Grayson DuBose said he has already seen dramatic improvements from the squad he feels will carry them through the tournament and get them into conference play on a good note.

Last season, DuBose coached a squad with little leadership from upperclassmen and this year has four senior leaders who he says make a significant difference.

“We have a bunch of kids who have a lot of experience,” DuBose said. “They’ve put the uniform on before, they know what it’s like to play in front of the Estes crowd.”

Senior defensive specialist Hannah Gleason is one of those experienced players who has made leadership a priority for this season.

“I feel like since last year I’ve been trying to be a good leader on the court and off the court,” Gleason said. “Especially with the younger girls who have had less experience — I feel like I can bring them up with me and we can all excel together.”

This past weekend they excelled to their first two wins of the season against Montana State and Denver at the Pioneer Invitational in Colorado.

The Aggies will face UC Riverside on Thursday at noon then Portland State later that day. They will finish off the tournament with a match against Southeastern Louisiana at 1 p.m. on Friday.

After two weeks of traveling, the team is excited to be back at home.

“Just playing at home itself is something we all love and look forward to doing because the atmosphere and home court advantage is huge for us,” Gleason said.

Aside from the home court advantage, Gleason said the time and effort the team has been putting in at practices and at the gym has put them in a position to do really well this coming weekend.

DuBose expects his team to continue to work hard like they have been doing since this past Spring.

“We want to be able to say we came out of there working as hard as we possibly could, that our effort was good,” DuBose said. “We aren’t going to put a number on wins or losses but we want to make sure we’re executing at a high level, and that will prepare us for our conference.”

So far, the Aggies are 2-4 in this preseason and this tournament will put them three games away from conference play.