USU volleyball defeats Nevada in conference opener

In stark contrast with last season’s conference opener, the Utah State volleyball team defeated its first on-the-road conference opponent Nevada last night in Reno.

The Aggies started out last season’s conference play with five straight losses and did not pick up a single conference win on the road — their overall record for the year was 6-26.

It’s looking like this is a fresh start for head coach Grayson DuBose and his squad of 16 volleyball players.

Leading that squad last night was junior Kayla DeCoursey who hit .625 with only one error in the 3-2 win over Nevada.

Also contributing to the night’s victory was senior Kaylie Kamalu-Smith who recorded a career high of 30 kills that continued a six-game streak for her with a double-digit kills. Senior libero Hannah Gleason led the team in digs, recording 22 — the third time this season she has reached more than 20 digs.

USU performed well in both offense and defense, but Nevada wasn’t slacking either.

The first two sets of the night went into extra points as both teams battled out the attacks. Nevada came out on top of the first match after a 4-1 run that put the Wolf Pack on top 27-25.

The Aggies came back in the second match and rebutted a 26-25 lead from Nevada with a 3-0 run that brought them the win.

The lead changed six times in the third match before one of Kamalu-Smith’s kills put USU up 2-1 with a 25-22 victory.

The Wolf Pack took the fourth set 25-23 by capitalizing on an Aggie error with a 5-0 run.

In the end, USU took the fifth set with a steady run of 9-2 after a 6-6 tie. DeCoursey and Kamalu-Smith continued to lead the team through the final 15-8 victory.

“I thought it was a well-played match on both ends of the court,” DuBose said. “We hit well and they hit well and it was just a great match.”

Utah State will look to continue its turned leaf of a season with another match on the road against San Diego State University at 7 p.m. on Saturday.