USU Volleyball falls to Arkansas in NCAA Tournament
EUGENE, Ore. — Utah State Volleyball’s trip to the NCAA Tournament ended quickly as No. 6 seeded Arkansas swept the Aggies 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-15) in Mathew Knight Arena on Friday night.
The Aggies were nagged by their own mistakes throughout the match, committing 17 attack errors and eight service errors.
“It’s a lot of pressure against a team that just doesn’t make mistakes,” head coach Rob Neilson said.
Despite dropping the first two sets, USU was tied with the Razorbacks at eight early in the third set. That’s when Arkansas went on a 10-2 run, which included two Aggie reception errors. Even with elevated Aggie play in the third set, the Razorbacks proved to be too much.
“I was proud of our group by hitting over .300 in that last set,” Neilson said. “Felt like we finally found a little bit of rhythm. Gave Arkansas just a little bit too much room to get comfortable in that match.”
It was a rough night hitting-wise as well as the Aggies posted a .136 hitting percentage, including a .070 first set and a .034 in the second set.
“We didn’t play as clean as we needed to, obviously, but it’s an unbelievable growing experience for our players.”
Despite the loss, Neilson and the Aggies have a lot of optimism to take away from the match.
“Unbelievably proud of our group and the season that we’ve had,” Neilson said. “I love what it means for us going forward.”
Junior outside hitter Tatum Stall echoed that sentiment while adding that similar to the Aggies’ exit in the semi-finals of the Mountain West Conference Championship last season, she’s not satisfied with how the season ended — even if it was with an appearance in a tournament that volleyball players “dream” of playing in.
“I know that we can go farther and especially with the people coming in next year and whoever we find, I know that we’re going to set the standard for them,” Stall said.
The appearance was Utah State’s first appearance in the tourney since 2010 and their seventh total game in five appearances. The Aggies now have a 2-5 record in the NCAA Tournament all time. With the win, Arkansas will move on to the round of 32 and play the winner of Oregon and Loyola Marymount.
Featured image by Sam Warner from the UVU game.