USU volleyball vs. San DIego State

The Utah State volleyball team opened Mountain West play with a 3-1 home win against San Diego State on Thursday.

“I thought we played really well,” said junior setter Kassidy Johnson. “We all worked together better than I’ve seen us work together in a really long time, and we executed well. We did everything that we scouted and I think that is probably the main point as to our success tonight.”

Johnson returned from an injury to record 49 assists and 12 digs in her first match since the team’s opening weekend.

The Aztecs claimed the first set 25-21, but Utah State responded to claim the second set 25-23.

The Aggies received a setback in the third set when senior middle blocker Carly Lenzen went down with a knee injury.

“We were all very devastated for Carly,” said senior outside hitter Lauren Anderson. “That took us a little to come back from, because we are a family, and when one of us is hurt, we really feel for that person. Then we came back and we were like, ‘OK we are just gonna do this for Carly, and we’re gonna come back and play our game.’ It ended up working out for us.’”

Utah State rebounded after the injury to claim the third set 25-14 and the fourth set 25-19. Early in the frenetic final frame a block at the net by USU sent San Diego State’s outside hitter Alexandra Psoma tumbling across the floor to attempt the save, resulting in the Aggies scoring their second point of the game. The sequence launched a tightly-contested stretch with the Aztecs and Aggies tying at 3-3, 4-4, 7-7, 8-8 and 12-12, before USU finally pulled away for the win.

Anderson tied a career-high with 23 kills while hitting .308 in the match. Senior Kayla DeCoursey also recorded 13 kills with a .345 hitting percentage.

The win pushed USU to 9-4 on the season. The Aggies hope to keep the momentum going on Saturday against Fresno State at 1 p.m. in the Wayne Estes Center.