Utah State spikers continue perfection at home
Utah State volleyball Head Coach Burt Fuller enjoys having freshman Beth Hodge as part of his team. Her name brings a smile to his face and he stumbles to find the words to describe her play.
Hodge may not be the sole reason the Aggies have been having a successful season so far, but her impact on the court is definitely being felt.
The Broken Arrow, Okla. native led USU with 14 kills with a .387 hitting percentage en route to a 3-0 defeat (30-21, 30-27, 30-20) over Big West Conference foe Idaho on Friday in the Spectrum.
“For a freshman, she is a very mature kid. She is coachable,” Fuller said. “She just keeps plugging away. She meets challenges real well and has a great live arm.”
Her first obstacle of the season was simply having jitters during the opening tournament at Weber State. Hodge played decently against Southwest Texas University, but then really came into her own against her hometown school, Oral Roberts.
She said she was kind of taken aback at first by the size of the crowd at the Dee Events Center and of her opponents. In the second game she held nothing back, hitting .560 with 16 kills.
“She’s been very good most of the time and pretty good the other times,” Fuller said. “She hasn’t had a bad match. It may come, but she has been very good as a freshman.”
Hodge said, “I have my moments.”
And one of her moments happened to come at the perfect time for USU against the Vandals. Aggie sophomore Zuzana Cernianska recorded nine kills before leaving the match after tweaking her right elbow in the second game. Cernianska did come back to play a little in the final contest, but Fuller took her out again as a precautionary measure.
“We really just had to step it up at the end when we had Zuzie go out,” Hodge said. “We knew that everyone else had to step it up and play a step harder. Once you get past the 25-point mark we just take off.”
USU finished the final game with a 6-3 run to secure the match. Not only were the Aggies able to get kills when they needed them, but they were maintaining a consistent hitting percentage.
Prior to the match, Idaho led the Big West Conference in hitting percentage at .258 and was second in hitting percentage by an opponent (.187).
“We kept them well below theirs’ [.142] and were above what they’ve been giving [.246], so that was important for us,” Fuller said. “I don’t know that we passed well, but we passed everything they threw at us.”
Which would be hard for Idaho to say.
The Aggies recorded seven service aces, while the Vandals didn’t have a single one. USU’s Erin Cartwright led the team with three service aces, including back-to-back aces in the final game to give the Aggies an 8-3 advantage.
“I’ve really been working on going from corner-to-corner and aiming for the end line because a lot of teams can’t see if they’re going in or out,” Cartwright said.
And it worked. The Vandals started reaching for serves that may have been going out and then found themselves in even more trouble as they raced around the court out of position.
Idaho middle blocker Anna-Marie Hammond led the Vandals with 18 kills while hitting .353, but was held to just two kills on eight attempts in the third game.
“Cartwright had six block assists, so she was able to slow down Hammond a little bit,” Fuller said. “It was nice to slow her down.”
The Aggies continue their homestand Thursday at 7 p.m. as they play Long Beach State.
-juag@cc.usu.edu