Utah State Volleyball spears Spartans to win MW Championship, advance to NCAAs

FORT COLLINS — The third time is the charm for Utah State volleyball.  

San Jose State had the Aggies number in the regular season, sweeping USU in California and edging them out in 5 sets in Logan. 

When it mattered most, though, the Aggies got the job done. 

In the Mountain West Tournament Championship game on Friday night in the Moby Arena, Utah State played its best volleyball of the year, defeating the Spartans 3-1 (24-26, 25-15, 25-17 25-19) to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010. 

A year after USU clinched a share of the regular season conference title but bowed out in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament with a loss to Boise State, the Aggies left no doubt.

Despite being the fourth seed in the tournament, Utah State played like the top team in the league throughout, sweeping both New Mexico and one-seeded UNLV — the latter was on a 17-match win streak — before taking down the Spartans. 

“We love playing that team because they’re such a big challenge,” head coach Rob Neilson told the Mountain West Network. “It was going to be tough. It wasn’t going to be pretty.”

After San Jose State dropped the first set 26-24, the match was dominated by Utah State, who outscored the Spartans 75-50 the rest of the way. 

All-MW junior Tatum Stall led the Aggies with a match-high 17 kills, 18 points and 48 attacks. Seniors Kylee Stokes and Kennedi Boyd both had a match-high 6 blocks and freshman Leah Wilton-Laboy led the match with 21 assists.  

Utah State will learn it’s seed and opponent for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at 5:30 P.M. on ESPN U.