UVU snaps Aggies’ six-game win streak

A trip to Orem Thursday night cooled off the red-hot Aggie volleyball team, as they were swept by Utah Valley, ending their six-match winning streak.

For USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose, the loss was a product of a good Wolverine team, not the trip south.

“(Utah Valley was) on fire in every single way you can be on fire,” he said. “They hit well. They blocked well. They served well. They were just better than us tonight.”

It wouldn’t have been hard to outhit the Aggies (15-11, 9-4 in Western Athletic Conference play), who hit a dismal .095 on the night.

DuBose said they didn’t pass well, but credits the Wolverine servers for keeping the Aggies out of their offense and recording six aces.

“We were out of system a lot more than we were in system, which makes it a challenge for our hitters,” he said.

Senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson’s streak of six-straight matches with at least 24 kills also ended – she only had 14. Junior outside hitter Melissa Osterloh added 11 kills and 10 digs for USU. Osterloh has had a double-double in the last five matches.

Game 1 was a blowout, with Utah State only mustering 18 points. But USU came back in the next two games to lose in closer, 30-26 games.

The loss, the first ever to Utah Valley, was the first in almost two weeks, but it may not be all bad.

“It should allow us to refocus,” DuBose said. “The one thing we’ve been able to do well over the last few years is kind of bounce back after a loss.”

The Aggies will face WAC opponent Idaho in Moscow Monday night.

“We’ve just got to concentrate on the WAC now, the things we can control,” he said. “And that’s the most important thing, our conference schedule, so that we can go into our conference tournament on a little bit of a roll, with some confidence.”

– da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu