Volleyball back on track with win
The Utah State women’s volleyball team got back on track Thursday night in the Specturm, sweeping California State University at Fullerton in three games, 30-18, 30-24, 30-24.
Thursday’s game was the first game for the Aggies back in the Spectrum since Oct.13.
“It’s nice to get back home,” USU Head Coach Burt Fuller said. “Five road matches is always a struggle.”
Setter Chelsi Neves said, “It was nice to win again. After a tough week, we’re back.”
Fuller said, “Our kids are healthy again and we want to start a new week.”
The Aggies were missing three players from their last match due to illness .
In game one, the Aggies began to pull away early, taking a 6-3 lead. Fullerton was able to come back and tie the game at 8-8, but a five-point run by the Aggies put USU solidly in the lead at 15-9.
Utah State kept pulling away, combining several short runs with strong defense to out-distance Fullerton and go on to the 30-18 victory.
In the first game, the Aggies held the Titans to a paltry -.020 hitting percentage on seven kills and eight errors. The Aggies hit .255 with 18 kills and only five errors.
The Aggies kept things rolling in the second game, slowly building a lead. Combing several three-and four-point runs, the Aggies went up 26-14. Fullerton was not about to make it easy for the Aggies, though, reeling off nine of the next 11 points to close to within five at 28-23.
However, the Aggies were able to hold on for the victory when a powerful kill straight down the middle of the court by middle blocker Hailey MacKay, putting the game away for the Aggies, giving them the 30-24 win in game two.
The Titan offense improved somewhat in game two, increasing to .115 hitting, but they were unable to match the .310 posted by the Aggies.
Early in the third game, it looked as if the Aggies were going to run away with the match, going up 5-2, but Fullerton came back and held the lead as late as 10-12.
The Aggies were able to rally, however.
With Neves serving, the Aggies ran off nine straight points. Errors by the Titans and an ace by Neves put USU up by one, 13-12. After four points the Titans tried to curb the run by calling time-outs, but the Aggies continued to roll off kills by MacKay and outside hitters Shauni Fluckiger and Cartwright.
With the Aggies up 19-12, Fullerton called another time-out and was finally able to put an end to the Aggies scoring run.
“We talk about three segments in the game,” Fuller said. “I looked up at the scoreboard and it was 10-10, then I looked up again and it was 19-12. We just finished out from there.”
For the third straight game, the Aggies out hit the Titans, .224 to .057. For the match, the Aggies hit .261 while holding Fullerton to only .052 hitting. The Aggies had 54 kills and 17 errors while the Titans had 36 kills to go with 28 errors.
Fluckiger said, “We set a team goal of .250 and we worked on our hitting in practice.”
Utah State was led for the night by Fluckiger and MacKay who both had 10 kills and Cartwright who had 11 kills, while hitting .346. Outside hitter Lisa Borom also turned in a solid game, recording nine kills, while leading the team with 12 digs. Middle blocker Michelle Matheson led the Aggies in hitting percentage, hitting .500 with eight kills and zero errors.
“Hailey gave us some good backside work and it was one of Erin’s better nights,” Fuller said. “Once again, Michelle hit .500.”
After sitting out in the Aggies loss to the University of California Santa Barbara on Saturday due to illness, Cartwright said she was glad to be back.
“It feels great, I can’t imagine sitting again,” Cartwright said. “I was pumped up and excited to be back, but I was also a little angry [from sitting out in the loss].”
On the other side of the ball, the Aggie defense was able to hold Fullerton. Three Fullerton players finished with negative hitting percentages and only outside hitter Megan Sabo recorded double digits in kills, with 12.
The Aggies held outside hitter Jaclyn Owen, who averages 1.51 kills on the season, to -.286 hitting with only one kill. 6-foot-3 middle blocker Be Holcombe was also shut down by the average, hitting -.143 with zero kills.
“We did great on defense,” Fluckiger said. “We were more disciplined, we waited and read the ball.
The Aggies out dug Fullerton in the game, 72-60 and had 43 assists to the Titan’s 29.
The one apparent downside for the Aggies in the match was their serving. Though the Aggies had three aces, they had 11 service errors compared to only three for Fullerton.
“We talked about serving tough,” Fuller said. “You pick up more errors when you are serving tougher. With three aces we should be around six or seven errors.”
“I think it will work in the long run,” Cartwright said. “We are working on putting them [the opponent] in trouble and taking them out of their system.”
For one of the few times this year, the Aggies had a size advantage over their opponent. Fullerton only started one player over six feet tall while the Aggies started three.
“I think our kids are good but they’re not the biggest,” Fuller said. If we can match up size for size we’re in good shape.”
In the victory, the Aggies were also able to relax and have some fun.
“We haven’t enjoyed our last games,” Fluckiger said. “Tonight we were playing to have fun.”
Neves said, “It was a comfort to play at home, we always play good here.”
With the victory on Thursday, the Aggies are now 12-8 overall, 8-3 in the Big West.
The Aggies will return to action on Saturday for the second game of a three game home stand. The Aggies will meet up against the University of California at Riverside. In the first meeting between the two teams at Riverside, the Aggies won in three games.
Riverside is currently in last place in the conference.
“These are our big matches,” Fuller said.