Volleyball club on the road again
Opportunities to play during the last month have been few, but the Utah State men’s volleyball club is geared up to play four tournaments in the next six weeks, starting Friday in Arizona.
In their second conference tournament of the season, the Aggies will travel to the University of Arizona to compete in a two-day, 12-team tournament. The tournament will consist primarily of teams from Utah and Arizona.
The Aggies’ last conference tournament was Jan. 17 and 18 at the University of Utah, and since then the Aggies have had the opportunity to play one tournament and one home match.
At Southern Utah University on Feb. 7 and 8, the Aggies were able to sweep through the tournament and take first place. In the process, they didn’t lose a match and lost only one game, to Colorado State University.
Although some of the stronger teams, such as the University of Utah, were not in attendance, USU Head Coach Adam Longmore said it was still a good victory for the team.
“It was a little bit lesser competition, and we knew that going in,” he said. “Our goal going in was to not lose a match and to not lose a game. In all but three or four games, we held our opponents to less than 20.”
The important thing for the tournament,Longmore said, was that the team kept its intensity up.
“We were intense the whole weekend, which we’ve struggled with some times, so it was good to see that happen,” he said. “Anytime you take first place at a tournament, that’s got to build your confidence.”
Aggie outside hitter/defensive specialist Jason Stout said, “Every time we get a chance to play competitively we improve. Especially in the SUU tournament we did really well, gained a lot of confidence and beat some teams by some huge margins.”
Tuesday the Aggies returned home to play their first home match of the spring. In front of a crowd of approximately 200, USU defeated Salt Lake Community College in four games, 25-18, 26-28, 26-24, 27-25.
In the third and fourth games, Utah State had to play from behind, recovering from five points back, 19-14, in the fourth game.
“We’re not used to having to come from behind to win,” Longmore said. “We’ re used to having a lead and not being behind. It’s kind of a new situation. I think playing in here and being in this atmosphere was a part of that reason. Knowing that we can come back, that’s a good sign.”
Aggie libero Justin Keith said the team is able to build momentum when it can come from behind.
“We had a couple of opportunities in the tournament where we had to come back from being down, and it builds our momentum and gets our confidence so far up that in the next game, if we do have another one, we just seem to carry that,” he said.
A lot of the credit for the win over SLCC went to Keith.
“Justin passed nails again for us,” Longmore said. “Anytime we win a match we usually look to him as the reason why.”
Riding their recent wins into the upcoming tournaments, the Aggies will be looking to improve in the standings.
Longmore said the conference tournaments count more toward rankings than other tournaments, such as the one at SUU.
In the latest rankings, USU is No. 6 in the Mountain West Volleyball conference, but is also ranked No. 6 nationally among Division II teams.
“The team is doing really well this year,” Stout said. “I believe that is the highest the school has ever been ranked, so this is the best chance we’ve had.”
Teams choose their division based upon the competition level they want to play at, although teams from the different divisions still compete against each other in tournaments and play in the same conference.
For the Arizona tournament, Utah State will be sending two teams, giving more players an opportunity to play, but leaving USU without any substitutes.
“It’s bad in a way because we don’t have subs, and whenever we have subs we play better,” Longmore said.
Despite the tougher competition and the split of the squad into two teams, the Aggies are still expecting to do well at Arizona.
“We’re going to play a lot of schools that are not in our division,” he said. “They’re in a higher division, but we think we can hang with them as well. As far as our chances, I think we have a really good shot.”
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu