Volleyball defeats Colorado State in four sets
Utah State volleyball beat Colorado State 3-1 on Saturday afternoon in the Wayne Estes Center.
The Aggies (9-4, 2-0 MWC) have played well as of late, winning four of their last five prior to Saturday’s contest, with the lone loss coming from No. ten-ranked BYU. They opened Mountain West conference play on Thursday night, handing previously undefeated Wyoming their first loss.
The Rams (6-7, 0-2 MWC) had played a challenging schedule to start the season. Despite their losing record, the Rams have impressed voters with wins over Colorado, Michigan and Kentucky. They have also received consecutive votes in the AVCA women’s volleyball rankings.
Utah State has been successful in the Wayne Estes Center and this game was no different.
The team came out with energy and went up 3-0 out of the gate. The Rams responded by taking eight of the next ten points to go up 8-5.
The teams exchanged blows until Utah State’s run put the Aggies ahead 18-11. The Rams were unable to recover and USU took the first set 25-20.
The second set had the Aggies up 9-6 early on before Colorado State used a five-point scoring run to get ahead. Down 9-11, head coach Rob Nielson took a timeout to slow down the momentum.
An emphatic kill out of the timeout by graduate outside hitter Shelby Capllonch brought the Aggies within one but the Rams responded with another extended scoring run. This time, the Aggies could not weather the storm and dropped the set 25-21.
The third set started with consecutive kills by Utah State outside hitters Adna Mehmedovic and Tatum Stall, resulting in a 3-0 Aggie lead.
In a contest decided by large point swings, the Rams responded with six of the next seven points to go up 6-4. They would trade blows, eventually finding themselves tied at 20 all. Another kill by Capllonch would break the tie and spark an Aggie run winning them the set.
Capllonch had 18 kills in the contest, the most by any Aggie this season. A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, Capllonch spent three seasons at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was a member of the 2020-2021 rebel team that made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and earned all-conference honorable mention honors before transferring to Utah State.
In her first year in Logan, she was named Mountain West Conference tournament MVP and helped the Aggies advance to the NCAA tournament.
“Shelby is so great for us,” Nielson said. “She’s a winner in every regard and there’s no surprise that she played great because that’s just what we expect from her.”
The Aggies were able to maintain momentum from set three to overpower the Rams in the fourth.
“That fourth set, things really started to come together,” senior middle blocker Kelsey Watson said. “We just continued to get better offensively and defensively.”
The Aggies won fourteen of the last sixteen points to put the exclamation point on the 3-1 conference win. They will be back in action Thursday when they travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take on the Lobos at 6:30 MT.