Volleyball drops match to high-powered Hawaii, 4-1
What started out as a stellar night Saturday for the Utah State women’s volleyball team ended in a sour way, as the Aggies fell to the 11th-ranked University of Hawaii in four sets, 3-1. Senior outside hitter Liz McArthur led the Aggies with 16 kills, but USU was no match for the high-powered Rainbow Wahine.
“We have to be able to sustain stuff for a long period of time, and I think, when I look at us, I think we’re getting there; but we’re not getting there fast enough,” head coach Grayson DuBose stated about the match. “We need to get there a little bit quicker. Emotion is a big deal for our team. I think the more passion we can show, the better.”
After giving up a quick lead to Hawaii, Utah State went on a run, to take the lead early in the first set, at 5-3. As the teams traded points, the competition and intensity heightened. The officials issued Hawaii head coach Dave Shoji a warning, as he contested a call. The Aggies used their momentum and went on a decisive 9-0 run to put the Rainbow Wahine on their heels, taking the first set, 25-21. Junior opposite hitter Shay Sorensen had a big first set for the Aggies with five kills, hitting an impressive .333 for the set.
After a strong first set, things started to fall apart for the Aggies. Senior Wahine outside hitter Kanani Danielson and freshman Wahine Jane Croson started to pound the USU defense and had little trouble scoring.
“Those girls are good hitters, and they are all-Americans for a reason,” DuBose said, “They got better as the match went on. They started to figure out things that were taken away early, they hit around us after awhile, particularly in that second and third game.”
The Aggies managed to crawl back into the second set and only trailed by two at 16-18, but the Rainbow Wahine used a 7-0 run to close out the set, 25-16.
Hawaii kept pouring it on through the third set, as the Aggie offense was unable to get things going on offense; nor were they able to stop the opposition on defense. Even all-American McArthur, who ranks in the top 10 in Utah State history, in kills, had a rough time with the Rainbow Wahine defense.
“We just started making little errors,” said junior libero Laurel Bodily. “One thing kind of led to another, and it just kind of built upon itself.”
Bodily, who ranks second in the Western Athletic Conference, in digs per set, had a hard time turning back the powerful Hawaii hitters.
“You make one error, and then you make another, and your emotion kind of goes downhill with it,” Bodily said. “It’s just important for us as a team to stay up and keep our emotion.”
Bodily finished with a respectable 21 digs on the night. Utah State never rebounded from the early third set deficit and dropped the set by a score of 15-25.
The Aggies held their ground throughout the fourth set, jumping to the lead early. Hawaii slowly crawled their way back into it, however, and USU was never able to take the lead back once it surrendered it.
“We needed to get more excited,” Sorensen said. “That’s what we do best, what we do well. We come together as a team.”
Utah State dropped the set, 20-25, bringing the match to a not-so-happy end.
With the loss, the Aggies slipped to 1-1 in WAC play, and 6-9 on the season. USU will look to rebound as it embarks on a three-game road trip, over the next week and a half, including visits to conference foes Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State and Idaho.
Coach DuBose said he hopes for the best the rest of the season.
“We have a nice team,” he said. “If we can believe in it, we can keep rolling.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu