Volleyball ends bad California trip on good note
It was a weekend of action for the Utah State women’s volleyball team as they traveled to California, to face a pair of Big West foes in University of California-Irvine and Cal State-Fullerton. The Aggies split their doubleheader, falling in four sets to UC-Irvine and bouncing back for an impressive 3-1 victory over the Titans.
Utah State moved to 5-8 on the season with the split, while UC-Irvine moved to 6-4, and Cal State-Fullerton dropped to 5-6.
Senior all-American outside hitter Liz McArthur led the Aggies in the loss against Irvine, finishing with 17 kills and a .255 hitting percentage. The Aggies were effective on offense, going on a 5-2 run at the end of the first set to take the win.
The Anteaters bounced back to win the next three with relative ease, 25-20, 25-10, and 25-17.
After suffering five straight losses, the Aggies got back into the win column with the victory over the Titans, thanks to the play of junior outside hitter Josselyn White, who led USU, recording 13 kills and a team-high 18 points.
“Josselyn played great,” head coach Grayson DuBose said. “She is really stepping up as kind of a leader on our team, and we need her to do that.”
The 6-foot-3 White, who is a Cache Valley native, came up big for the Aggies and was instrumental in bouncing back from a first-set loss.
DuBose explained what sparked the turn around.
“You know, I thought we just started playing with some passion, we got some energy and some enthusiasm, and we just kind of kept bringing the ball up and taking a swing,” he said.
The first set saw the two teams play even, before the Titans slowly edged ahead and closed out the set with a 25-20 win.
The Aggies bounced back though, and, in a very back-and-forth second set, it was USU that came away with the win, edging out Cal State 25-22.
Utah State never looked back at that point, putting the final two sets away with moderately comfortable wins, 25-19 and 25-19.
Coach DuBose spoke for the team in how glad they were to get back into the win column.
“We worked hard,” he said. “We got better as a team. Winning is fun and we’ve been on a slide for a little while, so it’s nice to get off that.”
It was an all-around team performance that got the Aggies the win. With red-shirt freshman setter Paige Neves feeding White the rock, and solid outings defensively from freshman libero Ashlan Rogers and junior Laurel Bodily, USU played well on both sides of the ball.
“Those guys made a big difference tonight, ” DuBose said. “They were both back there chasing some balls down, they took a bunch of digs back there, and Ashlan was up there digging a bunch of tips over the blocks. They were able to not only dig balls but turn them for points.”
Bodily and Rogers had 17 and 13 digs, respectively, while Neves recorded 37 assists on the night.
Utah State will return to the Spectrum this week to play host to Western Athletic Conference rivals San Jose State and Hawaii.
The two matches will be big on
es for the Aggies, as it’s their conference play openers, and the Rainbow Wahine of Hawaii are ranked No. 9 in the country.
“We have some big matches coming up, and it would be great to have a bunch of people come out,” DuBose said. “It would be really cool to have them come out.”
USU will face San Jose State Thursday, at 8 p.m., and then takes on Hawaii in an afternoon matinee at 2 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu