Volleyball finishes 2-2 in tourney
It’s always good to find positives among the negatives. The USU women’s volleyball team was able to do that over the weekend, as they won two of four matches as part of the Oral Roberts Classic in Tulsa, Okla. Senior libero Kelsi Peterson was named to the all-tournament team for USU (7-7), and a handful of Aggies set career-high numbers. Also, junior outside hitter Beth Hodge, who was sidelined for the four games before the Classic with a stress fracture in her left leg, saw action in all four games over the weekend. The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (9-6) won the Classic, going 4-0. USU finished third. The Aggies’ victories came Friday night against the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (a five-game victory) and Saturday afternoon against the St. Francis Terriers. The five-game victory over the Trojans was the second match this season for USU that went a full five games. The other five-game contest came Friday morning as the Aggies lost to the Texas-Arlington Mavericks. To conclude the tournament, USU fell to the tournament hosts, the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, 3-1. Mavericks 3, Aggies 2 Though a loss to open up the tournament, the Aggies certainly did not play poorly. USU outside hitter Amanda Nielson led her team with a career-high 26 kills and a career-high 17 digs, while freshman Hailey Jeppson added 13 kills and a season-high 23 digs. The Aggies tallied a season-high 80 kills against the Mavericks and had better offensive production in three of the five games, but 41 hitting errors committed by USU was its downfall. Defensively, the Aggies also had a strong showing,recording a season-high 108 kills, the most from an Aggie team since 2003. Other bright spots on the Aggie side: Danielle Taylor, a freshman, had a career-high 11 kills and hit .348. Heather Hillier, sophomore setter, recorded 66 assists and 19 digs (both career highs for her). Peterson had a season-high 31 digs.Aggies 3, Trojans 2 Nielson went all out in this one. She tallied 32 kills and 19 digs to top the career-high performance she put on earlier in the day. It had been three years since an Aggie put up those kinds of numbers (Erin Cartwright had 33 kills against Cal State Fullerton in 2003). In the victory, the Aggies were consistent, hitting more than .120 in every game. Jeppson posted a season-high 16 kills and also had 17 digs. Melissa Larson had a season-high 14 kills to go along with nine blocks.Aggies 3, Terriers 0 Coming into the weekend the Terriers (a school with an enrollment of 2,300) had not won a game since the 2004 season. Things stayed the same. Monarisa Ale led USU with 10 kills in the three-game win (30-13, 30-19, 30-21) over the Terriers (0-9). Taylor had eight kills and four digs. Tiffany Morril, daughter of head basketball coach Stew Morrill, saw playing time for the first time this season. Morrill had four blocks and two kills. It was the fourth time this season the Aggies have swept an opponent.Golden Eagles 3, Aggies 1 Nielson again led the Aggies, tallying 21 kills in the four-game loss (24-30, 14-30, 30-25, 26-30). Peterson had a match-high 23 digs. In that third game USU won, hitting .279 with 18 kills. The Golden Eagles’ Ori Zuzic had a match-high 25 kills to go along with 18 digs. The tournament in Tulsa was the final set of non-conference games the Aggies will play this season.
Fresno State visits Logan Thursday at 7 p.m., and San Jose State comes Saturday at the same time. -sbhislop@cc.usu.edu