Volleyball starts conference play strong
Volleyball took down the undefeated Cowgirls in a tie-breaking fifth set.
Following a disappointing loss to No. 12 BYU in three sets, the USU Women’s Volleyball team rebounded defeating Wyoming 3-2 in their conference opener on Thursday night.
Wyoming came into the match undefeated, but the Aggies were able to defend Club Estes and send the Cowgirls back to Laramie with their first loss of the season.
“It’s great to get a win and that’s a really tough Wyoming team playing with a lot of confidence,” head coach Rob Neilson said. “They gave us all we can handle from the service line and when teams do that they can be really tough to beat.”
The Aggies came out playing with intensity and winning the first set 25-18 but Wyoming would regain momentum winning the second set 25-23.
“Volleyball, such a great sport like that, right? You win big and then you start over, 0-0,” Neilson said. “I thought we got tentative in some moments and so it’s just how do we continue to stay aggressive and assert ourselves in the match.”
The same pattern in the first two sets would continue throughout the rest of the match. The Aggies came out of intermission and set the tone early in the third set. Beginning with six straight points, the Aggies never allowed Wyoming to have the lead and won the set 25-15.
The fourth set would prove to be much closer including 11 ties and four lead changes, but the Cowgirls were eventually able to force a fifth set by winning the fourth 28-26, despite the Aggies leading at 23-21 at one point. A less experienced team may have faltered, but the Aggies were able to bounce back and take the 5th set 15-6 and win the match 3-2.
“We knew what we had in us and we knew that we were the stronger team,” junior outside hitter Adna Mehmedovic said. “We knew we start matches strong and we just put the pressure on them and everything else kind of fell our way.”
Mehmedovic led the way on the attack for the Aggies finishing with a whopping 17 kills. Many of those were set up by sophomore setter Leah Wilton-LaBoy and junior setter Beatriz Rodrigues who combined for 48 assists in the match.
“We work every day with our setters to find connection and, man, this week we really put in the work with them and they found us and it showed in the game,” Mehmedovic said. Hats off to Leah and Bea they’re pushing our offense around and it’s setting us up for success.”
The Aggies improved to 8-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference play following their win against Wyoming. Coming off back-to-back conference championships, the team is aiming to complete the rare feat of winning three straight conference championships.
“We just have a seasoned group so it’s just about how do we continue to find rhythm and weather the ups and downs of the season,” Neilson said. “I think there’s so many ways that we put pressure on teams and we’re so deep and so talented in so many places. You have players coming off the bench and playing great. That’s what we want, just a group to compete their hearts out and we’ll see what happens.”
The Aggies have been a dominant force at home winning 23 of their last 27 matches in Logan. They have a quick turnaround, but look to continue their winning ways against Colorado State on Saturday afternoon.