Volleyball team sweeps Fresno
With nearly perfect passing, seniors Ingrid Roth and Erin Graybill led the Utah State women’s volleyball team to a three-game win over Fresno State Monday night in the Spectrum.
“We passed a 2.5 out of 3,” Graybill said. “That’s pretty much unreal. That’s great passing.”
Because of a sprained ankle, USU was without Zuzana Cernianska, who leads the Western Atheletic Conference with 4.73 kills per game and is ranked 29th nationally with 4.75 kills per game.
However, sans their senior outside hitter, the Aggies dominated from the middle. Roth tied her career high with 17 kills while Graybill got a new career high with 15 kills.
In all three games, Utah State came out struggling. Errors abounded on both sides of the court as USU traded points with the Bulldogs for much of game one, with neither team able to gain the advantage.
But late in the game, the Aggies turned it on and won 30-24.
In game two, the errors were even more obvious. Fresno led 15-13, but had only scored four of its points. The rest came from hitting errors and four service errors on the Aggies’ side.
“Serving is something we need to continually improve on,” Roth said. “It’s not something you’re not trying hard enough, you’re trying too hard. You’re overcommitted mentally.”
After tying the game at 24, USU took the lead for the first time that game after a hitting error by Fresno put USU up 25-24.
The Aggies held onto their fragile lead and pulled out a 30-27 win.
In the final game, Utah State was finally able to get a foothold over the Bulldogs late in the game by breaking a 21-21 tie. The Aggies had a 9-0 run to give them the 30-21 win.
“We were good after 20,” Graybill said. “We were steady after 20. We could pull it out and win. That’s what we did in all three of the games.”
The first time the Aggies faced Fresno, it was a much different story.
Despite being on the road, USU fought hard against the Bulldogs. But after five games, the Ags fell. It wasn’t going to happen this time.
“I think revenge is a key factor,” Graybill said. “I think we were pretty fired up to beat them. Back there, we knew we probably should have won.”
Red-shirt sophomore Beth Hodge was the only other Aggie in double digits, with 11 kills.
Junior Dominique Arsenault set up the offense with 47 assists.
For Fresno State, Alisha McKee put up 14 kills while Cheryl Selenak led the defense with 14 digs.
With the win, Utah State improved to 14-9 overall and 6-3 in WAC play.
Fresno State fell to 4-15 on the season and 2-7 in conference play with the loss.
Coming into the game, the Aggies were ranked fifth in the WAC.
USU Head Coach Burt Fuller said it is right where he expected them to be.
“I anticipated our conference having a big cluster right there after Hawai’i,” he said. “Right now we’ve got three teams with three losses. It’s that cluster. We’ve had a significant injury to us, Nevada has had a significant injury to them.
“Those things happen, you’ve just got to work through that. That’s what we did tonight.”
The Aggies will next head back on the road again to face San Jose State Saturday.
Last time the Ags saw SJS, they were able to pull out a 3-1 win over the Spartans in the Spectrum.
After that game, the volleyball team will return home to host Idaho Nov. 2 in the Spectrum. The game will begin at 7 p.m.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu
Utah State’s Beth Hodge serves to Fresno State during Monday’s match at the Spectrum. The Aggies won the match in three games. (Callie Grover)