WAC tuen-up in Tulsa awaits Ags
Time is the answer, but also the limitation for the USU women’s volleyball team.
The Aggies (5-5), a young squad who have struggled with lack of experience against top-rate teams early this season, have four more matches (all of them coming this weekend) before play begins against the Western Athletic Conference competition Sept. 21.
USU travels to Tulsa, Okla., to compete in the Oral Roberts Classic for games Friday and Saturday.
The Texas-Arlington Mavericks (9:30 a.m.) and the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (1:30 p.m.) will be the Aggies’ opponents Friday.
The St. Francis Terriers of Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., (1:30 p.m) and the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (6 p.m.) will take on the Aggies Saturday.
After USU’s three-game loss to 19th-ranked BYU Tuesday night, Aggie Head Coach Grayson DuBose underlined inexperience under pressure as his team’s primary problem, especially considering they were one point away from winning game one against the Cougars.
“Time is the difference,” DuBose said. “I always tell them that the difference between good and great is time. Anybody can be good for a short period, but the great guys are good for a long period of time.”
After playing the Cougars close in game one, even holding the lead for the majority of the time, USU had a letdown in game two, where BYU out-hit them .621 to .147.
It was a similar story last Friday night on the University of Utah’s Crimson Court in Salt Lake City.
The Aggies played the 24th-ranked Utes tight, losing game one by five and game two by seven before collapsing in game three to lose by 19.
“We have to be better over time,” DuBose stressed.
USU might have a little help on their side already.
The Aggies come into this weekend’s tournament as one of the two teams among the five there that do not have a losing record.
The Mavericks (7-4) are the other. They lost to Tulsa and Washington State last week. At the moment, the Mavericks’ top player is freshman outside hitter Teena Sobczak, who is hitting .212 and averaging 3.46 kills, 3.68 digs and 0.51 blocks per game.
The Trojans (6-7) from Arkansas defeated Louisiana Tech of the WAC in three games last week.
The Terriers (0-5), a school that enrolls 2,300 students, have not won a game since the 2004 season. In 2005 they posted a 0-28 record.
The Aggies will be meeting them for the first time ever.
The Golden Eagles (5-6), have – like the Aggies – defeated the Weber State Wildcats this season, both teams doing so in three games.
Their top player, Ori Zuzic of Porec, Croatia, is hitting .216 and averaging just over five kills per game and nearly three digs.
The first match between the Aggies and Golden Eagles was in 2003 and the Aggies won.
With the exception of the winless Terriers from New York, each of the other three teams has a better hitting percentage than USU (.123).
“They’re gonna be good teams, and we’ll have to play well,” DuBose said.
On the other hand, USU has statistically been better defensively, on average holding opponents to a .125 hitting percentage.
That can be attributed to the blocking effort of USU.
Even with the loss from last year’s team of Ingrid Roth and Erin Graybill, the Aggies are averaging 2.68 blocks per game to rank fourth in the WAC.
The 2005 Aggies recorded 2.81 blocks per game (third in WAC).