Aggie volleyball sends Spartans home with loss

LOGAN – The USU women’s volleyball team beat the San José State Spartans in four sets Thursday night. The match was the first of two the Aggies will play in the Estes Center this week.

The Aggies won the first two sets, and they made it look easy. The first set was started by taking an early 12-2 lead before winning it 25-11. They dominated the second set as well, winning 25-17.

“We came out on fire and it was fun,” senior Kaitlyn VanHoff said. “I don’t know, things were just clicking.”

The third set wasn’t as easy. They would lose it 25-23 after making a comeback run that fell just short.

“I think you just got to get dialed in right off the bat,” head coach Grayson DuBose said. “And I thought we were in the first two games and in the last part of game three.”

The last set looked more like the first two. The Aggies came out fast and finished the Spartans 25-14. The win put USU at 7-8 for the season and 3-2 in conference play. San José State dropped to 3-14 on the year and 0-4 in conference.

DuBose used the match to give some of his players added experience by rotating in more than usual. Part of that rotation included giving Hannah Gleason more time at the libero position and giving freshman Maddie Day her first bit of playing time as an Aggie.

“We wanted to try and get as much experience as we could,” he said. “I thought this was a good opportunity for that to get them playing time, match time, court time in front of this large crowd.”

Two USU players reached some big marks in their volleyball career during the match. VanHoff had her 500th career block during the match and Rachel Orr’s 14 kills put her over the 1000 career mark.

Senior outside hitter Jamaica Alisa and junior opposite hitter both sat the match out. DuBose said they had tweaked ankles and resting them was precautionary.

The Aggies will continue play in the Estes Center Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. with a match against the Nevada Wolfpack.

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