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Volleyball Records First Victory Of The Season With A Four-Game Win Against Eastern Washington
Aug. 25, 2007
TUCSON, Ariz. - Utah State's volleyball team recorded its first win of the 2007 season on Saturday with a four-game win against Eastern Washington (30-26, 26-30, 30-27, 30-21) in the final day of competition at the Sheraton Four Points Wildcat Classic in Tucson, Ariz. USU finished the tournament in third-place with a 1-2 record, while EWU was fourth with an 0-3 mark. Senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson (West Valley City, Utah) led Utah State as she recorded her first double-double of the season with 21 kills and 13 digs, both of which are season-highs. Nielson, who hit .319 (21-6-47) in the match, also recorded a career-high six service aces in the contest. USU also got solid outings from junior outside hitter Melissa Osterloh (Sandy, Utah) and sophomore outside hitter Jessalyn Payne (Greeley, Colo.), as Osterloh recorded her second double-double of the season with 13 kills and 11 digs, while Payne tied her season-high with 18 digs. Eastern Washington had three players record 10 kills in the match and five players notch double-digits in digs led by Mandy Daniels who had a match-high 20. Despite recording five fewer kills (18-13) in the opening game, Utah State managed to record the four-point win as it had five fewer hitting errors (10-5) and hit .195 (13-5-41), while Eastern Washington hit .167 (18-10-48). In game two Utah State had two more kills (17-15), but also had five more hitting errors (9-4) and lost by four points as it was out-hit .250 (15-4-44) to .186 (17-9-43). The pattern continued in the final two games as USU had four fewer kills in the third game (17-13) and one fewer kill in game four (14-13) but won both as the Eagles recorded a combined 16 hitting errors in both games as compared to 11 for Utah State. Utah State finished the match with eight fewer kills (64-56) than Eastern Washington and five fewer hitting errors (30-25). USU did win the battle at the net with 2.5 more team blocks (9.5 to 7.0) and recorded two more service aces in the match (9-7), while also committing seven fewer service errors (12-5). Overall, USU hit .200 (56-25-155) in the match as compared to a .186 (64-30-183) hitting percentage for Eastern Washington.
Utah State will return to action on Friday, Aug. 31 when it travels to Bozeman, Mont., to compete in the Holiday Inn Classic. USU will open the tournament against Texas A&M on Friday and then play Montana State and Washington State on Saturday. Utah State 3, Eastern Washington 1 EWU 26 30 27 21 USU 30 26 30 30 |
