Nov. 12, 2007

Final Stats

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State's women's volleyball team notched its biggest win of the 2007 season late Sunday night with a shocking three-game sweep against No. 10 Hawai'i (30-28, 31-29, 30-27) here at the Stan Sheriff Center. With the win, Utah State concludes its regular season with a 17-12 record, and finishes in third-place in the Western Athletic Conference with an 11-5 league record.

Hawai'i, who finishes its regular season at 21-5, including a 15-1 league mark, had won 97 straight WAC matches at home and was 169-2 (.988) in WAC play since joining the league for volleyball in 1996. Utah State entered the match against Hawai'i having lost 20 straight contests to the Rainbow Wahine.

The win for the Aggies is its first over a ranked opponent since it defeated then 24th-ranked UC Santa Barbara in five games on Sept. 15, 2005. The last time Utah State defeated a team ranked in the top 10 was on Sept. 12, 2000 when it beat then 10th-ranked BYU in three games in Logan.

"It is a nice shot in the arm for our team to get this win and it's also a validation of all the things we've been working on throughout the year," said second-year USU head coach Grayson DuBose. "I thought we did a nice job of keeping them out of system and they had a few hitters make some uncharacteristic errors, which allowed us to stay in the match."

Utah State was led by senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson (West Valley City, Utah) who had 17 kills, while sophomore middle blocker Danielle Taylor (Springville, Utah) recorded 11 kills and five blocks and hit .533 (11-3-15). Junior outside hitter Melissa Osterloh (Sandy, Utah) also had a solid match for the Aggies as she recorded nine kills, eight digs and a season-high eight blocks.

Anelis Cubi-Otineru had 16 kills and seven digs to lead Hawai'i, while Jamie Houston added 10 kills.

Utah State began the match by hitting .243 (15-6-37) in the opening game, while limiting Hawai'i to a .128 (15-10-39) hitting percentage to notch the two-point win as the Aggies scored the final two points of the game. USU then hit .308 (17-5-39) in the second game as compared to a .180 (19-10-50) hitting percentage for UH to take a 2-0 lead in the match as it scored the final three points in the game. In the third and final game, USU hit .343 (14-2-35), while the Rainbow Wahine hit .209 (18-9-43). Once again, Utah State rallied late as it scored the final four points after trailing 27-26 to win the match.

Utah State finished the match by hitting .297 (46-13-111) as compared to a .174 (52-29-132) hitting percentage for Hawai'i. USU also recorded 7.5 more team blocks (13.5-6.0), while UH had six more digs (46-40) and five more service aces (6-1).

Utah State will enter the 2007 WAC Tournament held in Las Cruces, N.M., as the third-seed and play sixth-seeded San Jose State (13-14, 7-9) on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. (MT). USU swept the season series with the Spartans, winning in four games in Logan and in three games in San Jose. All-time, Utah State is 6-14-1 against SJSU. This will be the third time USU has played in the WAC Tournament and it owns a 2-2 all-time record in the tournament as it advanced to the championship game in 2005.

Utah State 3, No. 10 Hawai'i 0
USU            30            31            30
UH             28            29            27