Utah State Volleyball Looks to the Future

After advancing to the NCAA Tournament the past two years and then failing to do so this season, the Utah State women's volleyball team's season was a disappointment, but not a failure.

"Our season was not a failure because we didn't make the tournament," said Head Coach Burt Fuller. "If that's the case, then there are a lot of failures across the country. We're disappointed where we finished, and we're going to try to get that up next year."

With only six players returning from last season's No. 21-ranked team, the Aggies had nine spots on their roster to fill. Utah State filled these spots by bringing in four transfer students and five freshmen.

"We lost five seniors the year before, and we replaced those with freshmen," Fuller said. "There is always going to be some learning to be done there. We were just a young group."

The season opened on the road with nine matches spread over three preseason tournaments.

At the Southwest Missouri State Tournament, Utah State dropped its first two matches before picking up its first win of the season, a 3-1 victory over Southeast Missouri State.

The next week, the Aggies improved to .500 with a 2-1 record at the Longhorn Classic in Texas. Preseason play finished in Rhode Island where the Aggies went 2-1, suffering a 3-2 loss to Baylor University in the final game of the tournament.

Sitting at 5-4, Utah State opened Big West Conference play at home against the University of California Irvine and No. 6 Long Beach State University. The Aggies fell 3-1 and 3-0 in the two matches.

USU's first conference victory came with a 3-1 victory at the University of Idaho.

After loses at then No. 7 University of California Santa Barbara and California Polytechnic State University, USU returned home to face in-state rival BYU in what was to be one of the biggest matches of the season.

"BYU is always a match you want to win, because they're in-state and typically they have a very good program," said USU outside hitter Rickie Rigby.

Last year the Aggies defeated BYU twice, once in Provo and a second time in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The match stayed close before the Aggies gained the momentum in the fifth game and held on for the 3-2 victory.

"I think anytime you can beat BYU in the season, that's a big match for you," Fuller said. "It was a close match. It was kind of a seesaw match, back-and-forth, and we were able to finish strong and get that match done."

Riding the momentum, the Aggies picked up back-to-back home wins over the University of California Riverside and California State University Fullerton.

"The BYU match was a turning point," said USU middle blocker Ingrid Roth. "It sent us on a little streak."

The winning didn't continue, though, as USU dropped a pair on the road to the University of the Pacific and California State University Northridge to finish 3-6 in the first half of conference play.

It was a loss, but Rigby said the Northridge match was one of the most important for the Aggies.

"We didn't play very well, and then, after, we sat down in the locker room and said, 'how do we fix this?'" she said. "I think you learn more from losing than you ever do from winning."

The second half opened with Utah State picking up another victory over Idaho, but then suffering three straight losses to the No. 22 University of Utah, Cal Poly and No. 5 Santa Barbara.

Although the BYU match was an important turning point for the Aggies, Roth said losing to Santa Barbara brought a personality change to the team.

"It increased team unity and togetherness," she said.

USU then went on a four-game winning streak, taking road matches from Fullerton, Riverside, Weber State University, and getting a home win against Northridge.

"I was real happy with our Weber victory," Fuller said. "Weber had been playing very well at home and getting a five-game win down there was a nice shot in the arm for us."

The win streak only lasted four matches, though, as USU closed out the season with losses to Pacific, Long Beach and Irvine.

For the season, Utah State finished 14-16 overall and 7-11 in the Big West Conference.

"I thought we finished the second half better than the first half, and that's always a positive step in the right direction," Fuller said. "We have a good core of players to return next year, and we're optimistic about that."

Although there is disappointment at not making the tournament, Fuller said the team will be able to build on this season for the future.

"We gave pretty much the best we had to try to achieve that tournament status, but with the age and experience level, we weren't quite able to do that," he said. "I think it was a real learning experience for all of us, coaches and players. We learned what type of effort is going to be needed in order to improve."

Rigby said, "I think it sets a good foundation. Not that this season was bad, but it's something they want to work toward improving because they don't want to struggle. Definitely with the losses that we had, those young players learned what NCAA volleyball was about."

Roth said the team made huge improvements by the end of the season and will use what it learned to improve in the future.

"It was a nice wake-up call [to not make the tournament]," she said. "We can truly understand what it takes and that we need to work hard to get in."

On the individual level, Fuller said there were some players who had great performances.

"Two of our freshmen, Ingrid [Roth] and Zuzana [Cernianska], played very well for us during the year," he said. "Ingrid finishing with the numbers she did, those were real nice surprises for us."

Cernianska was honored as the Big West Co-Freshman of the Year.

Aggie players also earned additional honors. Middle blocker Erin Cartwright was a Big West first-team all-conference selection and was named to the Big West Conference all-academic team. Seniors Emily Kennedy, Hailey Seedall and Shauni Fluckiger were also all-academic selections.

"That's something we strive for -- keeping our academics high," Fuller said. "That's a very nice testament not only to the individuals who receive the awards, but the academic people who keep them on track."

Although the foundation for next season is in place, the Aggies will be losing four seniors in Rigby, Kennedy, Seedall and Fluckiger.

"Our seniors were very supportive," Roth said. "They provided great leadership and I thank them for that."

With all the ups and downs of the season, Roth said although she is disappointed, the team worked hard, and is optimistic about the future rather than feeling failure.

"We played as hard as we could all the time, so you can't think of that as failure," she said.

By Landon Olson; slbk5@cc.usu.edu
Photo by Ryan Talbot