Utah State gets the job done against Pacific

By Ashley Springer

With the game tied at 66 in the middle of the fourth quarter, sophomore Utah State University guard Funda Nakkasoglu told her teammates to do their jobs.


And that's just what they did, as the USU women’s basketball team went on to win 78-70 against the University of Pacific on Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

The job Nakkasoglu reminded her teammates about was to beat Pacific in three statistics: rebounds, free throws and turnovers.

“It’s pretty proven we win three of those, we got a really good chance of winning,” said USU coach Jerry Finkbeiner.

Senior forward Tijana Djukic said rebounding has been the emphasis this week.

“Coach had been getting on Tijana and some of the other bigs to get those rebounds… so they’re expected to do that and they did,” Nakkasoglu said. “They did their job today, everyone did their job today, that’s why we got the win.”

The Aggies out-rebounded Pacific 49 to 34. Djukic led the team with a career high of 15 rebounds, but every USU player had at least one.

Free throws also proved to be key in the game as the Aggies final nine points came from the line. The Aggies trailed 69-70 after a layup by Pacific’s senior guard Hailie Eackles with about 3:30 left of the game, but Pacific’s early foul trouble put the Aggies on the line five times in the final 3 minutes. Freshman guard Victoria Price secured the win by making two free throws with 18 seconds left of the game.

The Aggies made 22 of 26 free throw attempts on the night.

Nakkasoglu went 13 of 14 from the free throw line and scored almost half of USU’s points with a career high of 37. Djukic tied her career high of 14 points and recorded her second career double-double while freshman guard Rachel Brewster also scored in double figures with 11 points.

The Aggies shot at 36.2 percent on the night.

“We didn’t shoot real good tonight percentage wise,” Finkbeiner said, “but the rebounding and the low turnovers was definitely the difference of the game statistically.”

The Aggies won the turnover battle with 10 turnovers compared to Pacific’s 13. The Aggies did not have a single turnover in the second half.

“That’s unbelievable in men’s or women’s basketball to have a half that clean with the type of defense that was playing against us,” Finkbeiner said.

Price led the Aggies with four assists while freshman guard Katie Toole led with two steals. There were three USU players with one block each.

“We were just listening to the coaches and doing our job,” Djukic said. “Everyone stepped up.”

Pacific was led by Eackles’ 24 points and junior forward Eli Lopez Sagrera’s 18. Sagrera also led the team with nine rebounds and one steal. Sophomore guard Najah Queenland led with five assists and had the team’s only block.

This win moved the Aggies’ record to 2-1.

“We knew we wanted it from the get-go and although we are young, we pushed through, we pulled together, and we knew what we wanted and we got it,” Nakkasoglu said.

Utah State University’s volleyball team hopes to finish strong

 By Ashley Springer

 

Utah State University’s volleyball team is looking to focus on the details and finish out games as it takes on the United States Air Force Academy on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the Wayne Estes Center.

“They’re all important matches for us and for our growth and for the process of us getting better,” said USU coach Grayson DuBose. “We want to be able to go out and play composed and play consistently.”

“Right now we need to focus on a lot of our little things,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Carly Lenzen. “Because the whole big picture’s there, it’s just these minute things that end up costing us games.” Lenzen had nine kills in the 3-0 loss to New Mexico on Wednesday attacking at a team high of 50 percent.

One of the little things the team is focusing on is blocking.

“I want to see better blocking,” DuBose said. “We’ve always kind of been a really nice blocking team, and then this year we’ve really struggled. So I want us to finish the last couple matches by just going out and defending well.”

Lenzen said for better blocking the blockers need to have good footwork and eye work to make sure they see where the setter is setting the ball so they can be in a good position to block.

According to DuBose, one element the team is missing is the ability to finish under pressure.

“That kind of is a learned skill as much as any of the other skills: pass, set, hit. Learning how to be good under pressure is kind of a learned skill and experience makes a difference,” DuBose said. “I think we’re figuring it out, but we’re just not quite there yet.”

“Maintaining good energy… especially if we’re down we need to make our own momentum to push us through and carry on,” Lenzen said. “We put in all this time and energy and so I think it’s just time to believe in ourselves and know that we can beat these teams.”

Saturday will be the Aggies' final home game of the season.

“It’s almost the end of season, so I think just going out with a bang and having fun and leaving nothing behind on the court,” Lenzen said.

Air Force is coming off of a 3-1 loss to Boise State on Wednesday. Air Force has lost its last five matches and hasn’t won a match since its 3-1 win over San Jose State on Oct. 31.

Against New Mexico, sophomore outside hitter Rachel Gale led the Aggies with 13 kills, junior setter Erica Moscoso had 29 of the team’s total of 33 assists and junior libero Hannah Gleason led with 18 digs.

Utah State University women's basketball focusing on the big picture

By Ashley Springer

Focusing on the bigger picture.

That is the goal of the Utah State University women’s basketball team this season.

“It’s more about putting all the pieces and parts together to make the whole,” said USU coach Jerry Finkbeiner said. “I’ve always said this team has a chance to be pretty good this year.”

Finkbeiner said getting better weekly, both offensively and defensively, is the focus, especially for such a young team. The team has seven freshmen and three sophomores listed on its 15-woman roster.

“This team is… inexperienced,” Finkbeiner said. “It’s a teaching element… Our classroom’s the basketball floor, our practice is daily homework but the games are the test. So hopefully we perform better this Saturday than the previous Saturday.”
 

“We need to be better on our defense,” said freshman guard Katie Toole. “We just haven’t been as solid as we should’ve in our last couple games so that’s a big focus.”

According to Finkbeiner, a piece of the bigger picture is the team becoming more aggressive.

“It’s the blessing and the curse of having good kids, good character, good chemistry because sometimes that could be a fault,” Finkbeiner said. “We may not be as aggressive or tough as we need to be… So that’s always going to be part of the big picture is taking a group of young ladies that are good people and making them tough and turning that switch on-and-off for that two hours during the week when we play a game.”

Finkbeiner listed three statistics he has emphasized: getting more rebounds, making more free throws and having less turnovers. He believes if the team beat its opponents in these categories, the Aggies will likely get the victory.


This ideal has been reflected in the past two games. In the 74-67 win against Westminster College on Monday, the Aggies had a total of 36 rebounds, 19 made free throws of 23 attempts and had 12 turnovers. Westminster had a team total of 32 rebounds, made 13 of 18 free throws and had 20 turnovers. However, in the 86-95 loss to Sacramento State on Saturday, the Aggies had 52 rebounds, made 11 of 20 free throws and had 27 turnovers. Sacramento State had 54 rebounds — 35 of which were offensive —, made 17 of 25 free throws and had 13 turnovers.

 

 

 

 

 

Utah State University women’s volleyball hopes to keep momentum going to get a win against New Mexico

By Ashley Springer

Utah State University volleyball coach Grayson DuBose said he's been happy with the way his team has been playing over the past few matches — 90 percent of the time.

When DuBose's team takes the court against the University of New Mexico on Wednesday, he'll be looking for that other 10 percent. 

"If we can put together a whole complete match I think we’ll have a nice opportunity to go compete,” DuBois said.

“We’re really focusing on the little things like getting our feet to the ball, getting nice passes and then getting everyone up so we can get three options up for the hitters,” said USU junior libero Hannah Gleason. Gleason had 21 digs in the 3-2 loss against San Diego State University on Saturday.

DuBose said the keys for success would be to get New Mexico out of its system by serving tougher and defending its quick outside hitters.

“I always want them to think we have a chance to win,” DuBose said. “I think the mindset always has to be ‘hey we’re going to put together a game plan we’re going to be prepared’ and if we can do those two things then we’ll be alright.”

“Just to forget about the last play and be in the play that we’re in and focus really on that and play with passion and our hearts,” Gleason said. “I know they play with a lot of passion and stuff so we just need to focus on ourselves and I think we’ll do well.”

The Aggies played well for four sets against San Diego State, but fell short in the last set due to serving errors. DuBose said the team has to serve better.

The Aggies had four players with double digit kills against San Diego State led by junior outside hitter Kaylie Kamalu’s 15. The Aggies tied their season high of 65 kills for a 23.2 attack percentage. Junior setter Erica Moscoso led the Aggies with 39 assists while freshman setter Kassidy Johnson, who replaced Moscoso in the fourth set and continued as setter through the rest of the match, had 15.

New Mexico is coming off of a 3-0 win over Fresno State on Saturday.

New Mexico had 52 kills for a 31.9 attack percentage against Fresno State behind junior outside hitter Devanne Sours’ 12. Redshirt senior setter Hannah Johnson led New Mexico in assists with 38 and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Ashley Kelsey and junior Cassie House both had 11 digs. New Mexico has a 21.8 attack percentage on the season.

The Aggies are currently 2-13 in conference play and 6-13 overall while New Mexico is 8-7 in conference play and 15-13 overall. If New Mexico wins the match and UNLV loses its match against third in the conference University of Wyoming, New Mexico will move to fourth in the conference.

 

Utah State University women’s volleyball team stays focused earning a win against Nevada

By Ashley Springer
 

Playing scrappier and getting a win, that was the goal.

And it was a goal the Utah State University women’s volleyball team accomplished against the University of Nevada Thursday night as the USU Aggies won 3 sets to 1 at the Wayne Estes Center.

The USU Aggies were coming off of a 3-0 loss against San Jose State University on Nov. 5 while Nevada was coming off a 3-1 win against Fresno State on Saturday. Both USU and Nevada are in the Mountain West Conference and until Thursday the Aggies’ only other conference game win was against San Jose on Oct. 10.

The Aggies won the first two sets 25-21 and 25-23. However, after a 3-0 start for the Aggies in the third set, Nevada took charge to win the set 25-20.

"When we struggled passing in the third set that's when we struggled as a team," said Rachel Gale, a sophomore outside hitter for USU.

The Aggies led 16-9 in the fourth set forcing Nevada to call its second timeout of the set. Nevada was able to come within two point, but the Aggies went on to win the set 25-20.

“The score’s 0-0, let’s go win this game, let’s go each ball one at a time, and go be gritty, go pound balls, go do what we do and go get this game,” said sophomore USU defensive specialist Maddie Day on the mindset the team had going into the fourth set.

Thursday was a career night for the Aggies. Junior USU setter Erica Moscoso had a career-high of 51 assists while Day had a career-high of 12 digs. Junior libero Hannah Gleason led the team with 23 digs and is now sixth for the highest number of digs in a single season in USU history with 434. Gale had 24 kills while junior outside hitter Kaylie Kamalu had 16.

“The thing that I really liked was our lack of errors," said USU coach Grayson DuBose. "I thought that was huge."

“We’ve been focusing on being gritty for the last half of the season,” Day said. “Our whole team was just determined to go dig balls and go throw your body at something and see if you can get it up. You’ll never know if you never go for something so just go try to make something happen and I think that’s what we did and it was successful for us.”

Nevada was led by junior right side hitter Madison Morell’s 24 kills and 16 digs. Setters Lyndsey Anderson and Taylar Rothfuss led Nevada in assists with 26 and 24 respectively.

The Aggies are now 2-12 in the conference and 6-22 overall while Nevada is 6-9 in the conference and 11-16 overall. This win marks the end of a seven game losing streak for the Aggies.

“I think we did a really good job at staying mentally tough this game,” Gale said.

“It’s huge,” DuBose said about the win. “We battled a little bit and it’s nice to finish this stuff out… It’s rewarding for them. They’ve worked really hard all season long.”