Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Utah State
Bulldogs Spoil Aggies Sweep
10/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 27, 2007
LOGAN, Utah - In Western Athletic Conference volleyball action Saturday night, the Utah State Aggies defeated the visiting Fresno State Bulldogs 3-1 in Logan, Utah. The game scores were 26-30, 22-30, 30-27 and 26-30.
Tiffany Hess served to start the match and gave the Bulldogs an early 3-1 lead. Utah State went on a 5-0 run to take its first lead at 7-4. The Bulldogs never trailed by more than six and hung tight with the Aggies throughout game one. They were able to cut the lead to three on four separate occasions and as late as 29-26, but they were never able to re-take the lead as Utah State took an early 1-0 lead in the match.
Alisha McKee and Tairyn Rasmussen each had five kills a piece in game one and the Bulldogs had 19 digs to just 15 for the Aggies.
Utah State took the 2-0 lead in game two and led by as many as 12 at 22-10. The Bulldogs cut it to seven late but that is as close as they would get as they trailed 2-0 at the break.
Game three saw the Aggies put points on the board first, but the `Dogs fought back to tie it at 3-3 and points rallied between the two until Fresno State got its first lead at 8-7. Utah State then went on a 3-0 run, but behind the serving of Lexi Watson, the Bulldogs re-took the lead at 14-13.
Behind the serving of Kasey Van Grouw, the Bulldogs took their largest lead of game three at that point, 16-14. A service ace by Meghan Moss made it 20-17 Bulldogs and forced Utah State to call a timeout.
Utah State scored four-straight to take a 21-20 lead and the Bulldogs called a timeout of their own. A kill by Kelly Leonardo tied the game at 21.
Points continued to rally as there were 17 ties and five lead changes and in game three alone. Fresno State took the lead at 29-27 and a kill by McKee gave the game to the Bulldogs.
Fresno State hit a match-high .216 in game three and Angela Wiggins had seven kills.
McKee started off game four as she ended game three, with a kill and a service ace by Tiffany Hess made it 2-1 early in favor of the Bulldogs. Game four was just as close with 15 more ties and five lead changes.
Utah State took a 19-18 lead and while the Bulldogs didn't trail by more than three, they could not re-take the lead. The Aggies went on and took game four and the match.
Wiggins led the Bulldogs with 16 kills. McKee added 15 kills of her own. Van Grouw had her second-straight double-double and the sixth of her career with 20 assists and a career-high 21 digs. Freshman Sarah Oskam had a career-high three kills and Moss had a career-high 20 digs.
Senior outside hitter Amanda Nielson was impressive for the Aggies as she had 26 kills
The Bulldogs fall to 5-19 on the season and 3-9 in WAC play while the Aggies improve to 14-10 and 9-4. Utah State won the first match of the season (Sept. 29) in Fresno, 3-1.
"Join the State - Fresno State!" - The Fresno State volleyball returns to the Save Mart Center on Thursday, November 1 against San Jose State at 7 pm. Tickets can be purchased through the Save Mart Center Box Office, by phone at (559)485-TIXS, or online at Ticketmaster.com.
