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Show Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010 Page 8 WednesdayS ''. o V4it114 it iv 16 . • c, kod V' ... ■ ■ 1 rif P Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com Volleyball takes down Tech By MATT SONNENBERG assistant sports editor SENIOR FORWARD TAI WESLEY moves aggressively to the basket during Utah State's 77-66 win against Weber State Saturday. Wesley, who scored 19 points in the Aggies' home opener, will be called upon to match BYU's fast-paced offense when USU travels to Provo to take on the No. 23 BYU Cougars tonight. TODD JONES photo Aggies prepare for rivaly against BYU have to honor him from 3point range, he can go by you web editor and he's got a killer crossover move that nobody should The Utah State Aggies (1-0) be able to guard. It certainly haven't made a trip to Provo starts with him in terms of and played at the Marriott your worries and your prepaCenter for four years. In ration, but they surround him fact, no one on the roster with lots of good players." has played in the Marriott Last year senior guard Center with the exception of Jackson Emery averaged 12.5 junior forward Morgan Grim, points per game and is the who played there while at only player returning this seaUtah. That will all change on son to have averaged double Wednesday night when the digits. The Cougars started Aggies extend their oldest off the season with an 83-56 rivalry, taking on their inblow-out over the Fresno State state rival, the Bulldogs, and No. 23 Brigham junior forward Young Cougars "We don't need Noah Hartsock to go down there scored 21 (1-0). Injuries have and lay down points and taken their toll and be afraid. pulled down on the Aggies five rebounds. We've had good and they are games with BYU Junior guard underdogs Charles Abouo against the fast- for lots of years added 13 paced Cougars, for the most points. but that won't part. Let's get "The list stop the Utah goes on and ready and let's State from comon with their go play" peting. talent level," Stew Morrill, Morrill said. "We don't need to go down USU head coach "One of the there and lay things about down and be BYU is when afraid," Aggie head coach you guard their plays or Stew Morrill said. "We've had action they are just so good good games with BYU for lots at making plays. You can't of years for the most part. simulate the individual talent Let's get ready and let's go level. They make plays at the play." end of their offense or even in BYU is led by All-American the middle of the offense they senior guard Jimmer Fredette, make basketball plays. They who averaged 22 points as a are a very good passing team junior and led BYU to a firstand they are very good defenround victory over the Florida sively." Gators during the NCAA The Cougars are famous for Tournament. running the fast break, and "He's just a fabulous playthe Aggies will need to find a er," Morrill said. "He makes way to tame the Cougars on plays for everybody. He makes the break. plays for himself, he makes "To have a chance you plays for his teammates, he's can't just get blown out of so good with the ball, you the building with their fast By TYLER HUSKINSON break," Morrill said. "If they get rolling on the break, if they get firing threes in and posting you up and scoring at will; game over. That's a concern, trying to get matched up in transition. That's nothing new when you play BYU. It's always a concern." Utah State's then junior forward and defense specialist Pooh Williams held BYU's Fredette to 19 points on 5-of-15 shooting during last season's match-up. Williams, who is also an offensive threat, strained his groin muscle against the Wildcats and is a game-time decision. "We have got great performances out of Pooh defensively in the past, and he also gives us a guy offensively that can get to the basket and cause some problems," Morrill said. "He is a veteran, he is valuable in those areas, and we are hopeful that we have him, at least some." The Aggies are very experienced in the front-court and they will need to use that experience to counteract the size advantage that the Cougars will have tonight. "Their system that everyone talks about is how fast they play and they do a great job of that running on makes and misses, but they are also really good defensively year in and year out," Morill said. "It is hard to score against them. The size factor, we are going to face that a lot. When we match up we are not going to look very big out there." Tip-off against the Cougars is slated for 7:05 p.m. at the Marriott Center and can be seen on The Mtn. — ty.d.hus@aggiemad. usu.edu Utah State volleyball returned to the road Monday to notch its 20th win of the season with a five-set victory over the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech. Riding high off the momentum of a dominating threeset win over Nevada during Friday's senior night match, the Aggies quickly found that their momentum did not travel with them to Ruston as they fell behind 5-0 early in the first set. "Louisiana Tech played really well," USU head coach Grayson DuBose said. "We got better as the match went on. I wasn't sure we started off real great, and then I thought we got better and better." The Aggies responded by winning seven of the next 10 points to close the gap to just an 8-7 deficit, but the Bulldogs had a response of their own, reeling off the next three points to build back a lead they rode all the way to a 2518 win in the first set. The second set opened up slowly for the Aggies also, but the deficit was short-lived as USU, trailing 3-2, responded with four straight points to open up a lead that they would hold for nearly the entire set. La-Tech tied the set up three separate times at 9-9, 10-10 and 12-12, but was never able to take back the lead. USU held the lead for the rest of the set behind a dominant effort in the later half of the second set by junior outside hitter Liz McArthur, who had four kills, a block and an assist down the stretch of set two, which the Aggies won 25-20. Set three started off with more of the back and forth scoring between the teams, with La-Tech taking a 5-4 lead early. USU took control of that third set by taking 10 of the next 14 points for a 14-9 lead. The dominance did not let up for the Aggies either, who built their lead to as many as 11 points before eventually taking a 2-1 lead in the match with a dominating 25-16 win in the third set. "I thought our ball control improved over time as the match went on," DuBose said. "I thought Laurel Bodily and Christine Morrill did a really nice job of passing the ball better and they both defended very very well and that was a big difference." Bodily and Morrill combined for 40 digs in the match to go along with three service aces. Bodily chipped in offensively with an assist as well. The fourth set was a rolereversal from the third, with USU leading 5-4 early on, only to see the lead decimated by an 8-0 run by the Bulldogs. That lead held until the end of the match for a 25-22 fourth set win for LA Tech and set up a fifth set. Just like every other set, the scoring was back and forth to start off until one team opened up a big lead for itself. This time, Utah State was the team that opened up the lead that would last until the end of the set. "We got up about four points and we were kind of able to keep that cushion," DuBose said. Utah State held on to win the decisive fifth set 15-9. McArthur led the Aggies with 16 kills in the match, followed by sophomore Shay Sorensen's 12 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Josselyn White played a nearly mistake-free match, logging nine kills with only one error while hitting .364 for the match and chipping in with nine digs, an assist and a service ace. As it stands, the Aggies will go into Wednesday's match against New Mexico State with a chance to finish No.3 or No. 4 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) standings. DuBose has his eye on that No. 3 going into the WAC Tournament, with the prospect of avoiding a match-up with Hawaii until the championship match, where he believes an upset isn't out of the question. "Anything can kind of happen, and it often does with us." That No. 3 seed won't come easy, as USU will have to knock off the second place New Mexico State Aggies to get there. "They are a very disciplined and very well coached volleyball team," DuBose said. "Their outside hitters are going to be good. Their middles are going to be solid. To give ourselves the best opportunity, we need to serve tough to get those guys out of system and not let them keep comfortable." New Mexico State will be USU's final match of the regular season, beginning at 7 p.m. in Las Cruces, N.M. — matt.sonnenberg@aggiemad.usu.edu WAC adds three schools By ADAM NETTINA sports editor Last week, after months of uncertainty and speculation, the future of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) became a little clearer as commissioner Karl Benson and the WAC Board of Directors announced that the University of Denver, the University of Texas at San Antonio (USTA) and Texas State University had accepted invitations to join the conference. The three universities will officially join the conference beginning July 1, 2012, with Texas State and UTSA joining the WAC in all sports and Denver coming aboard in all sports except football. The move to invite the three schools comes after a tumultuous summer of conference realignment which saw the WAC's three flagship football schools — Boise St., Fresno St., and Nevada all leave the WAC for the Mountain West Conference (MWC). According to Benson, the move to bring in the new schools will strengthen the conference in the long term and provide a base for the viability of the league. "The addition of these three schools clearly sends a message that the WAC and its member schools are prepared to move forward to build a `new' WAC," Benson said. "As the WAC prepares to begin its next 50 years as an athletic conference, I am confident that these three new members along with the six other WAC schools will continue to compete at the highest level of the NCAA." The WAC Board of Directors had voted earlier last week to extend invitations to the three schools, just a few weeks after a settlement WAC reached between the WAC and Fresno St. and Nevada. The settle- Be our friend on ment will keep the two schools playing in the conference through the 2011 year. USTA and Texas State currently compete in the Southland Conference (with the former playing football at the Football Championship Subdivision level), while Denver, which does not have a football team, will leave behind the Sun Belt conference. With the impending changes, the WAC will operate as an eight-team football conference with Nevada and Fresno St. in 2011, before operating as an eight-team conference with USTA and Texas State in 2012. The move to bring the three schools into the conference fold was greeted with excitement at Utah State, as administrators and coaches alike said the three schools will provide plenty of benefits for the conference. "The University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas State University and the University of Denver are three very strong institutions, both in their commitment FREE WIFI! 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