OCR Text |
Show StatesmanSports Monday, Aug. 24, 2009 Page 13 Scrimmage: Ags ready for season Volleyball -continued from page 10 USU’s Shay Sorensen, 10, and shantell durrant, 21, celebrate after scoring a point against the blue team during the teams’ scrimmage Saturday afternoon. TYLER LARSON photo Youth no problem for USU By MATT SONNENBERG staff writer With only a week to go before the start of the season, the USU women’s volleyball team held a scrimmage Saturday afternoon in The Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, where the team was split into two squads each mixed with starters and reserves. The Aggies, who are a preseason pick to finish third in the Western Athletic Conference, scrimmaged for two hours playing a full five-game match. The white team opened up the match winning the first game over the blue team 25-18. The blue team rebounded in the second game winning 2520, but lost again in the third game, 22-25, falling behind the white team 1-2. Again the blue team rebounded in the fourth game winning 25-17 to tie the match at two games apiece. In the decisive fifth game, the blue team finished off its comeback effort with a 15-10 win over the white team to give itself the final game and the victory. USU head coach Grayson DuBose liked what he saw out of his team during Saturday’s scrimmage, particularly about his team’s potential coming into this season. “I think our team is coming together,” DuBose said. “We’re doing some nice things fundamentally and we’re working hard more importantly.” One of the standout aspects of this year’s Aggie squad is that the team is bringing in high expectations without a single senior player on the team. DuBose feels confident that the team’s seven juniors will bring more than enough experience to be competitive. “A collective effort is a really good way to describe it,” he said. “We return a bunch of players who have played a lot of volleyball for us and although we don’t have any seniors, our juniors that have played, they’ve played a lot. We think we’re moving in the right direction.” Junior setter Chelsea Fowles, who was one of two USU players named to the preseason All-WAC team, agreed that the absence of a senior on the team will not have any affect on their ability to compete for a conference title. “We just need to keep working hard every day and the more experience that our younger players get, the better,” Fowles said. “And think how much better we’re going to be next year.” The volleyball season officially gets underway for the Aggies Friday as they head to Ogden to face Weber State, Gonzaga and Utah Valley in the Weber State Invitational. The Aggies will play their first home game on Sept. 1 against Brigham Young, a match that should serve as a good measure of where DuBose’s team is early on. “We’ve got to serve tough and receive serves well,” DuBose said. “If we can do those two things it will give us a real nice opportunity to compete.” –matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu players to put on the field will be moving players around to different positions. “They are trying to put the best players on the field all the time, so wherever they need me, I’ll go,” Dinka-Mba said. “We have a lot of talented athletes right now, so we have to try and find the chemistry between everybody. In order to do that, we have to try different positions. Nothing is for sure right now.” Andersen echoed Dinka-Mba’s statements, saying that he and the coaching staff will continue to move players around until the right pieces of the 11-man defensive puzzle are found. Possibly the biggest question is who will be the starters on the defensive line, a group that Andersen has spent extra time working with throughout training camp while the team was broken into individual positions in practices. Andersen said for the timebeing, the defensive line will be by committee, but he is seeing progression, particularly with two defensive tacklers that are battling for starting roles. “Nathan Royster and Sean Enesi have never played defensive tackle before,” Andersen said. “Nate was a defensive end last year and Sean was an offensive lineman in junior college, so they have had a lot of things to do technique-wise.” After nearly three weeks of practices, Andersen sounds optimistic that his defensive line will be able to get adequate results as an entire unit. Andersen said, “I think they have progressed. Sean and Nate have gotten a lot better. Junior Keiaho has had a fantastic camp. He played very well. I am proud of the way he has developed himself the past three or four weeks.” With training camp officially wrapped up, Andersen says his team is now full-steam ahead in preparation for the season opener at Utah Sept. 3. “Our first opponent is obviously, at least last year, maybe the best team in the country,” Andersen said. “We’ll see how we match up against a great football team.” Borel said he and some other players have already begun watching film on the Utes. “We have to make a statement the first game,” Borel said. “Especially being a rivalry game, we have to prove to people that we can win the big game. Utah is a very good team; they won all their games last year. We have a lot to prove.” –matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu The Aggies diondre borel, 12, hands the ball off to sophomore running back Robert Turbin, 6, during USU’s scrimmage Saturday. Turbin gained 31 yards on eight carries. PATRICK ODEN photo $ĝĦē 'Ěĥ 8ĠģĜĠĦĥĤ &ĩġĖģĚĖğĔĖ " $ĒĝĠģĚĖ #Ħģğ -ĚĜĖ /ĖħĖģ #ĖėĠģĖå UNLIMITEDÊtanning,Ê$17.95 THEÊFIRSTÊ25ÊSTUDENTSÊTOÊSIGNÊUP RECEIVEÊAÊFREE SPORTSÊACADEMYÊMEMBERSHIP spor tsacademy.com 1655ÊNÊ200ÊE,ÊNorthÊLogan,ÊUtahÊ|Ê435-753-7500 'MFYJCMF .JOVUF $MBTTFT ɩ BU 'JU :PVS 4DIFEVMF :PV $IPPTF UIF 5JNF 8F (VBSBOUFF 3FTVMUT 4JHO 6Q #FGPSF 4FQUFNCFS UI 5P (FU 0OF .POUIT 'SFF .JOVUFT 'SPN $BNQVT +VTU /PSUI PG 8BM .BSU XXX TQPSUTBDBEFNZ DPN :PVS $MVC t :PVS 3FTVMUT t :PVS -JGF |