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Show Peterson back with Ag volleyball By SAMMY HISLOP sports editor The man who led the USU women's volleyball team to its first-ever top-25 ranking is back after a seven-year absence. Tom Peterson—the head coach for USU during the 1999 and 2000 seasons—was hired on as assistant coach Thursday by current Aggie head coach Grayson DuBose. "It is a privilege to work with Grayson and the Utah State volleyball program Peterson again," DuBose said. again," Peterson said. "Utah State's program is one that my "He is an unbelievable volleywife and I are very fond of and ball coach and his knowledge of the systems we employ will 1 hope my experience can add help our team to the great things continue forward Grayson is doing in its goals." at USU." Peterson's Peterson is fillresume is a loading the hole left ed one. by former Aggie He has 28 assistant Shawn years ofcoaching Olmstead, who experience—21 recently took a as head coach. similar position PETERSON From 2003-06 he at Brigham Young was the head coach of the BYU University. men's volleyball team. He "I am excited to get the led the 2004 Cougar team to opportunity to work with Tom the National Championship, and the 2003 Cougars had a national runner-up finish. Peterson has 10 years of head-coaching experience at the Division I level, and seven of those teams appeared in the NCAA Final Fours. Peterson began coaching at the University of Utah in 1980. He was an assistant for the women's team for three years and head coach of the men's club team for two years. From 1986-88, Peterson helped the BYU men's club team win three National Collegiate Club Championships. In 1994 he led the Penn State men's program to the National Championship and was named NCAA Coach of the Year. In the previous 16 years before Peterson's arrival at USU, the Aggies had been through only two winning seasons. He changed that in 2000 as the Aggies ended the year 22nd in the nation. Peterson is a BYU graduate. •samuel.hisiop@aggiemail. usu.edu TouchBase 4gg/t Schedules Softball ^^j FRIDAY APRIL 11 USU vs. New Mexico St., 3 p.m. SATURDAY APRIL 12 USU vs. New Mexico St., 1 p.m. TUESDAY APRIL 15 USU @ Utah (DH), 2 p.m. Women's Tennis^] FRIDAY APRIL 11 USU vs. Northern Colo., 9 a.m. TUESDAY APRIL 15 USU vs. Idaho State, 1 p.m. Men's Tennis • ; ' J ^ FRIDAY APRIL 11 At homefor Regionals Tschida, Minnesota native, one ofsix Ags to participate USU vs. Nothern Colo., 1 p.m. THURSDAY APRIL 17 USU vs. UC Santa Barbara, 9 a.m. . Football V £>*, FRIDAY APRIL 11 Spring scrimmage, 4 p.m. Track and Field T'-\ APRIL 11-12 USU @ UCLA Gymnastics " .^!\ FRIDAY APRIL 12 @ NCAA Regionals 1 ^Baseball '-f^-i SATURDAY APRIL 12 USU vs. Univ. of Montana, 12 p.m. ByCANDICESANDNESS staff writer U S U SENIOR M E G A N T S C H I D A performs in the Spectrum earlier this season. Tschida is one of six Aggies that qualified for the NCAA Regionals this Saturday in Minneapolis, Minn. If none qualify for Nationals, their season is over. TYLER LARSON photo Six USU gymnasts will be competing in the NCAA Regional Tournament this Friday. While it could be the season finale for all six, for only one of them—senior Megan Tschida—it could be her collegiate curtain call. Junior Nicki Felley and sophomore Heather Heinrich were selected as allarounders while freshman Jasmine Minion will compete in vault. Freshman Lyndsie Boone was selected to compete on the beam and freshman Nicole Simoneau was chosen to compete on bars. USU head coach Ray Corn said for Tschida—a St. Paul, Minn, native—going to her hometown of Minneapolis is icing on the cake for her in what could be her final meet of her career. "The competition is going to be totally awesome," Corn said. "If we had two young ladies who had an opportunity to get in just by national rankings,; irwould be Nicole Simoneau on bars and Megan Tschida on floor. Now that the anxiety of whether we are going to qualify or not has kind of settled into us that we didn't make it, we are very excited to be sending this many members to the regional meet." Tschida ranks seventh in the region with a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 9.840 on floor, and was the co-WAC champion on floor at the conference meet with a season best of 9.925. [M See HOME, page 14 SPRING FOOTBALL The Aggie front seven ready to go USU'S ROY H U R S T (2) and Geno Odong (22) attempt to make a tackle against San Jose State in 2007. Hurst has been moved to defensive back for the 2008 season. TYLER LARSON photo Ags have speed at corner spot By DAVID BAKER assistant sports editor There's no clear Heisman candidate at quarterback in the Western Athletic Conference in 2008—think Hawaii's Colt Brennan. But that doesn't mean the Aggies won't be up against some teams that can chuck it. That said, it's a good thing Utah State is returning an experienced, speedy group of defensive backs to cover the potential aerial onslaught in the fall. "A big bright spot for the corner position, coming out of spring, is this is probably the fastest group of corners we've had," Aggie cornerback coach John Rushing said. "That gives us a chance to compete against the teams in this conference, because you've got to be able to run to cover the receivers in this conference." USU returns six secondary players that picked off a pass last season. Senior DB Roy Hurst and junior safety James Brindley led the Aggies last year with three picks each. Hurst returns to the defensive back field, but at corner, instead of his 2007 spot at safety. [1 See SPEED, page 14 SUNDAY APRIL 13 USU vs. Univ. of Montana, 10 a.m. Carroll gets yet another accolade BY USU ATHLETICS Another national honor was bestowed upon Utah State's Jaycee Carroll Thursday and he was named the Western Athletic Conference's Player of the Year by Collegelnsider.com. The on-line publication also named Boise State's Reggie Larry as the WAC's Most Valuable Player, while Broncos head coach Greg Graham was named the league's coach of the year. Track team at UCLA this weekend By MATTSONNENBERG staff writer BY USU ATHLETICS One thing that will certainly not be lacking from the Aggies' defensive line and linebackers in 2008 will be experience as the front seven returns a total of 13 lettermen from last season's team, including five starters. Returning at linebacker will be senior Jake Hutton and junior Paul Igboeli. Hutton, a 2007 second team All-Western Athletic Conference selection led the team in tackles last season with 102. Igboeli returns this season after finishing 2007 second on the team behind Hutton in tackles with 95. "Team chemistry obviously is a lot better," Hutton said. "Experience on the field makes it easier. You play faster, make more big plays, and it's not just me and Paul." Outside of Hutton and Igboeli, the Aggies have five other linebackers returning who were lettermen in 2007, two of who have been assigned to new positions this spring. Would-be returning starter Devon Hall has been moved to play safety in 2008 while Derrick Cumbee has been moved to running back. The remaining three lettermen returning to linebacker are senior Daryl Fields, and sophomores Kyle Gallagher and Jordan Glass. Utah State track and field teams travel to Los Angeles, Calif, to compete in the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational at Drake Stadium Friday and Saturday, April 11-12. The Aggies will be competing against more than 30 teams including Arkansas State, Cal Poly, Texas A & M, Utah and a few club teams, which include Western Athletic Conference foe Fresno State. "We are very excited about the competition this year," said USU head coach Gregg Gensel. "When we first came to this meet three years ago there was some good competition and every year it just keeps getting better and better." The last time the Aggies competed at UCLA, Stacie Lifferth, then just a freshman, placed second in the women's 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 10:45.85, which put her in third-place. USU LINEBACKER JAKE HUTT O N (53) dives for a sack at practice two weeks ago. Hutton is one of 13 lettermen on the Aggie front lines. CAMERON PETERSON photo When asked who appeared as the front runner to step in to Hall's vacated starting spot, defensive coordinator Mark Johnson said, "The same guy who started the last five games last year, Kyle Gallagher." Gallagher is returning after seeing significant playing time as a true freshman last season. He finished sixth on the team in total tackles with 47 and had three games of recording 10 tackles or more. Gallagher also forced two fumbles on the year, second only to Carl Singleton s four forced fumbles in 2007. "He's a super tough kid," Johnson said. "He's a different breed. Just trust me on that." The defensive line will see it's own reshaping in 2008. Despite the graduations of Frank Maile, who was voted Cl See FRONT, page 14 |