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Show Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 Page 8 MondaySports Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com Volleyball Aggies rally for first WAC win By Connor Jones sports senior writer Utah State women’s volleyball team surged back after losing the opening two sets, winning three straight to beat Boise State Saturday night inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (22-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-20, 15-13). With the win the Aggies now even their WAC record at 2-2 and improve their overall record 10-6. The Broncos fell to 1-3 in WAC play and 1-13 on the season. “I think our team tends to looks at a team’s record and kind of underestimates them,” said fourth year USU head coach Grayson DuBose. “Boise State is a much better team than their record indicates and I think we did underestimate them and that does bother me as a coach.” The Aggies looked flat for the first two sets allowing the Broncos free reign to hit a .277 percentage (31-11-72) while hitting a .236 percentage (27-10-72). The first set was all Boise State who took the lead quickly and never gave it away – at one point they led by seven points. The Aggies were able to close the gap near the end of the set, but the Broncos held out for a 23-25 win. The second set was a close match with the two teams going point-for-point throughout. The largest lead for the Aggies came off a Danielle Taylor kill to put the score at 11-8. BSU was able to fight back to win the set 26-24. The Aggies out hit the Broncos .297 (16-5-37) to .289 (12-6-38) in the set but still lost. Boise State, who had only won nine of its total 47 sets this season, was proving to be a much tougher opponent than expected. It was do or die for the Aggies who needed to win the next three straight sets to win. Coming out of the locker room for the third set USU began looking more like itself, starting out with a vengeful kill by Liz McArthur. While the Aggies pulled away early, BSU didn’t give up, fighting back from as many as six points down. The set ended with a block by Emily Kortsen and Shantell Durrant followed by a kill error from Boise State’s leading killer Sadie Maughan for a - See RALLY, page 12 Volleyball Thursday Oct. 8 Saturday Oct. 10 USU at Nevada, 8 p.m. Women’s Soccer Friday Oct. 9 USU at Boise State, 4 p.m. Sunday Oct. 11 USU at Idaho, 2 p.m. Football Saturday Oct. 10 USU at New Mexico State, 6 p.m. Cross Country performs well By Connor Jones sports senior writer Emily kortsen, 12, Chelsea Fowles, 2, and Shantell Durant, 21, go for a block against Boise State in USU’s comeback win. cody gochnour photo junior QB Diondre Borel, 12, tries to elude a pair of Cougar defenders during the Aggies’ game against BYU Friday night. Borel had a good game through the air and on the ground, but the Aggie offense struggled as whole as USU fell to 35-17 on the road. patrick oden photo Offense sputters in loss The struggling USU defense forced BYU to fumble on the Cougars first series of the game, and for the fourth time in as many games the Aggie offense drove down the field and scored on its first possession, giving USU a 7-0 lead. Things unraveled from there for the Ags though, as the offense struggled for much of the rest of the game. Miscues and the inability to execute at key moments once again hurt the Aggies as they fell to the 20th ranked Cougars for the 10th consecutive time. The biggest miscue of the game for the Aggies may have come just before halftime. Trailing the heavily favored Cougars only 14-7, USU forced them to punt near the end of the second quarter. With less than a minute to play in the half, with two timeouts remaining, the Aggie offense began to move to ball down the field. However, on second and one from their own AggieSchedules USU at Fresno State, 8 p.m. Game 4: BYU 35, USU 17 By TIM OLSEN sports editor TouchBase 31, the Aggies turned the ball over on a botched pitch between junior quarterback Diondre Borel and wide receiver Stanley Morrison. That mistake gave BYU a first down at the USU 29-yard line with 39 seconds remaining in the quarter. Two plays later the Aggies found themselves at the bottom end of a 14-point deficit, heading into the locker room down 21-7. “That was real tough. We shot ourselves in the foot before half,” said USU sophomore linebacker Bobby Wagner. “If they didn’t score that touchdown I think it would’ve been a different game, but we still shot ourselves in the foot in the second half, we can’t just go off that one play.” Though that was the Aggies only turnover of the night, it was certainly not USU’s only flaw in the execution department. On multiple occasions, the Utah State offense was able to move the ball into – or was given the ball in – Cougar territory only to stall and punt the ball back to BYU. “In the first half we had two or three drives … when we’re across the 50 and we stall out,” said USU head coach Gary Andersen. “BYU made a couple drives in those situations and finished them and we were unable to finish them, and that’s what made the game get to the score it was there in the fourth quarter.” USU also struggled to convert Cougar miscues – specifically those made by senior quarterback Max Hall – into positive momentum. Twice in the second half the Aggie defense intercepted Hall who is leading the nation with 10 INTs, but USU was only able to muster three points off those turnovers. Despite Utah State’s struggles, the Aggies still had a chance to make a game of it in the fourth quarter. After turning one of Hall’s interceptions into a field goal late in the third quarter, USU only trailed the Cougars by 11 heading into the final period. - See SPUTTERS, page 12 Utah State’s men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to South Bend, Indiana over the weekend to compete in the 54th Annual Notre Dame Invitational, an event that hosted 17 ranked teams from around the country. The men’s team took ninth overall, outrunning host Notre Dame, who placed 16th, and a sleuth of others. The women’s team finished in 21st place for the second year in a row. The top male finisher for the Aggies for the thirdstraight time this year was sophomore Brian McKenna who placed 24th overall in the 8k race with a time of 24:19. Showing the strength of the field, although he only finished 28 seconds behind McKenna, senior Jason Holt finished 27 places back in 51st. One second behind Holt was freshman Daniel Howell for 53rd place (24:48). The top Aggie woman finisher for the second consecutive race, sophomore Jessi Chugg, finished the 5k race in 18:26 for 121st place. According to Norte Dame’s Web site, a total of 47 schools were represented by at least one of their men’s and women’s teams. Highlighting the men’s field were No. 11 Tulsa, No. 15 Providence, No. 20 Butler, No. 22 Washington, No. 24 New Mexico, No. 28 Notre Dame and No. 30 Princeton. For the women’s side, No. 1 Washington, No. 3 Florida State, No. 6 Princeton, No. 12 Providence, No. 13 Arizona State, No. 15 Florida, No. 22 Penn State, No. 24 Notre Dame, No. 25 New Mexico and No. 27 Rice were featured in the field. Five of the Aggie women finished in a pack within 13 positions of each other, led by senior Erin Stratton in 125th (18:30), freshman Alex Litzsinger in 126th (18:31), juniors Kim Quinn in 130th (18:35), Alicia Holt in 136th (18:39) and junior Justine Baugh for 138th place (18:39). For the men, Steve Strickland finished in 60th place (24:52), sophomore Steve Atkinson in 68th (24:57), junior Eric Larson in 97th place (25:17), junior Nick Bolinder in 141st (26:03), junior Chio Lopez in 146th (26:10) and junior Casey Snider in 155th (26:20). The University of Washington took first for the men’s side followed by Providence College and New Mexico. Washington also took first for the women’s side. |