Oct. 8, 2002
Final Stats
LOGAN, Utah - Behind a season-high 20 kills from junior Erin Cartwright (Hyrum, Utah), Utah State's women's volleyball team defeated Brigham Young here tonight in five games by final scores of 30-14, 21-30, 28-30, 30-28, and 15-11. With the win, USU improves to 7-8 on the season, while BYU falls to 7-11 with the loss.
Utah State has now won three straight matches against the Cougars and four of the last five dating back to the 2000 season.
"Our team is really excited and we needed this win," said Utah State head coach Burt Fuller. "It's always a great win when you can beat BYU and win a match against an in-state rival. Hopefully this win will give our team a little confidence and it will carry over into this weekend's matches against UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton."
Utah State jumped on BYU with the opening serve of the match and quickly built a 4-0 lead behind two service aces from freshman Zuzana Cernianska (Prague, Czech Republic). The Cougars fought back and closed the gap to 11-9 before USU went on a 17-3 run to win game one by 16 points.
BYU had the early momentum in game two building an 8-3 lead only to see the Aggies tie the game at 14. However, BYU's offense took control of the game hitting .423 with only three attack erros to notch the nine-point win.
Games three and four went back and forth several times with each team notching a two-point win. In game five, USU seemed to have the match in control building a quick 9-3 lead, but the Cougars rallied to get within two at 11-9 before the Aggies closed the game with a 4-2 run.
Individually for Utah State, Cartwright hit a team-high .457, while Cernianska added 19 kills, nine digs, four blocks and 39 assists. Senior Hailey Seedall (Bountiful, Utah) posted a season-high 13 kills in the match, while freshman Jenna Jordan (Plant City, Fla.) added six kills and a career-high 11 digs.
As a team, Utah State hit .205 in the match and held BYU to a .177 hitting percentage. Both teams recorded 49 digs in the match, and BYU won the battle at the net with 18 team blocks as compared to 10.5 for the Aggies.
Utah State will return to action Big West play on Thurs., Oct. 10 versus UC Riverside in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum at 7 p.m.
