For the first time in 24 years, the Utah State Aggies won an NCAA Tournament volleyball match on Thursday, and they did it in major and dramatic fashion.
The Aggies upset the Tennessee Volunteers in five sets (25-19, 25-15, 20-25, 18-25, 15-11) in first round of the tournament in Tempe, Arizona, and will face Arizona State in the second round Friday evening in a true road match.
Utah State raced out to a big early lead before allowing the Volunteers to tie things up and force a decisive fifth set but then hung on for the big win.
The Aggie program has been on a big rise over the past several seasons after hiring BYU grad and former U.S. men’s national team assistant Rob Neilson as head coach in 2020 and won the Mountain West Conference this season.
Speaking of BYU, the Cougars were beaten by the Cal Poly Mustangs in the first round Thursday in Los Angeles in a match that also went five sets.
Cal Poly won the first set before BYU took the next two, but then the Mustangs took the fourth and decisive fifth to win the match (25-19, 17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 15-10).
The Cougars finished the season with a 22-9 record.
Like BYU, the Utah Utes also lost in five sets Thursday, falling to the Northern Iowa Panthers in Omaha (25-15, 25-21, 24-26, 20-25, 10-15).
The Utes led 23-21 in the third set and thus were two points away from a sweep but the Panthers fought for a 24-23 lead. Utah then took the next point to tie things up before Northern Iowa won the next two and the set.
From there the Panthers seized the match and the Utes finished their season with a 15-15 record.
One more team from Utah — the Utah Valley Wolverines — still has a first-round match to play, as the Wolverines will face off against the mighty Stanford Cardinal on Friday at Stanford.