Utah State campus briefs

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: The Aggies lost their Western Athletic Conference opener for the first time in its five years in the league as it dropped a three-set match (25-22, 26-24, 25-20) to New Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M. on Thursday.

New Mexico State, the defending WAC regular season co-champion, improved to 6-4 on the season and 1-0 in league play with the win, while Utah State drops to 8-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference with the loss.

Junior libero Christine Morrill (Neola, Utah/Union HS) led Utah State with 17 digs on the night, while junior outside hitter Lori Wilson-Beckstrom (Provo, Utah/Provo HS) had a team-high seven kills and tied her career-high with five blocks.

Both teams played well in the opening set as NMSU hit .233 (18-8-43) and USU hit .206 (11-4-34). In the second set, NMSU hit .196 (16-7-46) and USU hit .143 (.12-6-42) as the Southern Aggies rallied from an 18-12 deficit to notch the win.

The third and final set was the complete opposite of the first as both teams hit for negative percentages as Utah State hit a negative .152 (8-13-33) and New Mexico State hit for a negative .029 (10-11-35).

Utah State finished the match by hitting .073 (31-23-109) as compared to a .145 (44-26-124) hitting percentage for New Mexico State. NMSU also had six more digs (51-45) and two more team blocks (12-10) in the match.

Utah State will stay on the road as it plays at Louisiana Tech in its next match on Saturday at 6 p.m.