By Matthew Montague
The BYU women''s volleyball team is on the road to face instate rival Utah State Tuesday night Oct 8.
The Cougars are 7-10 on the season and 2-2 in the Mountain West Conference. This season BYU has struggled on the road with a 1-3 record.
Which BYU team is going to show up Tuesday night to battle with the Aggies?
The one that lost to Air Force in four games and broke a 36 game Mountain West Conference losing streak for the Falcons, or the one that swept New Mexico in three games?
The Cougars have lacked consistency the entire year. Head coach Karen Lamb has been challenged with major injuries to several of her key players.
Not only has it been a challenge for Lamb but also for the players.
She has had to shuffle around the lineup and move players to positions that they have never played.
Junior setter Karina Puikkonen leads the Cougars hitting .301, averaging 10.41 assists and has a team high 16 aces on the season.
Junior middle blocker Carrie Bowers has been a solid force hitting .223 and a team high 1.45 blocks per game.
On the outside senior Allison Larson and sophomore April Varner have stepped up their play. Larson leads the team with 2.81 kills per game and Varner is right behind her with 2.66 kills per game
Utah State returns three starters and six letter-winners from last year''s team that went 20-11 on the season and finished in fourth-place in the Big West Conference.
Junior outside hitter Erin Cartwright and junior outside hitter Tereza Cernianska lead the Aggies.
Last match against Cal Poly Cartwright had team-high 17 kills to go along with five digs and three blocks, while Cernianska added 11 kills and a team-high 14 digs.
Utah State is coming off a couple of losses. Over the weekend they lost a pair of three-game matches to No. 7 UC Santa Barbara (24-30, 21-30, 22-30) and to Cal Poly (21-30, 31-33, 23-30).
Utah State is 12-36 all-time against BYU. The Aggies have won three of the last four meetings with BYU, including a dramatic five-game win in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament.
The last time the two teams met in Logan was on Sept. 12, 2000, where the Aggies recorded a three-game win.