By Wade Denniston

The Utah State University women's volleyball team returns to action Thursday night at the Spectrum against the University of North Texas.

USU (3-8, 2-2 Big West Conference) is coming off of its most successful road trip of the year as it defeated Boise State University on Thursday for just the second time in school history, and Big West Eastern Division-leading University of Idaho on Saturday.

"We're getting better and better all the time right now," USU head coach Tom Peterson said.

Junior middle blocker Denae Mohlman led the Aggies to both road victories against the BSU Broncos and the U of I Vandals as she recorded 32 kills, 10 digs and six blocks while hitting .356. She notched a season-high 19 kills at Idaho.

Mohlman is currently leading the team with a .322 hitting percentage, which ranks her sixth in the Big West.

"(Mohlman's) a big cog in our wheel," Peterson said. "She's a winner."

North Texas (4-12, 0-4 Big West) comes into Thursday's game riding a seven-match losing streak including its last loss at New Mexico State University on Saturday in three games 15-3, 15-9, 15-9.

Despite the Mean Green's record, Peterson is confident the Aggies won't be overlooking them.

"I don't think we're ready to say, 'yeah, we're just going to beat anybody', even if they're a team that doesn't have a real great winning record," Peterson said. "(If) we play good (and) they play good, we should beat them.

"We owe it to (North Texas) to play our best. I hate it when a team is messing around and laughing, not playing their best because they don't respect us. So, we owe it to them to beat them as bad as we can," he said.

The Aggies and the Mean Green have met six times previously, with USU winning five of those match-ups.

Last year, USU won the season series against North Texas with wins in four games (15-7, 6-15, 15-10, 15-7) in Denton and three games (15-11, 15-13, 15-3) in Logan.

The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

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