After a poor offensive performance at San Jose State, the Vandal volleyball team was able to recover and sweep Utah State Sunday for their second conference win of the season.
File photo by Amrah Canul | Argonaut
Junior outside hitter Allison (Walker) Baker extends for a kill in Idaho’s four-set loss to New Mexico State Sept. 15.
The Vandals (4-10, 2-2 WAC) hit just .113 against the Spartans, but shook it off and came back with their best performance of the year against Utah State (8-5, 3-1 WAC), hitting .352 as a team. On the defensive side of things, Idaho held the Aggies to a .096 hitting percentage, the second lowest from an Idaho opponent this season. The Vandals have now beat Utah State four straight times.
The Vandals will be back at home for a couple matches this week, facing WAC newcomers Texas State on Thursday and Texas-San Antonio on Saturday. It will be the first meeting between Idaho and Texas State and just the third with UTSA. Both matches will start at 7 p.m. in Memorial Gym.
Idaho looked like it had the match in control from the start. The Vandals started set one with an 11-3 run and never looked back. Idaho took the first two sets in a dominating fashion and started the third with a solid lead. The Aggies showed some fight by getting within two in the third, but Idaho was able to close it down to take the sweep.
“We had a great match,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “We played great tonight. The kids came out with a lot of intensity.”
Junior Ashley Christman continued to improve for the Vandals, leading Idaho with 13 kills. Christman hit a career high .765 on 17 attempts with no errors.
Buchanan said at the beginning of the season that fans could expect to see both setters, Jenny Feicht and Ryann Carter, to play this season and that’s what’s happening. The Vandals went to their 6-2 rotation in which both setters rotated in and out.
It was a solid performance all around for the Vandals, which was much needed after struggling earlier in the week. The Vandals have high expectations this year, but have been inconsistent at times. Idaho will need to find its consistency if it’s going to keep pace with the top teams in the conference, like New Mexico State, which is 4-0 in conference play thus far.
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]