The Idaho volleyball team got back to its winning ways on Saturday night when the Vandals completed a season sweep of Texas State with a 3-0 win and scores of 25-23, 25-15 and 25-18.
The Vandals were coming off of a loss to Texas-San Antonio, but were able to find their feet again with a dominating win over the Bobcats. The win keeps the Vandals in the No. 3 spot in the conference standings, just a half-game behind New Mexico State. Utah State is still sitting comfortably in first with a 12-2 conference record.
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said she was happy with the way her team performed during the match.
“The kids took care of business today and are ready to head to Denver,” Buchanan said. “The one good thing is we played earlier in the day so we have a little extra revering time.”
The match wasn’t a total slaughter, but it was a convincing win for Idaho. The Vandals dominated the stat sheet in almost every category, which included out-blocking the Bobcats 15-3. Idaho out-hit Texas State .242 to .88, as the Bobcats struggled to get anything going offensively.
Even though the Vandals have gone 2-2 in their last four matches, Buchanan said she’s happy with the consistent play she’s seen out of her squad.
“We’re playing pretty steady, even if you go back to our match at San Antonio, even though we didn’t get that win,” Buchanan said. “Today we had five blocks per set, which is huge, and only three errors per set. For seven sets in a row we’ve kind of kept our stats in line.”
Junior Allison (Walker) Baker continued to lead the Vandals with a team-high 12 digs. With that performance Baker extended her double-digit kill streak to 39 consecutive matches. Senior Alex Sele had the next highest number of kills with eight and freshman Katelyn Peterson and sophomore Alyssa Schultz both added four. On the defensive side of the ball, libero Janelle Chow had 14 digs while freshman Jenna Ellis added nine.
The Vandals will close out their home schedule starting this week when they return to Moscow for three matches. Idaho will face Seattle University this Saturday, followed by Louisiana Tech Nov. 8 and Texas-Arlington Nov. 10. The Vandals will then hit the road for New Mexico State to end the regular season. The WAC Tournament will begin Nov. 18 in San Antonio.
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]