The Idaho volleyball team finished its spring season strong with a 2-1 victory against Eastern Washington on Saturday in Memorial Gym.
The Vandals were originally scheduled to play at a tournament in Portland, but hosted EU instead after the Portland tournament was cancelled. The Vandals beat the Eagles 25-23, 19-25 and 27-25.
Assistant coach Steve Whitaker filled in for coach Debbie Buchanan on Saturday, who was out recruiting. Whitaker said the team still has a long way to go, but he is happy with the progress.
“We still have our ups and downs,” Whitaker said. “We’re still working through a lot of stuff and parts of our game are pretty young, but I thought we’ve made a ton of improvement this spring. The connection between the setter and our hitters has drastically changed and that’s going to keep on getting better. Passing-wise, we’ve made an improvement as well.”
One of the major spots that has been filled this spring is the setter position. Last year the Vandals graduated two setters in Ryann Carter and Jenny Feicht. That spot has been filled with redshirt sophomore Meredith Coba.
“Our offense has really sped up and we have been connecting both setting and hitting, so that has been awesome,” Coba said. “I feel like the two years that I’ve been waiting has paid off. I’ve been working for it. Just watching Jenny and Ryann for two years and seeing what they’ve done, it’s awesome to finally get my chance, it feels great.”
The Vandals will bring a group back in the fall that doesn’t have a lot of match experience, but Whitaker said he’s pleased with what he’s seen out of the younger players in the spring.
“I’m pretty pleased, there have been some surprises,” Whitaker said. “Some of the girls are coming out of their shells because they have to. They’re putting in the time in the gym to go over the stuff they need to get better on. Overall it has been good, they have stepped up.”
The spring season wasn’t about wins and losses for Idaho, but getting the young team ready for competition in the fall and Coba said the team will be ready to get back to the WAC final.
“I think we’ve all worked really hard and have been putting in a lot of hours over the course of the spring season and we’ve been working on a lot of specific stuff and I think it’s carried through,” Coba said. “We’ve had a successful season and now we can carry it on to the fall.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]