After a final departure from home on Saturday with a win against playoff contending Seattle U, the Vandals are on the road for the remainder of the season. Idaho plays at Chicago State on Thursday with the hope of obtaining a higher seed in conference contention.
Tony Marcolina | Argonaut
Ashley Christman spikes the ball during the game against Seattle U Friday in Memorial Gym. The Vandals won 3-1, and will take on Chicago State at 5 p.m. Thursday at Chicago, Ill.
“We’ll come out of that with a win. We’ll go there, get that done and then we’re off to some bigger and better things,” junior middle blocker Alyssa Schultz said.
The Vandals came into the match against Seattle with scars from a bitter road loss on Oct. 11 but they turned things around in Memorial Gym in a 3-1 home finale victory.
“Now that we know we can beat them, we know that we can beat any team,” Schultz said.
Senior outside hitter Ashley Christman had the best match of her career in her last game in Memorial Gym. Christman posted a career high 18 kills and 13 digs along with her first double-double.
Christman hit an astounding .714 in the final set. Coba dished it off to Hastriter for the final point of the match for a second consecutive win for the Vandals. Christman hit a team high .353 on the night, along with the rest of her milestones.
“It was huge. I wanted to finish my time at Idaho with a win, it means a lot to have that win and it helps us for our seeding for the WAC tournament,” Christman said. “Just going out, hitting hard and giving it my all. I know I only got three weeks left.”
Coba had 40 assists on the game and managed without freshman outside hitter Ali Forde off the bench, who has been on the basketball court when she’s not a reliable asset to Coba’s offense.
Some players put up big numbers, but as a team overall the Vandals hit just .232 on the match. The Redhawks claimed the second set before the Vandals came back to win the match. The team hit just .086 and committed seven errors.
“I think we can play better than this and I think we have to play better,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “They’re still wanting to get a win. We’re having to have to go execute our game on the road. We’ve really been up and down and we’ve got to really try to get consistent as we make this push.”
The Vandals are now fourth in the WAC standings — just a half a game behind Cal State-Bakersfield knocking Seattle down to fifth place.
Chicago State, the Vandals’ Thursday opponent, is sitting in the cellar of the conference at 0-14. The last time the Vandals faced the Cougars, they swept them 3-0 at Memorial Gym on Oct. 19.
“Anytime you go on the road, I think it’s tough. There’s no ‘give me’ match, you got to work for it so we’ll have some work to do next weekend,” Buchanan said.
The Vandals are on the road against the Cougars on Thursday followed by a Saturday match at Missouri-Kansas City before the final match of the season against Grand Canyon on Nov. 21. The WAC Tournament begins Nov. 25 in Phoenix, Ariz.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]