Two nights, two sweeps

 Idaho moves to 3-1 in conference

The Idaho volleyball team earned its second sweep in two days Friday, making quick work of the Eastern Washington Eagles in Cheney, Washington.

One night after defeating the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks Thursday in its conference home opener, Idaho wasted little time dismantling the Eagles 3-0.

“I thought the girls did a great job tonight,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “Our challenge was could we be good last night and turn around and be good tonight. I thought our girls did a great job of playing back-to-back games where we actually executed the game plan.”

The Vandals moved to 7-9 on the season and 3-1 in the Big Sky with the win. Next up is another conference match against Portland State Thursday on the road.

Buchanan said Idaho’s record is much better than it seems due to a tough nonconference schedule.

“If you look at our record right now and maybe it’s not what it should be,” Buchanan said. “We got challenged. We got pushed. We had to learn how to fight against some really tough teams.”

Idaho hit a season-high .438 hitting percentage as a team, with outside hitters Ali Forde and Katelyn Peterson each shattering their career-best. Forde hit .619 and Peterson hit a lights-out .722 (13-0-18).

The Vandals won the first set handily 25-10, highlighted by aggressive serving by Forde. She finished the match with three aces.

Idaho cruised to a 5-0 lead in the second set and didn’t let up. Forde fittingly ended the set 25-14 with one of her 14 total kills.

The Eagles hit their stride in the third set. The teams went back and fourth throughout, but Idaho was too much and won 25-19 to close out the match.

“Our goal is to be the first team to five and 10 to try to make those pushes a little bit more,” Buchanan said. “I thought they did a really good job at that.”

Buchanan said Idaho focused on defense and limiting its errors last week. For the second straight night, she said Idaho’s middle blockers held the opponents middle inside, leaving the outside hitters opportunities for open swings.

“As far as consistency, we had to keep our errors low,” Buchanan said. “From the defensive side, we need to be in system and running our middles back at them. If you’re always going outside, then it’s really hard for those kids to keep taking a lot of those swings over and over.”

Conor Gleason can be reached at [email protected] 

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