Idaho sweeps Montana State
The Idaho volleyball team returned to its winning ways Thursday night in Bozeman, Montana. The Vandals swept Big Sky Conference opponent Montana State 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-21) for the second time this season.
Idaho has won five of its last six matches, with all of its wins during that stretch coming as sweeps.
“For the most part, we did some really good things,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “Our passing was a little off tonight so we weren’t always as crisp as we wanted to be, but we did some things that were decent offensively and defensively.”
The Vandals (12-11 overall, 8-3 Big Sky) continue Big Sky play against Montana (6-17, 6-5) at 6 p.m. Saturday in Missoula. Idaho beat Montana 3-0 Oct. 16 in Memorial Gym. Montana has won its last three matches.
“I think we need to play better than we did tonight going into Saturday’s match,” Buchanan said. “Montana’s playing well. So I think we need to have a good day at practice tomorrow and be ready for a tougher match on Saturday.”
Senior middle blocker Alyssa Schultz and sophomore outside hitter Ali Forde led Idaho in Thursday’s match with 10 kills apiece. Schultz hit .667 and Forde hit .526.
“Both of those guys (Schultz and Forde) did a nice job of keeping the ball in play or going for the kill,” Buchanan said.
Junior outside hitter Katelyn Peterson added nine kills and junior setter Meredith Coba had 41 assists.
In the first set, neither team was able to gather a lot of momentum early. Idaho finally did late in the set. The Vandals led 15-13 and extended the lead to 20-13.
Idaho trailed 18-16 in the second set, but ended the set on a 9-3 run to win 25-21.
Montana State (4-19, 1-10) tried to avoid the sweep in the third set, as the two teams were tied at 19. The Vandals made another run to take the set 25-21.
Idaho hit .324 compared to Montana State’s .174. The Vandals also had eight more blocks than the Bobcats, winning that category 12-4.
“I thought we were able to serve and get them out of their comfort zone a little bit, which helped us to be able to get some blocks,” Buchanan said.
Idaho also committed fewer attack errors than Montana State. The Bobcats had 20 and the Vandals committed 11.
“That’s (errors) kind of the difference in some of these tight matches,” Buchanan said. “As we get further into the season and we get some of those other teams coming in that are right behind us, it’s going to be really about the team that makes the least amount of errors.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]