Idaho beats EWU in four sets, ends regular season this week
The Idaho volleyball team trailed for the second consecutive conference match, but emerged victorious in both matches.
Idaho was losing 2-1 on the road against Southern Utah Thursday, but overcame the deficit and won 3-2. Saturday, the Vandals dropped the first set against Eastern Washington before storming back to win 3-1 in front of a home crowd at Memorial Gym.
Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Junior setter Meredith Coba, left, and Senior middle blocker Alyssa Shultz attempt to block an Eastern Washington University player during Idaho’s 3-1 win Saturday at the Memorial Gym.
“We started out a little slow,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “One of the things that we told our girls is they’re going to fight a lot harder. They’re going to be a lot better than the first time around when we played them. They definitely were.”
The win was Idaho’s fourth in a row and its eighth win out of its last nine matches.
“I thought we did a great job of getting better each game,” Buchanan said. “I thought we got a little more momentum each game.”
The Vandals (15-11 overall, 11-3 Big Sky) wrap up regular season play this week starting with North Dakota (23-8, 11-3) 7 p.m. Thursday in Memorial Gym. Idaho concludes the season against Northern Colorado (17-9, 10-4) 7 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Gym. The Big Sky Tournament is Nov. 20-22.
“It’s always fun to really compete,” said senior Alyssa Schultz, a middle blocker.
“Those are the games that really get your heart pumping.”
North Dakota and Idaho are tied for first in the Big Sky North Division, while Northern Colorado is one game behind the two schools.
Buchanan said keeping the errors low will be the key to success this week against North Dakota and Northern Colorado.
“It’s all going to be about us and our errors,” Buchanan said. “If we’re making a lot of errors, those are going to be tough ones. If we can reduce our errors, then we have a chance with any team – Idaho State, North Dakota, Northern Colorado.”
Saturday, junior outside hitter Katelyn Peterson led both teams with 13 kills and a career-high 21 digs. She said she takes pride in her digs.
Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Senior outside hitter Jessica Hastriter scores a point through two Eastern Washington University players during Idaho’s 3-1 win Saturday at the Memorial Gym. Hastriter finished the match with 13 kills and reached the 600-career-kill milestone.
“I love defense more than anything else and just being able to fly around,” Peterson said. “We were all in sync, just going for everything was just a fun atmosphere.”
Three other Vandals had double-digit kills including sophomore outside hitter Ali Forde and senior outside hitter Jessica Hastriter, who had 12 kills each. Schultz added 10 kills for the Vandals from her middle blocker position.
“It makes it fun when we can all be on on a certain night,” Schultz said.
As in most matches, errors played a key factor in the outcome.
Eastern Washington had 28 attack errors while Idaho committed 17. The Eagles also made nine service errors while the Vandals limited their service errors to four.
Idaho also prevented some EWU kills, as the Vandals made 11 total team blocks. EWU had five total team blocks on the game.
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]