The two teams predicted to finish atop the WAC collided in Memorial Gym Saturday night and it was New Mexico State that emerged victorious, beating the Vandals in five sets.Idaho (3-9, 1-1 WAC) came into the match fresh off a sweep of Denver, but was unable to carry the momentum into the match against New Mexico State (8-3, 2-0 WAC). The Aggies proved why they were picked to finish first in the preseason poll on Saturday with a hard-fought victory. It’s the fourth time the Vandals have lost a match in five sets this season.
Junior Allison (Walker) Baker said the team already has its sights set on the next meeting with New Mexico State.
“We just have to come and get them next time,” Baker said. “I don’t think we should really lose any more games from here on out. We just have to come out and fight and play our game.”
The Vandals will be back on the road this week, playing two familiar opponents in San Jose State and Utah State. The Vandals swept the season series against Utah State last season and split against San Jose State. They have lost the past two road matches they’ve played at San Jose.
Idaho started the game slow and quickly fell into a two-set deficit. The Vandals’ offense looked out of sorts and outmatched by the powerful Aggies.
Buchanan said her team needed a better start, especially against a team as talented as the Aggies.
“New Mexico State looked like they had the control,” Buchanan said. “We looked a little rattled — a little unsure and it took us awhile to get going. The good thing is we came back and we fought for game three and game four. We just didn’t finish it.”
Idaho came out of the break looking like a different team and seized the momentum to take sets three and four, forcing a fifth set.
“Those third and fourth sets, we played and we have to learn to do that, to come out from the beginning and play,” Baker said. “…We have to learn to put a whole game together.”
The Vandals looked like they had all the momentum going into the fifth, but it evaporated quickly. Idaho gave up an early 6-0 run and was never able to recover, losing the set 15-8.
Baker said a host a little mistakes snowballed in the last set, causing all the momentum the Vandals had to disappear.
“We did have the momentum, then it was two little points here and there and it just kept building with mistakes,” Baker said. “They were swinging good. They were swinging high off our blocks, but that’s volleyball. It goes either way sometimes.”
It was another hard loss for Idaho and Buchanan said she hopes it sends a message to her team going forward.
“We have to keep winning,” Buchanan said. “We can’t be ok with this. I don’t care if they’re picked one and we’re picked two. We still want to get the win and we still want finish on top. When it comes down to it, we’re going to play them again, the very last match of the year, and then we’re going to have another shot at the conference tournament.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]