After dropping two of three road matches last week, the Vandal volleyball team will return home for its last home matches of the season and try to make a push as the WAC Tournament approaches.
The Vandals were on the road for a total of seven days last week, playing three matches. They dropped close matches to Texas-San Antonio and Denver, but pulled out a win over Texas State. After the long road trip, Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said it will be nice to be back at Memorial Gym.
“It’s great,” Buchanan said. “A seven-day road trip is rough. In the past I don’t think we ever had a seven-day road trip, and the kids are missing school and they’re sick, but at the same time we can’t look back and make excuses about the travels are long.”
The Vandals lost in four sets to UTSA last Thursday and dropped a marathon five-setter to Denver on Monday. Idaho kept both matches close and outplayed their opponents in a number of categories, but had too many errors to pull the matches out in the end.
“We had the potential to win both of those, so it’s not like we’re not right there,” Buchanan said. “So the good news is we have four games left to really make a push and finish strong and then the conference tournament is what it’s really going to come down to.”
Buchanan said this week in practice she’ll put her team in pressure scenarios to help build confidence and help to overcome adversity heading into the last part of the season.
“We need to put them in more pressure situations and challenge them a bit more,” Buchanan said. “Just like game five of the Denver match, we’re down 8-12 and we looked like we’d already been beaten.”
The Vandals are still sitting in third place in the WAC standings behind New Mexico State and Utah State. means Idaho is in striking range of both teams, but would need losses from both to overtake them. The WAC tournament will begin Nov. 18 in San Antonio.
The Vandals will open their last home stand Thursday against Seattle University. The Redhawks are sitting next to last in the conference with a 2-12 WAC record, but have played better than their record shows. Seattle U has played numerous five-set matches, including a five-set loss to the Vandals earlier in the year.
“They run a really fast offense. They have some great kids on the pins,” Buchanan said. “They haven’t won a lot and they want to win, so we have to defend our court and come out and play and show that we’re locked in on the right things.”
Buchanan also said a key for her team this week will be starting quickly
“If our team starts out strong and really gets with the flow of things, I think that will help us,” Buchanan said. “Seattle U is a great team. Their record doesn’t show it.”
The match on Saturday will be the Dig for the Cure match. Fans are encouraged to wear pink shirts, which the team is selling to raise money for the Light a Candle Foundation, which gives money to help local cancer patients.
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]