MANOA, Hawaii – After losing in the season opener, the Vandals once again fell short to get their first win, as Oregon State defeated the Vandals 3-0 (10-25, 19-25, 19-25).
The Vandals struggled in stopping the duo of Oregon State’s Mary-Kate Marshall and Katelyn Driscoll. The two earned a combination of 29 kills with Idaho’s Becca Mau leading the team with eight.
Dana Backlund also contributed to the Beavers offensive dominance by earning 39 out of the team’s 45 assists.
The team’s percentage for the match was .144 as they struggled early in the first set. The Vandals had to go through multiple kills from the opponent’s offense and faced multiple attack errors as the Beavers would take the lead 9-2 in the first set.
Idaho would briefly capitalized from their misfortunates after Mau’s kill that reduced Oregon State’s lead to six. However, after Idaho scored two out of the next three points, the Beavers would score eight unanswered points and were leading 18-5 in the first set. It was a margin that the Vandals couldn’t catch up and lost the first set 10-25.
In the second set, the Vandals led early in the going. At one point, holding a 7-4 lead but the Beavers would pull away after tying Idaho nine apiece and never looked back to earn a 25-19 win in the second set to lead the match 2-0.
Their best outing occurred in the final set with the two teams stayed at close pace. But Idaho would only lead once in the final set. The closest the Vandals were from taking the lead occurred near the end after Mau earned her 7th kill of the game with an assist from Meredith Coba. Putting the Vandals two points away from taking the lead in the final set as Oregon State were leading 20-18.
But the Beavers would score four straight points to end any chances for the Vandals to win a set and only managed to score one point. As the match ended with a service error from the Vandals to put them 0-2 so far this season.
Katelyn Peterson led the team in digs with seven while Sammi Parris contributing to the team in set assists with 11.
The Vandals will face Wichita State tomorrow for their final game in the tournament. The Shockers defeated the Beavers the previous night in a sweep.