Idaho traveled to the Pepperdine/CSUN Classic over the weekend and secured another 2-1 performance.
The Vandals opened with a tough loss to Pepperdine on Thursday. The Waves pushed Idaho around for the majority of the match, securing a 3-1 win. The Vandals managed only seven kills in the first set, and their lone win in the third set turned out to be much more of an aberration than a norm for the match.
“It was a good weekend for us to go 2-1,” Idaho Head Coach Debbie Buchanan said in a news release. “We played a very tough Pepperdine squad, who ran a fast offense. Northridge and North Texas were similar, and I thought we were able to make some changes and adjustments that helped us.”
Pepperdine was especially assertive to open and close the match. The Waves managed 19 kills in the first set and 21 in the fourth and final set, winning both 25-15. They even managed a .516 hitting percentage in the fourth set to slam the door on the Vandals.
Eventual tournament MVP Rachel Ahrens led all players with 16 kills for the Waves. Senior outside hitter Kaela Straw tallied 13 kills for the Vandals, while senior middle blocker DeVonne Ryter added 11 kills and six blocks.
Idaho managed to swing its fortunes against CSU Northridge in their next match. The Vandals and Matadors went back and forth for the first three sets, with CSUN taking two out of the first three. Idaho buckled down in the last two sets to win 25-19 and 15-10.
Errors proved to be the difference down the stretch. CSUN at least doubled Idaho’s error total in all but the second set, with the final tally for errors coming out to 35-15.
Senior outside hitter Reece Carman made her presence felt with 14 kills to lead the Vandals in addition to six blocks. Redshirt freshman Nikki Ball led all players with seven blocks.
Idaho finished out the tournament with a straight-sets sweep of North Texas. It was the Vandals’ second sweep of the season, and the team put together a strong enough performance to close out the match.
The Vandals took control with a 10 point run in the first set to go up 21-12 after battling point-for-point with North Texas to start. Idaho never trailed in the final set and benefitted from more strong performances from Straw and Ryter. Straw finished with 16 kills in the match and 39 total in the tournament. Ryter added nine kills and five blocks for Idaho.
Both Straw and Ryter made the All-Tournament team, the second such honor of the season for Straw and first for Ryter.
Idaho will travel to Hawaii for the Rainbow Wahine Volleyball Challenge, starting with a matchup against University of Hawaii on 10 p.m. Sept. 6. The Vandals will also play San Diego State on Sep. 7 at 7:45 p.m. and University of Portland on 6 p.m. Sept. 8.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker