After losing four straight games, three of which were at home, the Vandals looked to turn their luck around against the 9-6 Weber State Wildcats.
The Wildcats came into the game on a three-game winning streak, and it showed as they came out with the 3-1 win despite a valiant effort from the Vandals.
The first set started out back-and-forth before Idaho went on a 5-0 run to make the score 7-4. The Wildcats were able to score one point before the Vandals went on a 5-1 run, making it 12-5. Despite being down seven, Weber wasn’t giving in. They started to make a comeback as they went on a few 2-0 and 3-0 runs to knot it up at 19. Both teams were able to make it to 21 before Weber went on a 3-0 run to make it 24-21. With one point to go, Idaho graduate student outside hitter Allison Munday showed up. She got a kill, a block and another kill to tie it up 24-24. Neither team was able to take an edge, going back-and-forth until Idaho led 28-27. Idaho needed one point to win, Weber needed three. The Wildcats went wild, going on a 3-0 run to take the first set.
The second set was a lot less eventful as Weber dominated. The Vandals were only able to go on two 2-0 runs as Weber State rolled their way to a 25-15 set win, picking up a 7-0 run along the way.
Set three started out all Vandals as they went on a 6-0 run. Weber reached double-digits before that had their first 3-0 run, but Idaho still led 18-13. Once the Vandals reached 23 points, the Wildcats woke up and went on a 5-0 run to make the score 23-22. However, Idaho was able to stop the run and get two straight points to win the set and keep the brooms in the closet.
Although the Wildcats didn’t sweep the Vandals, they may as well have, as they dominated set four. The game was only close for the first six serves where it was tied 3-3. From that point, the Wildcats just clawed through the Vandals going on 4-0 and 5-0 runs. The Vandals made attempts to stop the bleeding, but they were unable to bandage everything up. Weber easily took the set 25-16 to give Idaho their fifth straight loss.
Despite the loss, the Vandals had a few standout players. Freshman outside hitter Taryn Vrieling led the team in kills with 12 and was second in points with 13. Munday was second in kills with 10 and third in points with 12. Freshman outside hitter Olivia Gloeckner rounded out the top three as she also had 10 kills, but led in points with 15.
On the defensive side of the ball, freshman middle hitter Madison Wilson had six block assists and one solo block, Munday had four block assists and redshirt junior middle blocker Travel Morris had three block assists and one solo block.
Idaho will hit the road for their next three games as they take on Eastern Washington on Oct. 14 at 6 p.m., Northern Colorado on Oct. 20 at 5 p.m. and Northern Arizona on Oct. 22 at 11 a.m.
James Taurman-Aldrich can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jamesaldrich25