This week, the Idaho Vandals will play their last slate of home games before the end of the season in Montana. Their first game is on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. in Missoula against the Montana Grizzlies. Their second game will be on Saturday at 12 p.m. in Bozeman. Looking ahead to their first matchup, the Montana Grizzlies are a very strong team sitting at 15-8 on the season and are fourth in the Big Sky Conference.
Idaho played them early in the season and lost 3-0, although they put up a good fight despite the scoreboard. Idaho can look to improve their blocking since the last game they had three versus Montana’s seven.
They can adjust their attack patterns to mitigate Montana’s efficiency in blocks. The Vandals were swept 25-20, 25-21, and 25-20 last timeout against Montana at Memorial Gymnasium. While Idaho was consistent in their scoring, they will look to close out sets in this upcoming matchup.
For the game against Montana State on Saturday, this will be Idaho’s first time playing the Bobcats this season. MSU is 11-12 in the season and is currently on a three-game losing streak. It will be a good time for Idaho to capitalize on this and get a win going into the final home stretch of games.
This season there have been a lot of standout players for Idaho that will be keys to the Vandals success this weekend. The strongest offensive weapons on the volleyball team are outside hitter’s freshman Kiana Greer and redshirt junior Cayton White. Greer has 295 kills, and White has 248 on the season.
This season has been pivotal for the Vandals and their new era of volleyball. They have already met many milestones such as their first home conference win in years.
Head coach Romona Kriskova has been a key to the turnaround with her rebuilding the culture and making Idaho competitive again will be huge for them moving forward.
Coming off last season with a 0-16 conference record, having two conference wins has been a huge jump that they will capitalize on in the future. After this past week fighting hard against Weber State and Idaho State, Idaho still has a chance of making the Big Sky tournament if they successfully win these next games and other results go their way. The upcoming games can be found on ESPN+.
Timmon Friel can be reached at [email protected]