The Vandal volleyball team went even on the road this week, falling to New Mexico State on Thursday, but rebounded to beat La. Tech in straight sets Saturday.
Idaho began the road trip at New Mexico State Thursday night losing in four sets. The Vandals lost the first set, but stormed back in the second to tie the match. Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said the second set showed what her team can do when they stay in their system.
“When we played well we’re in system and we made some runs,” Buchanan said. “That’s how it should be and we expect that. It wasn’t that we were doing something out of the ordinary, we were just doing our jobs and doing what we do well.”
The third set was close with six ties and four lead changes. The match came down to the wire as the Vandals overcame a 23-19 deficit to come within one at 24-23, but the Aggies scored the point, and took a 2-1 lead.
The Vandals fought hard in the fourth set, again coming within one late, but the Aggies proved too much and won the set and the match.
Buchanan said her team didn’t come out the way she hoped.
“This one is on us,” Buchanan said. “We outplayed New Mexico State in a lot of ways. We just committed too many errors. The one game that we won we only gave up five errors, but we’ve got to be better and we need to have a higher expectation. We’ve played at a high level for the last three matches. Hopefully we learned something from this and we get better.”
Senior Cassie Hamilton had a season-high 27 digs, moving her into second place all-time in Idahos history.
The Vandals returned to the court on Saturday and completed their sixth sweep of the season, defeating La. Tech. The Vandals looked crisp throughout the match and won each set in dominating fashion.
Sophomore Allison Walker snagged her fourth consecutive double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Hamilton had 14 digs and is now 204 digs away from passing Meghan Brown to take first place all time.
Idaho will stay on the road on Wednesday when they travel to Cheney to play the Eastern Washington Eagles. The Vandals own a 42-29 all-time series record over Eastern Washington. The last time the two teams met in 2010, the Vandals won in four sets.