True freshman Katelyn Peterson’s career-high 17 kills helped a balanced Idaho attack down San Jose State in four sets Saturday night, avenging a loss from earlier in the season.
Steven Devine | Argonaut
Alison (Walker) Baker rises for a spike against San Jose State Saturday in Memorial Gym. The Vandals came out on top with a final score of 3-1 and will travel to Texas to face Texas-San Antonio Thursday.
The Spartans swept the Vandals earlier in the year in what was Idaho’s worst performance of the season. This time around, the Vandals put up big numbers against San Jose State, beating the Spartans in every statistical category.
Sophomore Alyssa Schultz said it felt good to get revenge on the Spartans, especially after a tough loss on Thursday to Utah State.
“We were pretty disappointed after that last game, so we came back,” Schultz said. “We wanted to get revenge on these guys so we came out with a little extra fire that we hadn’t had previously.”
Peterson continues to have a big freshman year, leading the Vandals with 17 kills against the Spartans while hitting .308.
“It’s exciting,” Peterson said. “It felt like we were all flowing together and the communication was good, so that all helped.”
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said it’s good to see a true freshman like Peterson step up and play like a veteran.
“The one thing Katelyn has been this year is steady. She doesn’t make a lot of errors,” Buchanan said. “She’s getting better all the time and she’s playing with confidence. Now when we watch her play, she’s just a hard worker.”
The Vandals came out strong and won the first set of the evening in dominating fashion and then took a close second to go up 2-0. San Jose State came out of the break tough and pulled out a tight third set 25-23 to avoid elimination, but Idaho dominated the fourth by using a 9-0 run to build a lead and take the set 25-7 to close the match.
Buchanan said it was good to see her team respond to adversity after losing the third set.
“In game four we just came out and were a lot more aggressive,” Buchanan said. “The girls played really well, especially to have that energy in the fourth game after they lost one was huge.”
Allison (Walker) Baker’s double-digit kill streak was in jeopardy in the final moments of the third set when she had nine kills, but when the Spartans took the third, Baker received another set in which she capitalized, bringing her streak to 37 straight games with 10 or more kills. Baker also pitched in with eight blocks and 15 digs for her 15th double-double of the season.
The Vandals had four players with over 10 kills in the match, including senior Alex Sele who hit a staggering .500 and Schultz who had 11 kills and added a career-high nine blocks.
Peterson said getting everyone involved offensively was the plan going in.
“We wanted to spread things around and mix it up with different shots and I think we executed what we wanted to do,” Peterson said.
Despite the loss to Utah State on Thursday, the Vandals are still within one game of first place in the conference with the WAC Tournament less than a month away.
The Vandals will now hit the road for the next week, playing three straight matches on the road, starting with Texas-San Antonio Thursday. Idaho will also travel to Texas State and Denver before coming home for the last home stand of the season on Nov. 3.
“We’re just going to have to stay focused and take each game one at time and not worry about how much we have to do on this trip,” Buchanan said. “We need to scout each team individually and take it one game at a time and we’ll be fine.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]