The Vandal volleyball team continued its road trip on Monday night when it lost to Denver in a tight five setter, 28-26, 22-25, 22-25, 30-28, 17-15.
It was the 10th five-set match of Idaho’s season, the most in program history. Unfortunately for Idaho, it was their second loss on the three-match road trip.
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said her team didn’t capitalize on the opportunities they had.
“This one is on us,” Buchanan said. “We just didn’t come out playing in our system. It was probably more on the defensive end. We just didn’t execute. We had our chances and we made some errors and let some things go. From a team aspect, this was not a very consistent match by any means.”
After losing the first set the Vandals came back to win the next two and had a chance to clinch the match, but Denver seized the momentum and won the next two sets to down the Vandals.
Idaho struggled on the defensive side of things, but offensively it was a solid night. The Vandals had four players with 10 kills or more, led by Allison (Walker) Baker’s 16th double-double of the season with 22 kills and 11 digs. Senior Julia Church added 10 kills, junior Ashley Christman had 14 and senior Alex Sele had 12. Senior setter Jenny Feicht also had a double-double with 40 assists and 16 digs.
The Vandals will now return home for a three-march home stand that will finish out the home schedule for the season. Buchanan said coming home is much needed for her team.
“It will be nice to have two weeks at home,” Buchanan said. “We have to take care of things one match at a time. We can either be a really good team or a mediocre team. Tonight we weren’t a great team and therefore anyone can beat you.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]