The Idaho volleyball team reached its 700th program win on Thursday night when it bounced Louisiana Tech in straight sets, 25-11, 25-21 and 25-14.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Idaho senior Alex Sele connects for a spike during the Vandals’ 3-0 sweep of La. Tech Thursday in Memorial Gym. The programs’ historical 700th win also marked the team’s 11th conference victory this season.
The nightmare season continued for La. Tech as the Techsters are now 0-16 in WAC play. For the Vandals (13-13, 11-5 WAC), the win keeps them in contention for the No. 2 seed at the WAC Tournament. The Vandals have never lost to La. Tech.
Idaho will be back in Memorial Gym Saturday night for its last home match of the season against Tecas-Arlington. For seniors Alex Sele, Jenny Feicht, Janelle Chow, Ryann Carter, and Julia Church it will be Senior Night. The five seniors will be honored following the match. Idaho will then hit the road for one last regular season match against New Mexico State.
Junior Ashley Christman said it was special to be part of the program’s 700th win.
“It’s awesome,” Christman said. “When you think back to all the people that played and to be part of the people who won all those games, I think it’s pretty cool to be part of that tradition.”
The Vandals came out strong in the first set and dominated the Techsters from start to finish winning 25-11. Idaho had to fight through some adversity in the second after the Techsters went on a 7-1 run to start the set. The Vandals responded and fought their way back to take a close 25-21 win.
Buchanan said she didn’t like the way her team looked in the second set, but was happy with the way it recovered.
“In game two I thought we got a little sloppy,” Buchanan said. “We’re trying to teach the girls that it doesn’t matter who you play. They haven’t won a game and they almost took a set off us because we got careless and we didn’t take care of things.”
The Vandals came out of the break with momentum and used it to down the Techsters 25-14 in the third to clinch the match.
Idaho held La. Tech to a dismal -.58 hitting percentage while the Vandals hit .214. Buchanan said it was good to see her team come out so strong defensively.
“Our block came out strong and I think that made them start to guess what they we’re doing,” Buchanan said. “Those are the teams that if you stay on them, they’re going to break because they don’t have that success.”
Allison (Walker) Baker led the Vandals with 11 kills and extended her double-digit kill streak to 42 matches. Senior Alex Sele and junior Ashley Christman both chipped in with eight kills.
The Vandals will now hope to finish the season strong and build momentum as the WAC Tournament approaches.
“It’s really nice to have a bunch of wins in a row because then you feel really confident, but as always we have to come out ready to play. We can’t take anything for granted and we have to take every team like they’re the best team we’re going to play,” Christman said.
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]