This season was one of the best the Vandal volleyball team has seen in recent years after Idaho advanced to the WAC Tournament championship match for the first time. Now the Vandals will have to reload after six of the players from this year’s squad graduate.
File photo by Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Senior Julia Church celebrates with setter Jenny Feicht during their sweep of La. Tech Nov. 8 in Memorial Gym. Six seniors concluded their final season at Idaho with a WAC Tournament championship match appearance.
The Vandals got past Texas State and the University of Texas-San Antonio to make it to the title match, only to lose to New Mexico State in four sets.
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan knew coming into the season that her team had an opportunity to win it all, but says she’s proud of the fight her team showed.
“It’s definitely a disappointing way to end the season, but I’m proud to have gotten to that point,” Buchanan said. “That’s what you’re shooting for, to be able to play at that level and play with that constancy.”
Idaho finished the season with a 17-14 record, the highest win total since 2008. Along the way the Vandals played a number of tough opponents, especially in the preseason when the Vandals faced some of the top ranked teams in the nation, such as then No. 2 UCLA. Idaho may not have won many of those early matches, but Buchanan said it was a maturing experience that helped the team the rest of the year, especially in the WAC semifinal match when the Vandals battled from a 11-14 deficit in the fifth set to win and advance.
“I think in a lot of ways those setbacks we had early on helped and really prepared the kids and gave them the confidence to play through and being able to win that,” Buchanan said.
This year’s squad was a senior-heavy team, and now the coaching staff will have the task of replacing the six graduating seniors. Buchanan said it’s tough to do, especially when they thought they’d have Allison (Walker) Baker around for another season. Baker decided to not claim her redshirt season in order to pursue other interests.
The senior squad’s vast experience propelled Idaho to its highest-ever finish in the WAC. The seniors included Jenny Feicht, the active WAC leader in assists, Baker, the active WAC leader in kills and Janelle Chow, the second active leader in digs.
“More than anything, I think these kids have been good role models and they’re great academically,” Buchanan said. “It’s interesting, we have a great group of older kids that we’re losing and we have a great group of younger kids who didn’t like the way things ended and don’t want to feel like that again.”
Despite the loss of six players, Buchanan said she’s optimistic with what she has coming back next season, but said it may take a little while for them to get going. Buchanan said there will be a learning curve for the young squad, but said she hopes to add some experience and talent in her recruiting class.
“We definitely have to surround our returners with some good players,” Buchanan said. “Hopefully we’ll add some experience and we’ll see what we can do when we get back in the spring.”
The Vandals won’t be back in action until the spring when they start practice and scrimmages.
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]