After a successful first tournament of the season last weekend on the road, Idaho volleyball starts the season off with a 3-1 record in what appears to be another promising year.
File photo by Tony Marcolina | Argonaut
Idaho setter Meredith Coba sets up the ball for a spike during practice Thursday, Aug. 29, in the Memorial Gym. The team will travel to Flagstaff, Ariz., to play in the Northern Arizona Fiesta Classic this weekend. Their first match will be at 4 p.m. Friday against Cal State-Northridge.
A new setter, sophomore Meredith Coba, has come out of the woodwork from starting off as a redshirt freshman in 2011. Coba received limited playing time sitting behind veterans last season, and worked her way toward a starting role. Coba did not disappoint last weekend with 175 assists in Idaho’s four matches averaging 10.94 per set. She also racked up a total of 14 kills and 13 blocks in the tournament — a huge part in Idaho’s respectable team hitting percentage of .242. For her admirable performance, Coba received a selection to the all-tournament team at the Uni-Wyo Invitational.
Along with Coba, Idaho’s prized middle-blocker junior Alyssa Schultz also received all-tournament honors with a performance that satisfied high expectations. Schultz hit an outstanding .437 with a merciless 3.38 kills-per-set in the tournament. Her 53 kills in just 103 swings came with just nine errors complimented by two aces and 1.5 blocks-per-set.
Match-by-match, the tournament played out in the beginning in the Vandals’ favor with a dominating sweep of Montana State in Friday’s season-opener. With 40 assists, Coba commandeered an offense with a hitting percentage of .398, the best hitting numbers in a match for the Vandals in almost a decade.
Schultz came in swinging at .579 with 12 of the 15 kills from Idaho’s middle powerhouse. Despite immaculate numbers from the middle, distribution was consistent with a combined 33 kills from all other positions on the Vandal side of the net. Junior Jessica Hastriter hit her career-best at .435 while also nabbing seven digs. Sophomore Katelyn Peterson contributed with seven digs as well but true freshman defensive specialist Terra Varney led the team with eight. MSU grabbed three less digs than the Vandals with 34 but the Vandals finished with a 7.0-3.0 block advantage and held the Bobcats to a .176 hitting percentage. The Vandals won all three sets going 25-15, 25-19, 25-21.
The Vandals fell in the next match on Saturday in a five-set dramatic match-up against University of Wyoming on the Cowgirl’s home court.
“We played great in the first two games, we competed,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said.
The Vandals won the first two sets but failed to carry the momentum throughout the duration of the match despite outperforming Wyoming in the blocking category 15.0-12.0, a .500 hitting performance from Schultz and 24 digs between sophomore libero Jenna Ellis and Varney on defense. Wyoming had more digs than Idaho with a 74-60 advantage and the 25 errors on 172 attempts for the Vandals made matters worse.
“If our kids can battle like they did in sets one and two we’re going to have a solid year,” Buchanan said. “We just have to make sure we don’t lose faith in what we’re doing when things aren’t going our way.”
After a tough loss against the home team it started to go Idaho’s way again and this time for the remainder of the tournament. The second win in three tries for the Vandals came with a 3-1 victory over Drake. Ellis’s team-high 13 digs were the difference-maker in Idaho’s small advantage with an edge of 56-55.
Peterson led the team in kills with 14 and despite only hitting .213 as a team and being out-blocked 11-9, the Vandals pulled out the victory.
“We started out strong and we were doing some great things,” Buchanan said. “Drake did a great job of learning our strengths and taking us out of system. We just have to make sure we adjust back. If we could take one thing to work on, we just need to communicate and trust each other as a team. We have the potential to do some great things.”
At 2-1 for the weekend, the Vandals weren’t finished yet. The team received its second win of the day and third of the four-game tournament in a 3-1 (25-19; 22-25; 25-17; 25-17) victory over Stetson to close off the tournament. The Vandals kept Stetson quiet on the hitting end, holding it to a 0.71 hitting percentage . The Vandals redeemed themselves on blocking dominance going 14-6. Ellis more than doubled her digging total compared to the previous match with a team-high 28 and Schultz contributed 13 kills to the cause with the help of Coba’s 40 assists.
The Vandals will head south again this weekend with a 3-1 record under their belt to face Cal-State Northridge, Northern Arizona and San Diego State in the NAU Fiesta Classic at NAU.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]