After losing a close five-set match against Utah Valley to open WAC play on Thursday, the Vandal volleyball team rebounded with a 3-1 win against Cal-State Bakersfield Saturday at home.
“We definitely played with more intensity tonight then we did the other night,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “We executed the game better from a passing standpoint to get more people involved.”
The match was looking like a sub-par performance for the Vandals dropping the first set 25-22 but from that point on, the Vandals took control of the tempo of the match. The Vandals picked up off a poor .061 team hitting percentage in the first set to hit .297 in the second, .429 in the third and .387 in the fourth to take the last three sets of the match.
Senior outside hitter Ashley Christman goes for a spike in Idaho’s 3-1 victory over Cal-State Bakersfield on Saturday.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
The Vandals ruthlessly held the Roadrunners to an overall hitting percentage of just .169 with a scoring run in the fourth set where the Roadrunners hit just .103 and committed eight errors.
“I thought we were getting them out of system more than in system,” Buchanan said.
The Vandal defense put up big numbers with 15 digs from freshman defensive specialist Terra Varney who seemed more aggressive than ever with multiple one handed diving saves. Sophomore Jenna Ellis had nine digs and three assists to help out Varney in the back row.
As a team the Vandals out blocked the Roadrunners nine to five. Setter Meredith Coba placed the ball effectively for her teammates but also came away with some key defensive plays as well with 41 assists and 12 digs. Offensive hitter Ashley Christman and Alyssa Schultz finished with 11 kills each and Jessica Hastriter led the team in the kills category with 12. Christman hit for .375 on the night and Coba led the team to hit .294 total.
Sophomore outside hitter Katelyn Peterson had 10 kills and 12 digs to join Coba in the double-double category for the Vandals.
Schultz took the match for the Vandals in the middle with the final kill just after Christman picked up a point in the fourth set.
“Our middles did a good job, our outsides were making some swings and they got better as the match goes on but with all those things we didn’t have a hitter hitting negative tonight so that’s a plus,” Buchanan said.
With this big win against Bakersfield (8-7), the Vandals move up to 8-6 going into the final match of a three-match home stand. They face Grand Canyon at 7 p.m. on Monday in Memorial Gym.
“We can play at a high level, this is the type of team that we are and if we would have played like this on a Thursday night then the outcome would have been different,” Buchanan said.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]