The Vandals lost a 3-1 heartbreaker at home in a neck-and-neck matchup against the best team in the conference, the New Mexico State Aggies.
Tony Marcolina | Argonaut
Libero Jenna Ellis makes a dig during the match against New Mexico State Thursday in Memorial Gym. The Vandals lost 3-1 against the Aggies.
In the last matchup against the Aggies on the road on Oct. 5, the Vandals struggled losing 3-0.
In Thursday’s match, the Vandals fared better winning the first set 25-14 set. Idaho hit an outstanding .481 average in the first set to NMSU’s .125. The middle blockers were the most dominant with Schultz and Wilkinson hitting .667 a piece. Schultz lead the team with four kills and Wilkinson had two. Outside hitter Ashley Christman hit .400 and had two kills as well. Everything seemed optimistic until the Aggies came out merciless in the second.
“We just got to understand as a team that we can get that win again and when they’re down we got to come back and just keep going at that,” setter Meredith Coba said. “I think sometimes we let up because we think they’re going to roll over but that’s not the case, we just got to stay after it and get them down and get that win.”
The Vandals failed to stick with it in the second set with New Mexico State jumping off on a 5-0 run in what was starting to look like the last time the two teams faced. The vandals lost the set 25-17 but it was hard fought and it has been so far the best performance by the vandals against the Aggies which isn’t saying much compared to the last time the two teams faced each other. The Vandals hit particularly poorly in the second set at .100 to even out at .254 on the game. NMSU had the slight advantage at .258.
Jessica Hastriter had six kills on the match despite not playing the entire game alternating with Varney. Hastriter led the team at .462 on the night at that point. The Vandals clearly have stepped their blocking game off with a clear advantage in blocks at 8-1 by the end of the second set and putting up big blocking numbers in their last couple of matches. NMSU held a 31-25 advantage in digs and began to exhaust the Vandal back row.
The Vandals hit a little bit better in the third set with a .250 hitting percentage but NMSU was on fire at .429. Hastriter was having the best game out of everyone with 10 kills and hit .308. Unfortunately the relentlessness of the Aggies wore down on the Vandals resulting in a 25-19 third set loss putting them in a must win situation.
The fourth set began with NMSU taking the first three points. NMSU hit it out for the Vandals first point of the set. Christman took the next point with a kill. NMSU went on a run to make it 6-2 at this point and the Vandals were trying to stay positive. Things started to slip away with a NMSU 8-2 lead but two errors put the Vandals closer in it with despite NMSU’s energized offense. Schultz grabbed a kill to pick up some momentum and NMSU continued to hit the ball out of play. At this point it was 8-6. NMSU lost control of the tempo again for a 8-7 deficit as the Vandals chipped away at an early lead from the aggies that seemed impossible to catch up to. The nail biter continued until a questionable call as to whether or not a ball was out of bounds gave NMSU a lead 16-14 and then 17-14.
“It was a critical time but you know what you can’t let one play effect the whole match, there’s not much you can do about it we could get some momentum it might change things, it’s unfortunate,” Buchanan said.
The Vandals were fighting for their lives at this point. The Vandals put up another point to help bring back comeback hopes. A serving ace reassured that. Schultz eventually tied it up at 19-19 and a few lead changes lead the aggies to a set up with the game on the line, the Vandals evened it up and a few more lead changes led to a 23-21 set and it came to set and match point. NMSU failed to do it on a serving error but tragically pulled it off in another effort 25-22 being the final score.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at arg-sports@uidaho.edu