A combination of triumphant victories and heartbreaking losses leads the Vandal volleyball team to the WAC Tournament — regardless of the outcome of the final home game on Senior Night against Seattle U on Friday.
“Now it’s just a matter of where we’re going to be seeded and I think the more momentum we can get as we’re headed into the end of the season here, I think it’s going to help us once we get into the actual tournament itself,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said.
The Vandals dropped a 1-3 road match to the Seattle Redhawks earlier in the season, but a lot has changed in the past couple weeks.
“We’re different in the fact that we have (Terra) Varney now, but we don’t have Ali (Forde). So I think our ball control will be a little bit better,” Buchanan said. “We’re going to have to be better … in the pin zone because we don’t have any subs.”
Forde has been dominant for the offense with a breakout game off the bench against Texas Pan-American last Saturday hitting .538 with seven kills. She hit well against first-place New Mexico State and was the only player to hit above .300 against the Redhawks the last time the two teams faced. Unfortunately, with the basketball season beginning, the multi-sport athlete and redshirt freshman has some temporary obligations that will not allow her to play on Friday.
“Ali’s been a key part of our offensive and everything that we’ve been doing. She’s led us from an offensive standpoint since the last time we played Seattle,” Buchanan said. “So for us to not have her to go to, it makes it a little harder — but we’re just going to have to step up and get ready to compete.”
If this match means anything, the Vandals are looking to get back at Seattle for a bitter road loss similar to what they experienced against New Mexico State in a down-to-the-wire loss on Halloween.
“The two teams are actually really similar for us, really tough competition. What we did for New Mexico State is we prepared about a week in advance for defending against their offense and I thought we did a much better job the last match we played them than the first time,” junior middle blocker Alyssa Schultz said. “For Seattle U, we’re working on stopping their middles, we’re working harder in practice, we’re focusing more on what Seattle U does and how we can stop that — so we can beat them.”
Schultz is coming off a .600 hitting percentage against Texas-Pan American. Senior middle blocker Taylor Wilkinson went off against the Broncs, as well, with a .333 hitting percentage and seven kills. The pair contributed to out-blocking the Broncs 11-3. The Vandals have out-blocked every single one of their conference opponents this season with the exception of tying Grand Canyon.
“We love surprising teams with what we can do and we’re trying to change things up so they’re not expecting us and we love being the powerhouse of the front row,” Schultz said.
This will be the last home match where the two middle-blockers will be at each other’s sides, since this is Wilkinson’s last home match of her career.
“It means a lot to me. I’m excited to go out one more time at Mem Gym and to work my hardest and to end with a win and I also want to play hard for my teammates,” Wilkinson said.
Senior outside hitter Ashley Christman will also be honored on Senior Night at 7 p.m. this Friday at Memorial Gym.