The Idaho volleyball team has won four games in a row after a 3-1 victory at Missouri-Kansas City on Saturday — with a career-high 15 kills in freshman Ali Forde’s first-career starting opportunity.
The Vandals battled to take the first two sets against the Kangaroos before dropping the third 25-19 with just a .171 hitting percentage as a team, compared to UMKC jumping up to .317 after starting slow. The Vandals ended up taking the fourth set 25-22 after three tied scores and five lead changes before a costly error by the ‘Roos ended any chances of the home team forcing a fifth set and keeping hopes alive.
Forde earned a starting spot in the game after being a valuable asset off the bench for most of the season. She had a .538 hitting percentage and seven kills against Texas Pan-American and a .579 hitting percentage and 12 kills against Chicago State earlier in the year. Forde did not disappoint on Saturday to hit .375 on the night with two of her 15 kills resulting in first and second set wins for the Vandals.
Senior outside hitter Ashley Christman had another solid night, a couple weeks after having a career-best day during Idaho’s Nov. 8 Senior Day win over Seattle. Christman hit a respectable .292 on the night in Kansas City, had 10 kills and a serving ace. She recently earned WAC Player of the Week honors, for the first time in her career, averaging 4.50 kills and 5.38 points along with 3.25 digs and 1.00 blocks per set last week.
Setter Meredith Coba also added 45 assists that her outside hitters took advantage of. With the exception of third set woes, the Vandals dominated offensively to offset slight defensive struggles.
“We played as a team from an offensive standpoint,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “They obviously had a lot of kills, but for us the biggest thing was we hit at a high percentage and were able to side-out at a little higher percentage and block more.”
The Vandals had just 50 kills compared to 65 from the ‘Roos, 62 digs to the ‘Roos 69, out blocked the ‘Roos 14-5 and outhit them .255 to .205 to secure the win. The Vandals committed far less errors than the ‘Roos with just 13 compared to 31 from the home team.
The Vandals are now 17-10 on the season and, more importantly, fourth place in Western Athletic Conference at 10-5. The Vandals are going into their final match of the season on the road against a 4-10 Grand Canyon to push for a third seed in the tournament. If the Vandals lose to Grand Canyon, they will take the fourth seed. The last time the two teams faced was on Sept. 30, when the Vandals shut out the ‘Lopes 3-0. The match against Grand Canyon will be played in Phoenix on Nov. 21 to conclude the season. Five consecutive wins could provide some momentum going into the WAC Tournament, which is also in Phoenix, on Nov. 25.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]