The Vandals fought hard but the Aggies fought harder.
It was the best season for the Idaho volleyball program in over a decade record-wise, but the Vandal’s run for a WAC title ended Tuesday with a 3-2 loss to New Mexico State in the semifinals at the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Phoenix.
We competed hard,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “That’s probably the best we’ve competed all year. It was a battle all the way to the end.”
The Vandals easily swept past Missouri-Kansas City the night before in the quarterfinals but No. 1 seed New Mexico State proved to be a battle and will go down as the only conference opponent the Vandals failed to beat this season.
“After our UMKC match, I felt like we’re on a roll, we’re doing some good things and playing at a high level,” Buchanan said. “I told them we have to play with some energy, we have to play hard.
With freshman outside hitter Ali Forde back in the lineup, the match was promising for the Vandals in the beginning with a first set 29-27 victory.
It looked as if the Vandals would take two sets from the Aggies for the first time this season during set two, but on the cusp of a 25-23 win the Vandals were whistled late for being in the net during a block attempt. This made the score 24-all and the Aggies didn’t let the Vandals live the costly mistake down to win the set and tie the match at 1-1 going into a crucial third set.
The Vandals didn’t go down easily with a 28-26 third set victory but the Aggies dominated for the first time in the match with an overpowering 25-12 fourth set victory to shift the momentum of the game. The match went down to the wire with the Aggies forcing a fifth set that the Vandals took hold of at 7-5 until the Aggies proved too powerful once again with six unanswered points. With that, the Vandals were eliminated from the tournament with a heartbreaking 15-12 fifth-set loss as the Aggies move on to the finals.
Idaho junior outside hitter Jessica Hastriter led the team for 15 kills while Ali Forde added 13. Senior outside hitter Ashley Christman finished the final match of her career with 12 and junior middle blocker Alyssa Schultz contributed 11. Sophomore setter Meredith Coba had a 49 assist, 15 dig double-double and Jenna Ellis lead the team with 23 digs.
Both teams held each other to relatively low hitting percentages with the Aggies taking a .216 to .179 advantage over the Vandals. The Vandals blocking was superior to the Aggies as it had been for every single conference opponent that they faced this year with a 17-14 advantage. A 94-85 advantage in digs helped the Aggies cause and 14 service errors were a source of a lot of the team’s mistakes on offense.
A kill from Schultz assisted by Coba and a service ace by Michelle Brown was the last string of championship hopes for the Vandals but the Aggies took the final point to win in conclusion of the fifth set.
“When you play a top team like New Mexico State, you have to side out and keep it going,” Buchanan said. “You can’t give up runs of points, and I thought the girls really did that, minus game four. In game five we were up 7-5 and a few ball control plays hurt us and it just kind of slipped away from us.”
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]