Idaho upsets Northern Arizona, begins road trip Friday
In its first home action in nearly three weeks, the Idaho volleyball team handed the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks their third loss Thursday night at Memorial Gym.
Brandon Miller | Argonaut
The Vandals huddle after sweeping Northern Arizona making the Vandals 2-1 in the Big Sky.
Idaho won 3-0 in its first Big Sky home match in nearly 20 years over the team predicted to finish first in the conference in the preseason coaches poll. It won’t have much time to celebrate, as the team hits the road Friday to take on the Eastern Washington Eagles in Cheney, Washington.
“After this last weekend of being on the road, we knew we needed to clean some things up going into this match,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “I thought tonight, we did a really good job of digging balls, controlling those digs to a spot so we could transition and get a kill.”
Absent from lineup was freshman standout outside hitter Becca Mau. Buchanan went with junior outside hitter Katelyn Peterson instead.
“Because we had them (NAU) out of system, they were going to be giving us more shots and off speed stuff that would require the more ball control side of things, so we went with Kate,” Buchanan said. “When we get in these matches, we’re going to use all three of those kids.”
Idaho came out strong with a 7-2 run to start the match. NAU answered to tie it at 19, but the Vandals took charge late and stole the first set 25-23.
Senior outside hitter Jessica Hastriter dominated the second set for Idaho, totaling nine kills on 15 attempts. She helped the Vandals take set two 25-18, giving them a 2-0 lead.
“I’m really proud of how consistent I played,” Hastriter said. “I’ve been working on a lot in practice like working on hitting line and integrating more shots, and I think I did a pretty good job at that tonight.”
Brandon Miller | Argonaut
In the third set, it was all Vandals.
A 13-2 opening run helped lock up the victory as Idaho took the third set 25-15 to hand the Lumberjacks their first Big Sky Conference loss.
“It feels really good,” Hastriter said. “I’m really glad that we beat them here at home, especially our opener for conference play.”
Buchanan stressed better defense after their last match — a heartbreaking 3-2 loss against North Dakota Saturday.
But on Thursday, Idaho had better passing and continued to keep its middle blockers involved, she said.
“With both Alyssa (Schultz) and Steph (Hagins), they can be pretty dominant,” Buchanan said. “You saw their blocks as soon as our middles jumped, they’re jumping so it left our pins (outside hitters) 1-on-1. So if we can pass, we can take the block out of their scheme a little bit.”
Junior setter Meredith Coba had 46 assists on the match. She went into Thursday’s match second in the conference in assists with 10.73 per set.
Idaho junior defensive specialist Jenna Ellis was a rock in the back row, totaling 24 digs in the match.
Conor Gleason can be reached at [email protected]