Vandal volleyball team plays unusual five-set match, beats Southern Utah on road
It had been almost a month since the Idaho volleyball team played more than three sets. The last time it happened was Oct. 9 when the Vandals lost on the road to Portland State in five sets. This time Idaho back from behind to defeat the Southern Utah Thunderbirds 3-2 Thursday in Cedar City, Utah.
“Really for this win tonight it was more of a team effort,” Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. “I wouldn’t just say it was one player. There were some kids who got involved off the bench to mix up our serve-receive pattern. Really, it took everybody tonight to get this.”
Three Vandals were in double figures for kills. Senior outside hitter Jessica Hastriter led Idaho with 13 kills, senior middle blocker Alyssa Schultz had 12 kills with a .306 hitting percentage and junior outside hitter Katelyn Peterson contributed 10 kills.
Junior setter Meredith Coba had 50 assists and junior defensive specialist Jenna Ellis had 21 digs.
“We got back into a rhythm after the break, after the two-game break,” Buchanan said.
Idaho will play its last three matches in Memorial Gym starting with Big Sky Conference opponent Eastern Washington (9-17 overall, 5-8 Big Sky) 7 p.m. Saturday.
“There’s purpose in all of these games and we just have to keep coming to work,” Buchanan said.
Idaho (14-11, 10-3) led 14-11 in the fifth set, but Southern Utah battled back, cutting the lead to 14-13. A Southern Utah service error sealed the set and the match for the Vandals as they took the fifth set 15-13.
Service errors may have cost the Thunderbirds the game as they committed 17 compared to Idaho’s five.
“They gave us some easy points and that helped catch us back up in the game,” Buchanan said.
Southern Utah (13-12, 5-8) led 2-1 in the match, but Idaho continued to battle and overcame the deficit.
Although the Thunderbirds hurt themselves with errors, they were on the attack all night. Southern Utah ended the match with 79 kills while Idaho totaled 60 kills. Five Southern Utah players ended the night with double-digit kills. Katie Elgan and Madi Forsythe totaled 16 kills apiece for Southern Utah. Elgan’s hitting percentage was .538.
“They (Southern Utah) did a great job swinging and dug a lot of balls so they were on that mission to run their offense and really make a push on us,” Buchanan said.
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]