MANOA, Hawaii – The Idaho volleyball team started off the season with a loss against No. 18 Hawaii Friday, as the Rainbow Wahine swept the Vandals 3-0 (18-25, 23-25, 19-25). The Vandals stayed on pace with Hawaii in the final two sets but fell short of pulling the upset.
In front of a crowd of 6,845, the Vandals got into a slow start in the first set but soon enough caught up with Hawaii and put pressure on the 18th best team in the country. Despite losing the first two sets, the Vandals continued to add pressure on Hawaii as they tried to avoid a sweep in the season opener.
In the final set, the Rainbow Wahine got off to an early lead, at one point had an 8-2 lead. But the Vandals fought to keep it close and traded the lead for most of the match. After a service error from Hawaii in the middle of the set, the Vandals were tied 13 apiece. Another error would follow and the Vandals were up 14-13. Idaho would hold onto the lead until scoring its19th and final point of the set.
After a kill from senior Katelyn Peterson — who led the team with 11 kills — the Vandals were up by one. However, the Vandals had multiple errors and led to the Rainbow Wahine to score seven unanswered points en route to their sweep. Among the final points from Hawaii, five of them resulted from Idaho’s attack errors. When it was finished, the Vandals had 29 total errors (17 in attack and 12 on serves) to Hawaii’s 19 (12 in attack and 7 on serves).
Despite the loss, some players had a great showing including Torrin Crawford who earned eight kills, four blocks and .667 hitting percentage.
In her first match since her season-ending knee injury, Meredith Coba led the team in assists with 14 in addition to her three digs.
Sarah Sharp, a redshirted freshman, earned eight kills in her first collegiate volleyball match.
The Vandals have two more matches this weekend as it faces Oregon State. As Idaho’s Jenna Ellis will face her sister Kayla, who plays for the Beavers. Oregon State also fell short Friday against Wichita State in a 3-0 victory.