An offensive resurgence in the final two sets by the Idaho volleyball team led to a 3-2 (23-25, 26-24, 24-26, 25-17, 15-10) victory over Portland State Thursday at Memorial Gym. It’s Idaho’s first five-set win of the season, putting them at 2-3 in the Big Sky Conference.
Idaho outside hitters Tineke Bierma (18), Katelyn Peterson (16) and Kaela Straw (13) combined for 47 out of Idaho’s 63 kills.
“All of our pins were on fire, even our middles were getting involved so when everyone is clicking it’s just fun and it’s really hard to stop when we fight on all cylinders,” Peterson said.
Bierma said she felt awesome about the victory and was ready to play the Vikings after Idaho lost in five sets to Portland State Oct. 9 last season.
“I went to Portland State my freshmen year, so this is a personal rivalry for me,” Bierma said. “It was a little hard last year so getting this win on my final senior year, especially against Portland State, and that being a really good win for the Big Sky as well.”
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said Idaho must be able to defend its home court without being out tipped from its opponents.
“We got to start taking control of the match and we definitely did there at the end,” Buchanan said. “As far as our offense goes, we’re not getting a ton out of our middles right now but we had three solid pin hitters. Now we need to get a fourth pin hitter to make it easier for us.”
On the service line, Jenna Ellis, Natalie Jensen, Peterson (3) and Terra Varney (two straight in set three) all earned aces in the match.
Idaho faced a 2-1 match deficit but Buchanan said the Vandals should have won the third set.
“We called that timeout and it’s 24-23,” Buchanan said. “If they served the ball out of bounds and that would have been game. We made it a little tougher for ourselves but I thought the girls did a good job of really creating some offense and learning and defending what they do as the match went on.”
Peterson said her teammates remained steady in the match without putting themselves down after the third-set loss.
“We needed this win really bad,” Peterson said. “As soon as it happened, it’s going five, let’s get ready for a battle and we just had to fight until the very end.”
With the Vandals’ third fifth-set match this season, Bierma said conditioning helped the Vandals’ fatigue.
“When we get into the fifth set, we’re still able to hang in there and still go up and take great swings,” Bierma said.
Buchanan said her takeaway from the match was to keep Idaho’s blocking up and create more offense.
“If we can execute and do the things we talk about every day and not straight from the game plan, then we should be in a great spot,” Buchanan said. “We’re trying to just get them to stick with the game plan and just keep pushing forward.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected]