The Idaho volleyball team fell against North Dakota 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 14-25, 19-25) Saturday in Grand Forks.
The loss drops Idaho (9-17, 4-10) to ninth in the conference.
Weber State (14-10, 5-9) holds the eighth and final of the tournament a 3-0 win over Southern Utah (4-22, 2-12).
Despite a critical loss, one Vandal achieved a milestone.
Senior defensive specialist Terra Varney reached second in all-time digs at Idaho with 1,421. She passed alumna Meghan Brown and led the match with 21 digs.
Idaho struggled early in set one as North Dakota (21-9, 12-2) took a 9-3 lead.
The Vandals cut the lead to 21-17 but the Fighting Hawks held on and won 25-18.
Idaho turned it around in set two with a 12-9 lead.
An ace by sophomore outside hitter DeVonne Ryter kept Idaho in front for the set, winning 25-21.
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said the team’s level of play changed in the second set.
“We did not start off strong in game one,” Buchanan said in a news release. “We made a late push at the end to gain some momentum. I thought we did a good job in game two. We were tied with them on the stat sheet through most of the match up until the very end.”
The Fighting Hawks came out of the break and pressured Idaho into several attack errors.
The Fighting Hawks won set three 25-14, the largest margin of the match.
North Dakota led Idaho 12-7 in set four. The Vandals reduced the deficit with an 8-0 run, highlighted by two aces from Ryter and three kills by sophomore outside hitter Kaela Straw.
Sophomore outside hitter Sarah Sharp added a kill to put Idaho ahead 13-12.
Two straight kills from North Dakota put the Fighting Hawks back in front.
With a 4-0 run, North Dakota won 25-19.
Idaho faces Montana 7 p.m. Thursday in the Memorial Gym.
The Grizzlies won the last meeting in five sets Sept. 24 in Missoula.
Buchanan said the team has to make a push in the next week.
“It was a good competitive weekend for us,” she said. “If we reduce some of those errors I think we could have pushed those matches to five sets. We need to have a good week next week and hopefully, we will have a chance to play some of these teams again.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles