Idaho volleyball finished their homecoming home games with another victory winning 3-1 over Southern Utah.
With a strong offensive and defensive presence, Idaho went into this game with momentum from last night’s victory.
Senior outside hitter Paige Rupiper led the team’s scoring efforts finishing the game with 18 kills and a .333 hitting percentage.
Rupiper said that her connection with freshman setter Hailey Pelton was very good tonight.
“We just had a really good dynamic and we were able to play a strong offence from the right side,” Rupiper said.
Idaho played with a strong defensive presence led by redshirt sophomore Nikki Ball.
Ball finished the game with 9 blocks , two of which were solo blocks.
Head coach Debbie Buchanan was impressed by defensive efforts at the net.
“It’s a really good blocking weekend for us,” Buchanan said. “Our outsides took some pressure off since our middles had to work so hard last night so it was a great defensive night for us.”
The first set went in Idaho’s way 25-20. The Thunderbirds were plagued by errors. Ball and Pelton playing strong through their blocks to shut down the Thunderbird’s pins. Pelton also showed off her tricky setter dumps that caught Southern Utah off guard.
The second set was all about scoring runs from either team. The Thunderbirds went on a scoring run to start the set 2-7. They continued playing strong and held a large lead over Idaho up to game point 15-24. The Vandals caught momentum and put pressure on scoring 7 points in a row bringing it to 22-24. Idaho was finally stopped after a service error won the set the Utah.
Idaho brought it back in the second set winning 25-18. Consistent scoring from both teams bring it to 15-11. Strong hits from Idaho put pressure on Southern Utah with set point 24-17. Rupiper finishes off the third set with a kill.
The Vandals carried their momentum through the fourth set starting with a 3-0 lead. Both teams scored consistently 1 for 1 until Idaho eventually pulled ahead at 14-9. Idaho’s strong varying offence kept the Thunderbirds guessing, while Vandals defense made huge digs to keep long rallies going in Idaho’s favor. Idaho held a comfortable lead at 22-16 with Southern Utah calling a timeout to attempt to hold off the victory for the Vandals.
Idaho finished strong winning the fourth and final set 25-20 bringing the final score to 3-1 for the Vandals.
The Vandals finished two more home games undefeated and are on the road on October 24th to play Weber State and then are right back in the Memorial gym on October 26th at 6 p.m.
Connor Swersey can be reached at [email protected]