The Vandals opened their fall season, starting off with the Idaho Volleyball Classic, taking on three teams in Memorial Gym: Portland, Nevada and Grand Canyon. While the team walked away with two losses and one win, they’re positive to be able to play.
Friday — Portland Pilots — Loss, 3-0
On Friday night, Idaho started strong, taking the first points of the game and keeping a short lead. Portland fired back though, tying scores at 9-9, finally taking control to get the first set 25-22.
Portland kept their energy dominating 25-13 in the second set, making several 5-0 runs against the Vandals.
Pilots took the lead in the final set. While Vandals were able to keep the score tight, they were never able to regain control, falling 3-0.
Senior outside hitter Allison Munday led with 11 kills for the Vandals that night, and redshirt sophomore center Peyten Ely tallied 27 assists. Also, notably from the first set, freshman outside hitter Rachel Davis made six kills on eight attempts.
Saturday— Nevada Wolf Pack — Win, 3-1
Vandals came back with gusto on Saturday morning, leading by six on two occasions against the Wolf Pack, to eventually get the first set 25-21.
In the second set, Vandals started off with a 7-1 advantage. The Wolf Pack would go on to take the lead 14-13, but Vandals regained it to take the second set narrowly, 25-23.
While Vandals began to lead in the third set, Wolf Pack would ultimately get ahead and keep it throughout, winning the set 25-21.
Vandals stayed behind in the fourth set, until tying the scores at 16 and breaking even to eventually win 25-21, ending the match at best out of five sets.
Munday once again led Vandals for 15 kills, with sophomore outside hitter Delaney Nicoll just behind at 14.
Saturday — Grand Canyon — Loss, 3-1
Vandals were the first to score in Saturday evening’s game, getting a lead early on, the height of it being 18-10. Vandals maintained it and took the set 25-21.
However, the Lopes came back with a vengeance, getting an early advantage in the second set and keeping up strong play to win the set 25-10.
Lopes led again in the third, mirroring the second set as they scored 25-12.
In the fourth and final set, Vandals kept the scores tighter, once making a significant 6-1 run, but were never able to recover the game, falling 3-1 for the match, and 25-17 in the final set.
Nicoll led the team with 13 kills this match and the two Vandal aces during the first set.
Takeaways
During all three games, Memorial Gym was filled with far more cheers than last season’s no-fan stands.
With the loss of last year’s seniors and middle blocker Kennedy Warren, the team is adapting for defense.
“I’m actually proud of our team,” head coach Debbie Buchanan said during a press conference. “You know we’re really young, we’re trying to fill some big shoes, and we still have some injuries we’re working through, so we have a lot of freshmen/sophomores out on the court.”
Redshirt senior Nikki Ball said, “We have so many freshmen out there that are really pulling in and bringing a lot of energy, and I was really happy with it.”
Buchanan said what the team needs to work on for next weekend’s match in Pennsylvania is confidence.
Live coverage of home games can be found on Twitter @VandalNation
Cody Roberts can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CodyRobReports