GRAND FORKS, N.D.—It was the end of the road for the Idaho Vandals Thursday night at the Big Sky Volleyball Tournament. The Vandals closed out the season with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-17 loss to No. 1 seeded North Dakota on its home court at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

The Vandals struggled to control their errors on Thursday. Idaho hit just .114 in the opening frame, hitting into seven total errors in the set. The Vandals elevated their percentage to .130 (15-8-58) in the second, but finished at just .078 (35-25-129) on the night.

"Offensively we did not do what we needed to do tonight," head coach Debbie Buchanan said. "North Dakota played real steady. We were in each of those sets for the most part. We just needed to do a better job of controlling the ball on our side of the net. I thought our middles did a good job tonight. We just needed to get more productivity out of our pin-hitters."

Sophomore Kaela Straw tied for a match-high with 11 kills. Junior Torrin Crawford was efficient on the night hitting a team-best .500 (5-0-10). Sophomore Haylee Mathis recorded her 10th double-double of the season. She finished with 18 assists and 11 digs.

Senior Terra Varney, playing in her final match as a Vandal, led the team with 23 digs. Varney closes out her career with 1,477 digs, good for second all-time in program history. She finishes with 77 career double figure dig matches, also second in Idaho history.

UND (24-9) opened the first with a 10-6 lead. An ace from DeVonne Ryter cut the lead down to two, 10-8. The Fighting Hawks gout out to a 20-15 lead, a 3-0 run by the Vandals got the team back to within three. North Dakota closed the set out on a 5-0 run, capped by a Faith Dooley kill.

Idaho opened the second with a quick 3-1 push. UND quickly answered with a 5-0 run to go up, 7-4. Shortly after Idaho would regain the lead, 9-8, thanks to kills from Becca Mau, Ryter and Straw. A 6-0 run by North Dakota put the Hawks up 19-14. Idaho cut to three late in the set, 23-20. UND would close with the final two points to go up 2-0 at the break.

The Vandal offense could not regain any of their previous momentum in the third. The Vandals finished the final set hitting -.025, with a match-high 10 errors. Idaho fought of two match points to get to 24-17, but the gap proved to be too much. A Tamara Merseli kill ended the night and the season. 

Dooley led UND with 11 kills. Merseli added seven, while Chelsea Moser ended the night with six. The Fighting Hawks hit .224 (39-13-116) percent as a team. UND out-blocked Idaho, 10-3. 

Idaho's roster has next to zero turnover for 2017. The Vandals only loss is Varney, returning 15 players for the start of the spring.

"We had a lot of injuries and adversity this season yet we were still able to reach the tournament," Buchanan explained. This is the hard part, being in the locker room at the end. We now need to make sure we are getting ready for this next year. We have a lot of potential. I think we need to work so we can really make a push."

Fans can stay up-to-date on all things Idaho volleyball by following the team on twitter, @IdahoVolleyball.