MOSCOW, Idaho - For the first time all season, the University of Idaho volleyball team led a match and didn't pull out the victory. Utah State staged a miraculous comeback to win 25-30, 27-30, 31-29, 30-19, 15-6 to defeat the Vandals. The Aggies improve to 11-4 on the season and 7-1 in the Big West Conference while UI falls to 7-10 and 2-6.
"Overall, as a team, that's the best we've played for two and a half games," Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. "I'm proud about that. It's always hard to focus on the good things when it's a barnburner and you lose a match, because we should have won that match since we were in control of it."
The Vandals were so in control, in fact, they stood three points away from winning at one point in the third game and two points from clinching it a second time in the same game.
After winning two fairly tight games to open up the match, the Vandals were up 27-24 in game three. The Aggies made a furious run on the strength of three Michelle Matheson kills to take a 29-27 advantage and give USU two game points.
Idaho stormed back to stave off an Aggie win twice, once on a Brooke Haeberle kill and a second time on a Utah State hitting error. With the score tied at 29, the Aggies' experience shown through. An attacking error by the Vandals and a kill by Matheson ended the game and began the USU rally.
Utah State came out blazing in both games four and five. The fourth set was tied 5-5 when USU began to pull away. Game five was all Aggies as they hit .381 and the Vandals managed a break-even .000.
"You can tell we're growing up," Buchanan said. "We sustained longer, but that's the next step - we have to go just a little longer. We have to be able to make a change when drop a close game, like we did in game three, and come back strong in game four."
Buchanan focused on the first two games and the breakthrough the Vandals seemed to make in those games. Idaho has played a large number of close games this season - more than one half of UI's games have been decided by five points or less - and for the first time this season pulled out two such games back-to-back.
"I was really proud of our team and what we were able to do," Buchanan said. "Those are the things we've been practicing and we were able to do it. Now, it's just a matter of doing it for the whole match."
Anna-Marie Hammond paced the Vandals, as she has for much of the season, with 18 kills and seven blocks. Idaho's other two leading hitters on the season were also in double figures for kills as Brooke Haeberle tallied 14 and Laura McCaffrey recorded 11. Haeberle led all defenders with 21 digs and setter Jenny Neville added 19 digs and 50 assists for her seventh double-double of the season.
Megan Ogden had a double-double as well, but a different kind. She managed 11 total bocks on 11 block assists - a season high for any Vandal - and 10 kills. McCaffrey also had a double dip as she scooped up 14 digs. Mindy Marques had 12 digs as well.
Utah State had three players with double-figure kills - Matheson (15), Erin Cartwright (13) and Shauni Fluckiger (12). The Aggies also had five in double-figure digs, led by Fluckiger's 19. The most telling statistic was the zero receiving errors for USU, while the Aggies aced Idaho six times and pressured the UI serve receive on numerous other occasions.
Idaho is back in action next weekend at UC Santa Barbara, Friday Oct. 26 and at Cal Poly Oct. 27. Both matches are scheduled for 7 p.m.
