NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Idaho women's volleyball team lost its season-opening match 3-1 to the University of Arkansas Friday morning. Games scores were 24-30, 30-28, 17-30, 16-30. The Vandals also suffered a loss in their second match of the day as North Carolina swept the Idaho squad, 32-30, 30-22 and 30-21.
North Carolina and Arkansas are tournament teams from a year ago. Both improve to 1-0 on the season while Idaho falls to 0-2.
"We definitely didn't have an easy schedule here at the tournament. We had our first game and then had time to get lunch and meet and then head right back onto the court," head coach Debbie Buchanan said. "Arkansas is a very physical, tough team."
Debbie Pederson, a redshirt freshman, was solid in the first official match of her Vandal career as she hit .368, recording 10 kills to only three errors in 19 swings. She also recorded two block assists.
"Pederson did some great things for us offensively in that match. We weren't as sharp outside as we needed to be."
In the first game the Vandals were out hit by the Lady Razorbacks, .323 to .127. Arkansas also held the advantage in service aces as they hit 11 of them in the contest to six for Idaho.
Arkansas held the slimmest possible margin in team digs edging Idaho, 49-48. Ashley Miller tabbed a match-high 14 for the Lady Razorbacks. Vandal senior Stacy Sode matched Miller's 14 digs.
The Vandals and Lady Razorbacks looked sharp in the opening game as the two teams stayed close before two late Arkansas runs sealed a win. The game was tied at 19 when Arkansas erupted to take a 23-19 lead. Idaho scored the next two points cutting the lead to 23-21, before another Arkansas run made the score 26-21. The Vandals got as close as 27-24 before Arkansas finished the game on one final run.
Idaho rebounded to take the second game, 30-28, and even the match at halftime. The game was the most closely contested of the four with Idaho owning the game's biggest lead at 16-12. Arkansas fought back to claim a 27-24 lead late before Idaho ran off four straight points to take a 28-27 edge. Haley Larsen's ace closed the game victory for the Vandals.
The Lady Razorbacks overpowered the Vandals in games three and four and won both games by double digits.
In the afternoon contest, Idaho fought gamely against the defending ACC champs, but was unable to secure a victory.
"North Carolina is another very physical team and they pushed us, but we learned some things in the first match and we gave them a good fight," Buchanan said. "After this afternoon I would say we need to come out tomorrow and get solid production from our outside and we could do well against Oklahoma."
The Vandals were much improved defensively from the first game. They limited the Tar Heels to a .167 hitting percentage. Idaho was unable to capitalize on UNC's mistakes, hitting only .110.
Junior Erin Curtis was solid for the Vandals as she hit at a .368 clip, while recording an ace and notching two digs as well as a block.
Saxony Brown also had a solid match against the Tar Heels as she picked up eight digs and struck the ball well hitting .308 for the match.
