PULLMAN, Wash. - The Idaho volleyball team wrapped up the opening weekend of 2010 in style as the Vandals marched to a 3-0 sweep of rival Washington State to go 2-1 in the Nike Cougar Invitational. Redshirt-freshman Allison Walker was named to the all-tournament team.
The Vandals won 25-22, 25-19 and 25-21 en route to their 20th win over Washington State in program history.
"It's always a competitive battle against Wazzu, and I think we really stepped up," said Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan, who notched her 150th career win on Friday against Weber State. "It's a good rival, it's a healthy rival."
The Vandals hit .343 as a team in the match, and hit above .330 in all three sets. Walker and Alicia Milo each had double-digit kills, with Walker tallying 16 with a .382 hitting percentage and Milo racking up 13 with a .357 percentage. Idaho had 12 block assists and four solo blocks in the match. Sophomore setter Jenny Feicht had 41 assists in the match to go along with three block assists.
"Offensively we needed to get better numbers, so we talked to our hitters and said they need to get the job done, and I think they responded really well to that," Buchanan said. "As the season goes on it's a learning experience and I thought the kids had a lot of composure tonight. I thought they were very mature. We made a lot of things happen in that match, and we had a lot of control in the game, which I thought was a huge part of the win."
Kelsey Taylor had seven kills, five block assists and a solo block in the match, and hit .353. Rylee Walker finished with three solo blocks and five kills.
After the Vandals took a 4-3 lead early in the first set, they would not trail again. However, WSU hung tight throughout the match, pulling to 22-23 in the first set, 14-16 in the second set and 20-23 in the third set. But each time the Cougars threatened, Idaho would respond with a rally of its own.
"We were just really cohesive as a team," Feicht said after the match. "We all played together and we all got on the same page about everything that we were doing. We just wanted it, we were fired up. We just went after them. When we were in the locker room after the second game we were like 'okay they're going to come out so hard, but we're going to come out just as hard, if not harder' and we did and we pulled it out."
Feicht racked up 108 assists over the weekend, while Walker had 53 kills (5.30 per game) and hit .342. Junior Alicia Milo had 29 kills in the tournament, while Taylor had 11 total blocks and Cassie Hamilton had 48 digs.
The Vandals return to action next weekend at the Banker Classic hosted by University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. Idaho will face Pacific on Sept. 2 and Santa Clara on Sept. 3. The Vandals will return home to host three matches the following weekend when Cal Poly (Sept. 9), Eastern Washington (Sept. 10) and Montana State (Sept. 12) visit Memorial Gym.
