The Vandals (1-0) won the first two sets 25-21 and 25-14 before falling 21-25 and 22-25, but a 15-11 set-five victory sealed the match for Idaho.

"In the first two games we had kids hitting in the .400's and we did some great things," Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said. "Then we came out and we just didn't execute games three and four. We got sloppy. It's kind of that mentality that even though we have two games under our belt we've got to make sure we keep executing, and game five we came out and executed. We passed well and we served tough. We got on a great run, so part of it is learning. It's the first game, we had a few jitters."

Senior middle blocker Rylee Walker had a career-highs with 14 kills and a match-high .565 hitting percentage (14 kills, 1 error, 23 attempts) for the Vandals, and she also added five block assists. Sophomore outside hitter Allison Walker had a 20-kill, 11-dig double-double and senior Alicia Milo had 14 kills and added six digs. Junior Julia Church had eight kills and 13 digs, junior setter Jenny Feicht tallied 53 assists, senior libero Cassie Hamilton finished with 17 digs and junior Janelle Chow had 12 digs.

"It's great that we were able to win, but now we've got to make sure we're executing the game all the way through," Buchanan said. "We just can't take that lull in the middle and we really did today."

The Vandals got off to a hot start, hitting .278 and .286 in their first and second set wins, while holding the Bulldogs (0-1) to a .105 and a -.067 hitting percentage in the first two sets, forcing eight errors in each. But the Bulldogs rallied back in the third set, hitting .250 with 16 kills to win set three and added 16 more kills while Idaho hit .178 in set-four as the Bulldogs forced the decisive fifth set. Idaho held off Butler in its 15-11 fifth set win as the Vandals hit .333 and the Bulldogs committed five errors.

"When you're on the road this is what's going to make us tough," Buchanan said. "You have to fight for it and the kids really did, they came out and started communicating more and started playing at a higher level. We just have to understand that volleyball is not a perfect game. You can drop a couple points and start to hang your head a little bit and it can slip out of your fingers. We're not mature enough yet to just flip a switch and flip it back on."

Idaho held slim overall advantages in kills (59-58) and digs (70-69), while each team had 57 assists. The Vandals hit .241 for the match while holding Butler to just a .133 percentage. The Vandals also held a 23-6 advantage in total blocks. Feicht and Milo each had one ace for Idaho while Butler had a total of eight, including four from Maggie Harbison.

The Vandals will face Notre Dame at 4 p.m. (Pacific) on Saturday, before wrapping up the tournament against Eastern Michigan at 8 a.m. (Pacific) on Sunday. Live video of Idaho's match at Notre Dame will be available online free of charge at www.und.com. Live stats will also be available for both matches.