BOZEMAN, Mont.—The Idaho volleyball team got back to its winning ways on Thursday with a 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 sweep of Montana State. The Vandals set the tone early with a .379 hitting percentage in the first set, as they finish the season-series a perfect 6-0 against the Bobcats. The Vandals improve to 8-3 in the Big Sky and 12-11 overall.

Senior Alyssa Schultz along with sophomore Ali Forde led the offensive charge for the Vandals, each recording 10 kills apiece. Schultz slightly edged Forde with a .667 hitting percentage on 15 attacks. Both players concluded the match without committing an attack error. Forde finished the night with a .526 percentage in 19 swings.

“Our goal tonight was to establish the middle and the right side,” head coach Debbie Buchanan said. “We thought we could score that way and I thought we did a good job of that. When we passed we were able to isolate instead of overload with some of the things we were trying.”

Montana State (4-19, 1-10) played themselves into a whole in the first set. The Bobcats struggled at the net with nine errors in 36 swings. On the other side of the court Idaho committed just three errors in 29 total attacks. Overall, MSU totaled 20 attack errors to Idaho's 11.

“The big difference in that first set was the gap in errors,” Buchanan noted. “We only had five [including service errors] to their 11. Our numbers showed some good things as far as percentages and on defense. I think for us as a team we are going to have to be a bit sharper than we were tonight going into our match on Saturday.”

Idaho cooled down a bit in the second set, getting outhit by the Bobcats, .263-to-.237. Forde recorded four of her 10 kills in the middle set, while Schultz and senior Jessica Hastriter totaled three kills each. Hastriter closed the night with five kills. The second set played the tightest of the three, featuring five ties and two lead changes. The Bobcats tied the score at 10, 11 and 12 before Idaho got out to a 15-13 lead. The Silver and Gold used a 5-0 run to extend its lead to 20-14, dimming the lights on a MSU comeback. The Bobcats put together a quick 3-0 run to get to within three points at 22-18. Idaho went on to record three of the final four points of the match to take the 2-0 lead into the break.

The Vandals started fast out of the break, putting together a 4-0 start. MSU would get a point off an Idaho service error to get to 4-1, before taking a timeout. Immediately following the timeout Forde, Katelyn Peterson and Schultz each recorded kills to increase Idaho's advantage to 7-1. The Bobcats were able to recover to tie the set four times, the last coming at 19-19. Stephanie Hagins broke the tie with her fifth kill of the match, putting the Vandals ahead for good. Hagins finished with six kills and a match-high seven blocks on Thursday.

Setter Meredith Coba totaled 41 of Idaho's 43 assists on the night. Thursday marked her third-best three-set performance of the season. She had totaled 47 and 43 assists in sweeps of Northern Arizona and the Bobcats earlier this season. Defensively, Jenna Ellis totaled a match-best 14 digs. Peterson added 12 of her own, finishing one kill shy of a double-double.