MOSCOW, Idaho—It was déjà vu for Idaho and North Dakota on Saturday. The Vandals and UND went to five sets for the third-consecutive meeting. As the previous two meetings, Idaho went toe-to-toe with UND, falling in the fifth set. The Vandals split the weekend 1-1, following their win on Thursday over Northern Colorado.

Four Vandals finished the day with double-figure kills. Senior Tineke Bierma set a career-high with 20 kills to lead the match. She's the first Vandal to hit the 20 kill mark since Jessica Hastriter (23) and Katelyn Peterson (20) did it in the same match against North Texas in 2013. Sophomore Becca Mau added 16 kills. Peterson finished with 12 kills and 11 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Redshirt freshman Sarah Sharp rounded out the group with 10 kills.

“I felt like I was playing well individually and as a team we did a lot of really great things,” Bierma said following the match. “That fourth set showed how good we can be. We just need to be able to continue that and finish.”

Idaho (4-10, 1-1) played lights out in the fourth set, tying the match at two. Idaho hit a match-best .414 in the set with 14 kills and just two errors. The Vandals opened the set on a 4-1 run. A Sharp kill pushed the advantage to 7-2, before a quick 3-1 push from UND cut the lead to 8-5. A Torri Crawford kill sparked a 9-1 run for Idaho, pushing the lead to 17-6. Laine Waters put the Vandals firmly in the driver's seat at 21-9 and finished the match at 25-10.

“This tells our team we have a lot of potential and we have to keep staying at it,” head coach Debbie Buchanan said. “I thought we competed and if you look at the stats we did some great things on both sides of the net. It was the little errors at the end that got us.”

North Dakota (12-6, 1-1) used an 8-0 run in the fifth set to jump-start its efforts. Courtney Place started the run with a kill cut Idaho's lead to 5-4. Five Idaho errors helped UND pull out to an 11-5 lead. Peterson put an end to the run, bringing Idaho to within five at 11-6. Idaho would get to 13-8 off a UND service error, before Place finished off the set at 15-9.

“We were kill-for-kill and did-for-dig with them,” Bierma added. “It was just a few little things like not picking up some of their tips and getting a few more serves.”

The Vandals outhit UND .235-.184 on the day. Idaho totaled 16 more assists (68-52). Meredith Coba recorded a season-high 33 assists, while freshman Natalie Jensen matched her season-best of 28. Jenna Ellis finished with a team-best 30 digs, her second match this season with 30 or more digs.

Place led UND with 18 kills, while McKenzie Hart added 36 digs.

Idaho hits the road next week for its first Big Sky road-trip. The Vandals will take on Northern Arizona on Thursday, Oct. 1, before heading the Cheney, Wash., to take on Eastern Washington on Saturday, Oct. 3.

For more information on Idaho Athletics, visit GoVandals.com.  Fans can also follow Idaho volleyball on Twitter, @IdahoVolleyball.