MOSCOW, Idaho- After traveling west across Washington state for the Seattle U Invitational, Idaho Volleyball will head the other direction to the eastern side of the Peace Garden State for the NDSU/UND Invitational, joint-hosted by North Dakota State and North Dakota.
The Vandals are coming off of an encouraging weekend in Seattle where they captured the second win of the season over Manhattan, and battled Cal State Fullerton and the host redhawks to five sets each. Chiara Gennari totaled 23 kills in the final match of the weekend and Koen Makaula was named to the All-Tournament team for accumulating 16.0 total blocks across all three contests.
Similar to the first two weekends of play, the tournament will operate in a round-robin format where each of the four teams will play each other once across three days. Idaho will face North Dakota State on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 5:00 PM PST in the Benson Bunker Fieldhouse. They will take on UTSA the following day at 10:00 AM, and finish the weekend over in Grand Forks vs. North Dakota in the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Saturday at 9:00 AM.
SCOUTING NORTH DAKOTA STATE
The lady Bison have gotten off to a strong start to the 2025 campaign. They opened their season in Fargo and went 3-0 vs. Saint Mary's, Bowling Green, and Temple, winning the lattermost two in straight sets. The Bison extended their win streak to four with a 3-1 win over Oakland, before falling to Montana in Missoula, 0-3.
NDSU is led in kills by Lauren Jansen, who has tallied 59 in 18 sets, including a season high 13 vs. Saint Mary's in August. Behind Jansen are Baily Randall (34), Zoe John (33), and Arianna Brohm (30) who have each recorded 30+ kills so far this season. Defensively, Rya Borer leads the Bison in digs with 63, and Blohm holds the top mark with 15 total blocks.
SCOUTING UTSA
UTSA sits at 2-3 to start the season. They got their first pair of wins to start the year last weekend at the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational in Missouri, knocking off DePaul, 3-2, and sweeping Lindenwood. Ally Tribe leads the Roadrunners in kills with 54, averaging 2.84 per set.
Caroline Tredwell has earned 22 blocks across 19 sets and leads the team with 1.16 per set. Giada Obregon holds the team lead in digs with 71, followed closely by Tribe with 49.
SCOUTING NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota has faced some adversity in their first couple weeks and sit at 0-5 in 2025. They took West Virginia to five sets at the tournament in Morgantown and also dropped a five set match to Saint Mary's to begin the year.
Senior hitter Paige Barber paces the team with 62 kills, averaging 3.26 a set. Both these marks lead the team by a wide margin, with the second-place leader holding 25 to date. Izzie McCormick leads the Fighting Hawks with 37 digs.
FOLLOW THE VANDALS
To stay up to date with Idaho Volleyball, follow the team on Instagram(vandalvolleyball), X(IdahoVolleyball), and visit govandals.com
