Oct. 30, 2009
Final Stats
Northern Colorado Box Score 
Pocatello, ID--In a tight contest the Bengals came back after being down two sets to push the Bears to five before falling 25-21, 26-24, 19-25, 22-25, 15-13 at Reed Gym Friday night. Senior Paige Palmer recorded her 1,000th career dig to become the 12th Bengal in program history to achieve the feat. Both teams held on to their league rankings as Northern Colorado improved to 15-9 for the season and 8-2 in Big Sky play for third place while the Bengals fell to 3-8 in the conference play and 9-14 for the season for seventh place.
"To lose two games and then to come back clearly shows class and determination," said head coach Chad Teichert. "They felt like they could beat that team and they played like it. If you always play like you should win it makes a world of difference."
In the effort senior Palmer recorded her 18th consecutive double-figure dig match, the longest streak in the Big Sky this season, while notching her 1,000th career dig in her 22 dig performance. She also recorded her seventh 20-plus dig match of the season.
"That's fabulous. I think if you hit a thousand digs you've done something," said head coach Chad Teichert. "You know these last few games Paige has really been focused. I think she has worked real hard at being focused, having good ball control and getting to balls."
Palmer wasn't the only Bengal to shine as Idaho State had three players hit in double figures with senior Emily Waldron posting a match-high 23 kills. She had 50 attacks and made only two errors in five sets for a .420 hitting percentage. Waldron posted a double-double in the match up recording 15 kills.
Junior Britta Bartschi-Rhodehouse posted the match-high hitting percentage of .500, her best percentage this season, while hitting a career-high 17 kills. The middle blocker made three errors from 28 attempts. Haylee Thompson, a junior, recorded 15 kills and recorded five block assists. The Bengals stepped up its blocking effort recording seven for the night, but the Bears were able to record 10 as a team.
"Britta had a great night," said Teichert. "Between our hitters it was Emily, Britta and Haylee. I wish we would have gone more to Britta earlier on. Not that we just disregard the other people, but boy when people are hitting the way those three did tonight, you get the ball to them."
Bengal setter Karissa Legaux posted the match-high 65 assists to tie her career-high which she first recorded earlier this season in a 3-2 victory at Montana State.
Northern Colorado had four players hit in double-figures with Kenzie Shreeve and Allison Raguse each recording double-doubles with 15 kills, 10 dig and 16 kill, 14 dig performances respectively. Kelley Arnold led the Bears with 19 kills while recording a .447 attack percentage.
The Bengals were neck-and-neck in the first set with Northern Colorado until the Bears pulled forward after a 17 score tie. Even though Idaho State fell in the first two sets the contests were extremely close as 23 tied scores and eight lead changes occurred in those sets alone.
In the second set the Bengals held set point at 24-23, but a kill from Northern Colorado's Ashley Lictenberg switched the momentum to help the Bears collect the next three points to close out the set.
After the break the Bengals came back swinging way recording 17 kills to Northern Colorado's nine. Idaho State hit a .250 attack percentage while Northern Colorado fell to a .056 attack percentage, the team's lowest hitting percentage set. Even with Northern Colorado out-blocking the Bengals 4-to-2 and recording four service errors Idaho State posted the largest lead of victory of any set at 25-19, a six point difference.
Idaho State recorded seven service aces over the match, but committed twice as many errors with 14; Waldron recorded the most aces and errors with three and four respectively as she pushed the limits.
"It's great to get seven aces, but you can't do that with 14 errors. You want a ratio that's closer to one-to-one," said coach Teichert. "It would be nice to get zero errors, but if you are serving tough enough to get seven aces you are going to have some errors, but 14, that's way overdoing it. That alone, if we could have changed that had seven service errors instead of 14 maybe we win. Maybe the match is over."
In the fourth set there were three lead changes with the Bengals taking the final lead at 18-17 to perform consistently to close out the set. The fifth set saw Northern Colorado jump out early. Even though Idaho State closed the gap four times they were never able to overcome as the Bears took the set 15-13. Overall, hitting percentages tell the tight tale as both teams hit a .276 attack percentage for the match.
"This match we lost darn it, but the girls did a lot of good things. We lost it 15-13 in game five. I want this and a little bit more," said head coach Teichert of the Bengals performance against Northern Colorado. "If we can do this and a little bit more, well with a little bit more we can win. It doesn't take a lot to turn those two-point games around."
Idaho State will get no break as they host Northern Arizona on Halloween night, Saturday, October 31 at Reed Gym.
When asked if the match would be spooktacular head coach Teichert responded, "Let's hope it is. Let's hope it's scary for Northern Arizona."
Note: With the five set match Idaho State recorded its closest contest with Northern Colorado without a victory ... ISU's only victory over Northern Colorado was a 2-1 decision in 1982 ... ISU falls to 0-4 at home in conference play ... Palmer is the second Bengal to record 1,000 career digs at Reed Gym this season as Waldron achieved the feat against Portland State.
