Bengal Volleyball Opens Conference Play with Victory at Home

Sept. 17, 2010

Stats

Box Score: Idaho State 3, Northern Arizona 1

POCATELLO, Idaho - The Idaho State volleyball team is off to its best start since the 1989 season as the Bengals improve to 8-3 (1-0 Big Sky) with a 3-1 win over Northern Arizona Friday in the team's home season opener at Reid Gym. The 1989 volleyball program opened with a 12-3 record for the season that included a tail end 10-match win streak. Senior Haylee Thompson-Brock led the Bengals with 20 kills while junior Jaclyn Hone recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 16 digs.

"Anybody wants to win any match and to win the first one; it's really great to be 1-0 in conference instead of 0-1," Idaho State Head Coach Chad Tiechert said. "Northern Arizona is a young team but they really are quite an athletic team and if you let your guard down they can get you like they got us in game three."

Idaho State jumped out to a quick lead in the first set and never let up. Hone hit five kills for seven attempts in the first set alone to lead ISU. Defensively, Idaho State held NAU to a .000 hitting percentage in the first game while notching three team blocks led by Thompson-Brock who recorded two on the set. ISU went on an eight-point rally midway through to bring the score to 22-10. Northern Arizona attempted a small comeback with back-to-back kills from Niki Small and Kobi Christensen, but Idaho State quickly got the sideout and finished the battle 25-14.

The second set was almost a mirror image of the first as Idaho State won 25-17 and held the Lumberjacks to just a .071 hitting percentage. However, Northern Arizona rallied to win the third set 25-19 as the Bengals came out a little slow to start the set.

"Two things happened [in the third set], one, we didn't come out with the same intensity and two, they got with it better," Tiechert said. "It's hard to be on the road, especially when you're a young team like they are, but I think they started to get into a little bit better groove and we let off."

Idaho State fired back in the fourth game notching 13 kills and five team blocks to knock off the Lumberjacks 25-20 and win the match 3-1.

Freshman Lori Mendenhall recorded 33 assists during the match while senior Sarah Carson led the team with six blocks. Overall, Idaho State had a hitting percentage of .180 and 14 team blocks on the night.

"Lori did a lot of good things, she struggled a little bit on certain things, but Lori's a competitor. She got after it and when Karissa [Legaux] came in, Karissa got after it and they both did a really great job," Tiechert said. "Haylee Thompson-Brock had an excellent game; she had 20 kills on 43 attempts with only six errors and had just an excellent night of hitting."

Idaho State will host Northern Colorado Saturday, Sept. 18 in Reid Gym at 7 p.m. The Bengals will look to avenge a 2-3 loss the Bears handed to them last September at home and bring a stop to Northern Colorado's eight-match win streak.