Match Notes: Tiger Invitational
BENGAL OVERVIEW
Idaho State volleyball opens its season at the Tiger Invitational in Columbia, Mo. where the Bengals play four matches in two days beginning with Tulane on Friday, Aug. 26 at 1:30 p.m. at the Hearness Center. ISU faces off against tournament host Missouri at 6 p.m. on Friday. The following day the Bengals play Binghamton at 9:30 a.m. followed by North Dakota State at 1:30 p.m.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Bengal fans can follow the action at the Tiger Invitational through live stats at www.mutigers.com.
NEW OPPONENTS FOR ISU AND SERIES INFO
Tournaments are always an exciting opportunity for the Bengals to play new opponents that they have never seen before. At the Tiger Invitational, the Bengals will play Tulane, Binghamton and North Dakota State for the first time. As far as tournament host Missouri it will be ISU's third meeting with the Tigers, but the first for Head Coach
Chad Teichert and his players. The Bengals are tied 1-1 with Mizzou having defeated the Tigers 3-1 in 1989. In their last meeting Missouri defeated ISU 3-0 in 2002 at the Oregon State Volleyball Showcase in Corvallis, Ore.
BENGALS LOOK TO OPEN SEASON WITH THIRD STRAIGHT TOURNAMENT TITLE
Over the last two years the Bengals have opened each season with a tournament title. Idaho State overcame South Dakota State, Rutgers and Wyoming in 2009 to capture the UniWyo Cowgirl Classic then defeated Texas Pan American, Oral Roberts and Lamar in 2010 for the Texas Pan American Tournament Title.
BENGALS SUCCESSFUL IN 2010 SEASON
Idaho State posted an overall record of 18-13,
Chad Teichert's first winning record as a head coach, and marked ISU's first winning record since 2003 when ISU was 20-9 record. Idaho State finished the regular season 9-7, tying for third in conference play. For the first time since 2005, the Bengals advanced to the Big Sky Conference tournament.
TOURNAMENT TIME IS FOR EXPERIMENTATION
Idaho State lost six players and return just one starter with
Breanne Van Every. Van Every spent most of her time in a defensive roll last season recording 232 digs and just 66 kills. The Bengals return eight players; one of which (
Jaclyn Hone-Hawkins) is expected to redshirt the season due to injury recovery while two players are coming off redshirt seasons. Idaho State welcomes five newcomers including two juco transfers:
Kimberly Naut and
Mckenzie Garrett. However, Garrett comes to ISU after playing basketball for two years at Northwest College. With so many variables in the air ISU is using its first three tournaments to experiment with its line-up until the Bengals find a perfect combination.
SPECIALIZED POSITIONS BATTLE FOR PLAYING TIME
Two of ISU's specialized positions will be a battle between players. The Bengals return two setters in senior
Karissa Legaux and sophomore Lori Mendenhall as well as two liberos in sophomore
Katie Grajewski and redshirt freshman Kylee Searle. Both of ISU's setters shared time on the court with Mendenhall leading the Bengals in assists with 686 while Legaux led ISU with 8.79 assists per set. For libero's, Grajewski played in 19 matches and started in five averaging 1.7 digs per set for 73 digs on the season. Searle on the other hand redshirted her freshman season.
BENGALS LOOK FOR STRONG FRONT ROW ATTACKERS
With so many new faces, the front row is anything but set. Not only will players be fighting for positions they may also play in a different spot than they were expecting. Juco transfer
Kimberly Naut was a solid middle blocker for Feather River College but has her pulse on the right side position while
Vanessa Muir and Whitney Bartschi are expected to share the middle until a front runner emerges.
Breanne Van Every, a player who typically is seen in a defensive roll is also expected to have more of an impact on the outside.
FOLLOWING SISTER'S EXAMPLE
Whitney Bartschi and Kylee Searle both are following in their sister's footsteps. Searle joined the Bengals a season after her sister Savannah Leckington competed as a setter for the Bengals in 2009. Bartschi is also one year behind her sister Britta Bartschi-Rhodehouse, a middle blocker, who became the 15th Bengal in school history to capture 1,000 career points, ending up 12th on the all-time list. Bartschi-Rhodehouse also earned Big Sky All-Tournament Team honors as well as UTPA Invitational all-tournament team honors her senior season. She also was named Big Sky second-team all-conference.
OTHER 2010 NOTEWORTHY NOTES
Last season, the Bengals posted the fourth best hitting percentage in school history against Montana Western (10/12) with a .477 percentage. In 2010, three Bengals earned all-tournament team honors in two tournaments during the non-conference season: Britta Bartschi-Rhodehouse (UTPA Invitational), Sarah Carson (Brigham Young and Drake Bulldog Challenge) and Haylee Thompson-Brock (Drake Bulldog Challenge).
BACK FROM AFRICA
Kylee Searle spent two and a half weeks in Kenya, Africa with 17 other volunteers doing community service work for children through the Reach the Children foundation this summer. During her trip she taught the children in schools about hygiene, painted hospital rooms, taught in the hospitals and worked with the patients there, did some tree planting and had time to play with kids after working in the orphanages.
BENGALS HIGHLIGHT TALENTS IN INTRASQUAD SCRIMMAGE
Junior
Breanne Van Every led the night with 15 kills and 17 points. Senior
Vanessa Muir and freshman Whitney Bartschi each posted nine kills. Muir led ISU in blocks with 6.5 notching 4.5 in the third set alone. Lori Mendenhall led ISU in service aces with three.
