Box Score
GREELEY, Colo. – The Idaho State volleyball team has advanced to the Big Sky Tournament final after defeating Northern Arizona 3-1 Friday in the semifinal. The win marked ISU's first Big Sky Tournament win since 1995. Three Bengals posted double-doubles in the contest as ISU defeated NAU 20-25, 25-19, 26-24, 27-29.
Junior setter and Big Sky Conference MVP Lori Mendenhall posted 60 assists, just shy of her career high of 62, as well as 18 digs. The double-double is Mendenhall 13
th of the season.
Redshirt senior
Jaclyn Hone-Hawkins had 14 kills with 14 digs for her ninth double-double of the season while redshirt freshman
Tressa Lyman had 16 kills and 14 digs on the night, her 10
th double-double of the year.
“Everyone was doing their job and we were trusting one another,” Lyman said. “We tried every ball and didn't just let balls fall. We were going after them and I think that was the key.”
Senior outside hitter
Breanne Van Every had a team-high 17 kills while redshirt sophomore Kylee Searle had 19 digs to lead ISU.
“It could have possibly been my last game so I came out and played my hardest,” Van Every said. “We were a little shaky in the first game. We were making some mistakes that I think came from not competing as hard as we should but then we settled down and started playing with one another and for one another.”
Lyman and Hone-Hawkin had seven total blocks apiece while sophomores Whitney Bartschi and Alydia Fields each had six.
The match was a hard-fought battle on both sides of the net with several tied scores and momentum swings.
“For me it was a fun match because NAU played well,” ISU Head Coach Teichert said. “They're a scrappy team and a good team. They hit the ball hard and hit it in bounds. It's a lot of fun to be able to come away with a win. The girls worked very hard tonight and the harder you're working, the harder it is to give up. To Northern Arizona's credit, they played hard and that's part of the reason we had to go to 26-24, 27-29 in those last two sets.”
ISU showed some nerves in the first set against a Northern Arizona, team that had played a match in the tournament earlier that day.
The Bengals battled back in the second set to win 25-19 and held the Lumberjacks to a .143 attack percentage. The Bengals also held NAU's Kelli Dallmann to just one kill in the second set after she had posted seven in the first set. She would go on to finish the match with 16.
“We started to pass the ball a little better in the second set,” Teichert said. “I think we struggled a little bit in serve receive in the first set. Maybe the girls needed to loosen up a little bit. Northern Arizona did play a match this morning in the tournament and maybe they were a little looser coming in, but I'm not sure.”
The third and fourth sets went back-and-fourth with ISU making a come-from-behind run at the end of both to get the win.
The Bengals improve to 23-7 on the season and will face the winner of the second semifinal match Saturday at the Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion at 7 p.m. MST. The Bengals face either No. 1 Portland State or No. 4 Northern Colorado.
We Are Your Bengals
