Box Score
POCATELLO, Idaho – Heading into Thursday evening's match, both Idaho State and Sacramento State were undefeated in Big Sky play, but the Bengals eliminated the Hornets in four sets, 25-15, 17-25, 25-16 and 25-21 to remain unbeaten in BSC play.
ISU (11-6, 3-0 BSC) was led by senior outside hitter
Tressa Lyman with a team-high 17 kills and 12 digs for her ninth double-double of the season. Fellow senior middle blocker
Makenzie Filer came up big for the Bengals with 11 kills and five blocks.
"Sacramento State was who we thought they would be," Head Coach
Rick Reynolds said. "They played well and are a really tough team to defend. I felt our team did a good job of adjusting. At the end of the day, I'm proud of our team and the effort. I'm also proud of our crowd. We had a great crowd tonight."
In front of more than 500 people, ISU cruised to a 25-15 first set win. The Hornets (15-3, 2-1 BSC) struggled at the net with a .000 hitting percentage while the Bengals excelled with 13 kills off a .333 hitting percentage.
However, Sacramento State shifted the momentum in the second set. The Bengals started on top with a small two-point lead, 5-3. Neither team was able to build much separation until Sac State broke a 9-all tie following an ISU error. The Hornets slowly built a three-point lead, 15-12, but ISU quickly closed the gap to one point following a kill from Filer and a few Hornet errors. Sac State responded and finished the set on a 10-3 run to claim the second 25-17 and even the match 1-1 heading into the break.
In the third set, ISU claimed the early lead and never trailed. Fueled by six kills and three blocks from Filer, the Bengals registered a .364 hitting percentage and limited the Hornets to a .054 hitting percentage. ISU finished the third set on a 12-5 run to claim the set win, 25-16.
The fourth set featured four lead changes and 11 ties in a back-and-forth set in which neither team led by more than four points. The Bengals featured a balanced attack in the fourth, with six players registering kills and five players notching two or more kills. Once ISU broke a 21-all tie off a kill by Lyman, the Bengals scored three straight to claim the set 25-21 and win the match 3-1.
"At the end of the day, we did what we are expected to do," Reynolds said. "We needed to get our middles involved and I felt that in the third set we tried to find Filer and [Marissa] Todd a little bit more. They executed and broke it up where we could open up Chloe [Hirst] on the outside, and Tressa scored and scored often. We just have to keep executing and things are going to happen for everybody."
ISU continues its home stand against Portland State Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at Reed Gym.
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