Idaho State Stifles Boise State in Four Sets; Wins Match 3-1

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POCATELLO, Idaho –The Idaho State volleyball team handled Boise State Thursday evening for their third straight win, defeating the Broncos in four sets, 24-26, 25-17, 25-18 and 25-23. The Bengals improved to 3-2 with the win, and Boise State dropped to 1-3 on the season.

Senior outside hitter Tressa Lyman led the Bengals with her first double-double of the season with  a game-high 20 kills and  13 digs in addition to a career-high seven service aces. Junior outside hitter Bailey Bars also had a career night with career-highs in kills and hitting percentage with 14 and .571 respectively.

 "Our players are responding to the training really well, and you can see it in our performance on the court," said Head Coach Rick Reynolds. "Tressa has worked extra hard on her serving, and the benefit of that tonight was that she had a great serving night. Bailey has been working really hard in practice on her transitions, consistency and hitting, and you could see the fruits of that labor tonight. Our middles have been working hard on their transitions in practice, making sure they're getting up on the block, getting off the net, getting back on the net and staying ready. I thought Nicole Breidenbach and Riley Lyman came in and played some crucial points for us and Chloe [Hirst] responded really well with a big kill for us late in the match."

In the first set, Boise State built a small three point lead, 6-3 to start the match, but a kill by Lyman and two consecutive attacking errors from the Broncos tied the set 6-6. ISU was able to build some separation off three straight services aces from Lyman to force a Bronco timeout. ISU led by as many as five points at four separate times during the set, the last coming at 21-16, but Boise State ended the set on a 10-3 run to win the first set, 26-24.

In the second set, the Bengals surged ahead for an 11-6 lead off of seven combined kills from Bars, Lyman and sophomore outside hitter Marissa Todd. Boise State was able to chip away at ISU's lead and nearly tied the match off a kill form Maddy O'Donnell that brought the Broncos within one, 16-15. Idaho State responded and stifled the Broncos with a 9-2 run to close out the set and win, 25-17.

The third set was back-and-forth with nine ties and six lead changes. ISU tied it up for the ninth and final time, 14-all, off of a Lyman kill. A service ace from senior libero Kaitlyn Johnson along with two kills from Bars, two kills from Lyman and a kill from Todd set the Bengals up for the third set win, 25-18.

In the fourth and final set, ISU trailed Boise State for much of the set and by as many as five points at two separate times. The Bengals fought their way back and tied the match 16-all following a service ace from Johnson. The squads traded points until a kill by senior middle blocker Makenzie Filer and a subsequent kill from Lyman put the set away 25-23.

"I'm really excited about our effort tonight," Reynolds said. "I thought transitionally we played really well. We did a lot of great things serving, we were able to get them out of their system a good bit and we were able to dictate the offense. We responded well whenever Boise State made adjustments. Boise State is a really good team, and I thought they played very well."

The Bengals look to extend their winning streak tomorrow, Friday Sept. 4 at 2:30 p.m. as they face Northwestern in their second match of the Boise State Invitational at Bronco Gym in Boise, Idaho.