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POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State volleyball team bested Eastern Washington in straight sets Thursday evening at Reed Gym with scores of 25-23, 25-23 and 25-19 to earn its first home win of the season. As in so many matches for the Bengals this season, the telling statistic was hitting percentage; Idaho State recorded 40 kills off 118 attempts with just 19 errors for a .178 hitting percentage while forcing the Eagles into hitting .095.
Three players finished with double-doubles for the Bengals led by senior setter
Hayley Farrer with a match-high 27 assists to go along with 12 digs, which tied for team-high honors, while hitting a team- and season-high .600 with six kills off 10 attempts without any errors. Junior outside hitter
Marissa Todd added 12 kills and 11 digs for her seventh double-double of the season, while junior outside hitter
Chloe Hirst added 10 kills and 12 digs for her ninth. Freshman middle blocker
Brooke Pehrson finished with six kills, contributing a few big hits at key moments throughout the match.
"It was great that Brooke got going tonight," Head Coach
Rick Reynolds said. "Obviously, Hayley [Farrer] bailed us out in a few spots, while Chloe [Hirst] and [Marissa] Todd played really well. I'm just proud of the effort. I thought our middles did a good job of scoring when we needed them to, and I thought Hayley did a great job of finding the hot hitter when it was time. We executed what we talked about…and then we pushed through."
Eastern Washington (9-7, 4-3 BSC) looked to be the dominate squad to start the match as Idaho State (9-11, 4-3 BSC) fell behind 8-4 early due to multiple attacking errors and a bad set. Two more attacking errors gave Eastern the 10-5 advantage, but the Bengals responded with a 6-1 run fueled by three ISU kills and three EWU errors to tie the set 11-all. Idaho State continued to attack and led 23-17 late in the set. Eastern made a small late-set run, but a Todd kill and an Eastern attacking error gave the Bengals the two-point win, 25-23.
In the second set, three straight ISU kills, two from Todd and another from Hirst, put ISU ahead 3-0. The Bengals quickly extended their lead to four, 7-3 with a kill from Pehrson and multiple EWU attacking errors, but the Eagles closed the gap to tie the set 7-7 in the first of eight ties of the second set. Neither team was able to gain separation until ISU capitalized on two EWU hitting errors and recorded two kills to gain a four-point advantage, 19-15. Eastern was unable to close the gap and the Bengals held on for the 25-23 second-set win.
Idaho State dictated the third set from the beginning, racing to an 8-2 early lead. The Bengals forced EWU to hit just .028 in the third set, while ISU recorded 14 of its 40 total kills hitting .178. ISU extended its lead to 10, 18-8 midway through the set, but a surge from the Eagles cut the lead to two, 19-17. EWU would not get any closer as the Bengals finished the set on a 6-2 run to earn the 25-19 win and take the set 3-0.
"Tonight, we played Idaho State volleyball," Reynolds said. "We both battled hard in the first set, and it was a bit of an ugly start to the match. A lot of errors by both teams, and fortunately we weathered that storm. We've been working on finishing sets…and I felt like we did a good job of it when we got to 24 points of getting over that hump."
The Bengals are back in action Saturday, Oct. 15 as they host Weber State at 7 p.m. in Reed Gym.
NOTES
- Hayley Farrer's double-double is her 11th of the season and the 40th of her career.
- Farrer's 12 digs gives her 1,089 career digs, eight away from 11th all-time in ISU history; her 27 assists gives her 3,344 career assists, good for sixth all-time.
- Farrer's .600 hitting percentage is the best hitting percentage recorded by a Bengal this season (with at least 10 attempts); Farrer's career-high hitting percentage is .667 which she posted against Robert Morris on Sept. 13, 2014.
- This was the fifth three-set match of the season for the Bengals, and they improve to 3-2 in three-set matches.
