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OREM, Utah – Idaho State earned its first win Tuesday evening commanding style as it swept Utah Valley on its home court 28-26, 25-19 and 25-15. The Bengals had a successful offensive night with 44 total kills hitting .235, while defensively they forced UVU into 18 hitting errors and limited them to just 30 kills hitting .110, a season-low hitting percentage for an ISU opponent.
Juniors
Chloe Hirst and
Marissa Todd both registered double-digit kills with 13 and 11 respectively, but it was freshmen
Brooke Pehrson and
Haylie Keck that came up big for the Bengals down the stretch. Pehrson hit a season-high .583 for eight kills of 12 attempts with just one error in addition to four blocks. Keck was a defensive machine, digging 22 balls, two-shy of the three-set record of 24 set in 2013.
"We are excited to get the first win," Head Coach
Rick Reynolds said. "We had a lot of good things happening tonight, and I thought out defense stepped up and created a lot of opportunities for our offense."
Idaho State (1-3) was slow to start in the first set, falling behind 8-5 due mostly in part to avoidable errors. Utah Valley (0-4) suffered a similar pattern to follow with three-straight errors to tie the set 8-all. Three Bengal kills and a Wolverine attacking error gave ISU a 13-10 lead midway through the first set.
Idaho State kept the Wolverines at bay for most of the first set to lead 23-20, but a late run from UVU fueled by two ISU attacking errors, tied the set 25-all. Idaho State fell behind 26-25 following another attacking error but once again tied the set at 26-all following a UVU service error. Idaho State put the set away following two big kills, one from Todd and another from sophomore
Abby Jensen, for the 28-26 win.
The Bengals came out strong in the second and raced out to a 12-6 lead after capitalizing on five UVU errors. Hirst recorded two service aces during that initial run and four Bengals contributed kills. The Bengals continued to roll, extending their lead to 20-10 following another kill from Todd. With the set win within reach for ISU, UVU started to roll and put together a 8-3 run to cut the Bengals' lead to five, 23-18. ISU's Pehrson stepped up with two big kills to put the Wolverine's run to rest and win the set 25-19.
In the third set, Idaho State played nearly evenly with Utah Valley to start as the score was tied 5-all, but two UVU attacking errors and a kill from Hirst gave the Bengals a three-point cushion. An ISU error and a kill from UVU cut the lead to one, but the Bengals responded with three-straight kills followed by two big Idaho State blocks compliments of Pehrson, senior
Hayley Farrer and Jensen to gain the 14-9 advantage.
The Bengals extended their lead to eight, 18-10, with a kill from Todd and another from Pehrson. Idaho State hit .400 in the third set alone, connecting on 11 of 17 attempts, four of which came in the final series. ISU closed out the third set 25-15 to sweep the Wolverines 3-0.
"We had to battle through some offensive rhythm issues at times, but I thought we served tough and pushed UVU out of system," Reynolds said. "In the future, we will need to terminate better when given the opportunity."
Idaho State is back in action Sept. 2 against Lamar at 3 p.m. MST in the first match of the Cougar Classic, hosted by the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.
