POCATELLO, Idaho – Idaho State (12-10, 6-3 BSC) fell to Southern Utah (3-18, 2-7 BSC) in five sets Thursday night with a crowd of 511 in Reed Gym. The Bengals were unable to overcome a first-set loss as they dropped the match 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-9.
"I thought SUU played at a really high level," said Head Coach Rick Reynolds. "We didn't come out and match it in the first couple sets, even though we did win the second set. They gave us a lot of points in that set and ultimately they earned the win tonight."
Abby Garrity reached 20 kills for the second-consecutive game. The senior ended with 21 on 58 attacks for a .293 hitting percentage.
Brooke Pehrson and Taylor Meeks each had 11 kills on the night and hit .364 and .429 respectively. The duo also combined for eight blocks.
Duquesne Moratzka saw action in four sets and tallied nine kills while hitting at a career-high .300 clip. Chelsea Johnson reached 1,000 career assists with 55 in the match. She added two kills, nine digs and three block assists.
Haylie Keck, Mahala Bradburn and Nikole Cook all reached double-digit dig totals with Keck leading the way with 25.
"I told the girls to eat like champions tonight," Reynolds said. "At the end of the day I thought we got better today."
Idaho State tallied 61 kills on 158 attempts while Southern Utah finished with 63 on 174 attacks. The Bengals trailed in hitting percentage (.253-.241) with four more attacking errors. Southern Utah had two more aces with eight total, but the Bengals out blocked the Thunderbirds 9-8 and recorded more digs with 80 compared to 66 for SUU.
The teams were knotted up 6-6 in the first, but Southern Utah slowly took control with ISU able to collect consecutive points just twice during the remainder of the set. Pehrson sparked a three-point run with a kill and service ace to bring the Bengals within three at 21-18. Southern Utah called a timeout and won four-straight to close the set 25-18.
The Bengals trailed by six points at 12-6 before Garrity forced the Thunderbirds to take a timeout with three kills. SUU responded and forced an ISU timeout with a 17-12 advantage.
The Bengals won five of the next six points with Alexis Simmons at the line, but were still unable to capture the lead. Three ISU players tallied a kill to tie the game at 21-21, and two attacking errors by Southern Utah gave Idaho State its first lead of the second at 23-21. Meeks put the finishing touch on a 25-23 win for ISU to even the match.
An early six-point run gave SUU an 8-3 lead in the third set. The Thunderbirds countered a run by ISU with five-consecutive points to lead 12-6.
The Bengals trailed for much of the set once again, but scored five unanswered points to take the lead 22-21. The game was tied at 23-23, but Janet Kalaniuvalu gave SUU the advantage as they went on to win 25-23.
A scorching .563 hitting percentage helped the Bengals force a fifth set. The Bengals climbed to an early 4-1 lead in the fourth and extended it 16-7 shortly after. They led by 10 points multiple times and won 25-15 on an ace by Bradburn.
Early runs by Southern Utah put the Bengals in a 10-4 hole in the deciding set. The Bengals were unable to reign in the Thunderbirds as SUU went on to win the set 15-9 to take the match.
Idaho State returns to Reed Gym to face Northern Arizona at 7 p.m. Saturday night. The Bengals have not lost back-to-back matches since the start of conference play.
"We've played the two 1-7 teams in the last two matches, and I don't believe there are any teams in our conference you can sleep on," Reynolds said. "NAU is not one of those teams. They're 5-3 depending on what happened tonight against Weber. They're going to come out for blood."
