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GREELEY, Colo. – The Idaho State volleyball team is onto the semi-finals of the Big Sky Conference volleyball tournament. The No. 5 seeded Bengals beat No. 4 seed Sacramento State 3-1 (20-25, 27-25, 25-12, 25-15).
Idaho State (19-13) was led by
Abby Garrity's 14 kills and
Brooke Pehrson's 11.
Chelsea Johnson had 45 assists and
Haylie Keck set the school all-time dig record in the third set with 26. Kylie Searle-Sessions held the previous record with 1,795 kills.
Taylor Meeks led Idaho State with eight blocks.
The Bengals hit .299 for the match. After hitting .194 in the first set, Idaho State hit .326 in set 2, .438 in set 3 and .297 in set 4.
Sacramento State hit .333 in set 1 but after that the Hornets were held to a hitting percentage of .163 in set 2, -.261 in set 3 and .023 in set 4.
After only 10 kills in the first set, Idaho State had 43 over the final three sets of the match.
"I am proud of the team effort," Idaho State coach
Rick Reynolds said. "We started off really flat. Sac State was really putting pressure on us with their serve. We got a few big blocks late in the first set and continued it into the second set. The defense started picking up balls. I thought our defense did a great job in putting pressure on them and started forcing them into some unforced errors. Sac State is a great team and well-coached."
After dropping the first set 25-20, the Bengals trailed for a majority of set 2. Trailing 22-17, a kill by Meeks and two errors by the Hornets cut the Idaho State deficit to 22-20.
Raegan Steiner's kill cut the Sacramento State lead to 22-21 but two quick points by Sac State made the score 24-21.
Idaho State tied the set at 24 after kills by Garrity, Steiner and Meeks. The match was tied at 25 before a kill by
Nicole Lee and an attack error by Sacramento State gave ISU the 27-25 win.
"When you win the second-set 27-25 that was where the tide started to change," Reynolds said. "We had to dig really deep there to pick up that win. In the third set Abby got on a big run serving. She was really hot from the service line. Meeks and Brooke got going really well at the net and when we get going its tough to slow us down offensively."
Idaho State dominated set 3 as it jumped out to a 12-3 lead where Garrity served her team to seven straight points. Sac State got no closer than seven points at 15-8 during the set. ISU sealed the set 3 win with a kill from Steiner.
The Bengals trailed 4-2 early in set 4. Idaho State then took the lead for good at 6-5 off a Hornet attack error. During the stretch where ISU took the lead Garrity served the Bengals to four points where Meeks had a kill and Sac State had three errors.
Idaho State took a 15-10 lead on a kill by Garrity and the lead was extended to 21-13 on a kill by Lee. Idaho State sealed the 10-point set 4 win by two kills from
Brooke Pehrson and a kill from Garrity.
Idaho State plays at 4:30 p.m. vs. No. 1 seed Northern Arizona on Friday afternoon.
