SEATTLE, Wash. – Idaho State (6-7) collected its fourth sweep of the season with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-18) win over Tennessee Tech (6-8) to end nonconference play Saturday afternoon. The Bengals finished the Redhawk Invitational in Seattle, Wash. with a win and loss.
"We had some great serves today that put Tennessee Tech in predictable situations," said Head Coach
Rick Reynolds. "This allowed our floor defense to make plays and we were able to convert on offense. Abby had a lot of space to work with and took advantage of it."
Abby Garrity led all players with 18 kills while hitting at a career-high .545 clip.
Taylor Meeks,
Nicole Lee and
Raegan Steiner all tallied six kills with Steiner hitting .500 and adding two blocks.
Nikole Cook became the first ISU player without the last name Keck to lead the Bengals in digs with a career-high 17; Keck added 14 digs.
Chelsea Johnson recorded 39 assists, one ace and one block for ISU.
"Chelsea did well distributing the ball and creating seams for our hitters," Reynolds said. "This allowed our middles and Raegan to complement the production we were getting on the left side."
Tennessee Tech's Rachel Thomas put ISU in a hole with back-to-back kills to start the match. Garrity found her groove shortly after, tallying three kills to put the Bengals on top 6-4. The Golden Eagles responded with a 7-0 run to regain the lead 11-6.
The Bengals remained unfazed as they mounted a dominant 16-3 run, forcing two TTU timeouts and building a 22-14 lead. Tennessee Tech clawed back, but a kill from Lee gave ISU a 1-0 advantage with a 25-20 win.
Garrity collected two quick kills to start the second set as she reached 10 kills for the match. The teams traded points before ISU emerged from a 7-7 tie with a 10-2 run, featuring kills from three different players and a service ace by Pehrson. Tennessee Tech took a timeout down 22-13 and proceeded to commit three errors to give ISU a 2-0 advantage.
The Bengals built a lead early following the intermission and led by five at multiple points in the set. Consecutive aces by Meeks gave ISU a 22-15 lead, and a service error by TTU sealed the sweep for Idaho State.
Ali Verzani was the leader for TTU with 12 kills and 10 digs. Shealene Little added eight kills and Thomas had six on 17 attacks.
Tennessee Tech entered the match ranked No. 60 in opponent hitting percentage, holding its foes to a .166 average on the season. Idaho State finished the match with a .330 hitting percentage overall and hit .429 and .519 in the second and third sets respectively.
The Bengals had six more kills than the Golden Eagles and terminated at a high level with just seven attacking errors in the match. Both teams had four blocks and Idaho State collected seven aces to TTU's one.
Garrity was the only ISU player named to the all-tournament team. The senior played eight sets, collecting 33 kills, two block assists and 22 digs. She posted a .311 hitting percentage with just five errors on 90 attacks and had a .984 receiving percentage.
Big Sky play begins next week as the Bengals hit the road to face Northern Arizona (Sept. 20) and Southern Utah (Sept. 22).
New Match Highs
Nikole Cook – Digs: 17
Abby Garrity – Attack Percentage: .545
Taylor Meeks – Aces: 3
Kaia Rhodes – Blocks: 1 | Block Assists: 1
Raegan Steiner – Attacking Percentage: .500
Milestones
Raegan Steiner reached 25 blocks.
