POCATELLO, Idaho – Idaho State Split the final day of the College of Charleston Volleyball Classic Saturday afternoon, falling to Florida A&M in five sets and defeating Davidson in five sets.
Game 1: Idaho State 2 – Florida A&M 3
Idaho State volleyball dropped its second match at the College of Charleston Volleyball Classic. For the third time in four matches the Bengals required five sets to determine a winner. After a hard-fought five-set battle the Florida A&M Rattlers won 3-2 (26-24, 23-25, 13-25, 25-19, 5-15).
The Bengals opened the match with a 26-24 Set 1 comeback win over the Rattlers. A hard-fought set that saw 14 tie scores and six lead changes.
The set went back and forth for the first 17 points of the match until Florida A&M went on a 4-0 run to make the score 21-17. The Bengals showed their grit and clawed back, going on a 4-0 run of their own and tying the game back up.
The two teams continued to battle back and forth to extra points before the Bengals overcame the Rattlers and won Set 1 26-24.
Florida A&M would go on to win Set 2 25-23, but not before the Bengals staged a monumental comeback. At one point in the set, the Rattlers led the Bengals 17-7. Instead of giving up and moving onto the next set, the Bengals show their grit and eventually tied the match at 21 before Florida A&M was able to pull away and end the set.
After a 25-13 Set 3 loss the Bengals came roaring back in set four winning the game 25-19 and forcing a match deciding fifth set.
The Rattlers were able to capitalize quickly in the fifth and win the set 15-5 and the match 3-2.
The Bengals had three players record double-doubles.
Jamie Streit recorded the first double-double of her career with 13 kills and 12 digs.
Andri Dewey got her first double-double of the season with 18 assists and 11 digs. Aliyah Sopoaga earned her second double-double of the year with an 18 assist 13 dig performance.
Sadie Bluth led the team in total kills with 18 on 35 attacks to finish the match with a .343 percentage.
Bluth and Streit combined for 37 of the Bengals 73 points in the match.
Asiah Sopoaga had 13 digs and was the fourth Bengal to have double-digit digs in the match.
For the third match in a row, the Bengals have a new addition to the Idaho State record book.
Asiah Sopoaga's six service aces tie her for 3rd all-time in individual match aces.
Game 2: ISU 3 – Davidson 2
The Bengals of Idaho State defeated Davidson in a reverse sweep five set match Saturday afternoon.
This is the first reverse sweep for the Bengals since Oct. 28, 2017 when the Bengals reverse swept Weber State.
"I loved how gritty my team was tonight," said Head Coach Sammi Stuart. " In sets two through five our
setter ran a simple offense that allowed for our offense to get going. We grinded it out!"
The Bengals got behind early in the match giving up leads in both sets one and two to allow the wildcats to take a quick 2-0 lead.
After not having a hitting percentage higher than .150 in both the first and second sets, the Bengals turned into high gear and didn't allow their hitting to fall below . 207 for the reminder of the match.
The Bengals hit a match high .405 in the fourth set as they won 25-20 and forced a decisive fifth set.
15 points wasn't enough to determine a winner and the Bengals fought to 17 points to secure the victory.
Jamie Streit had a huge match for the Bengals. Recording her second double-double of the day in a dominant 23 kill 16 dig .385 hitting percentage performance.
Reagan Kunz and Sadie Bluth also contributed double-digit kills with 14 and 11 kills respectively.
The Bengals won the battle at the net 14-13 with Dani Devlin leading the team with 8 blocks, a new career high.
In a true team defensive effort, five Bengals had digs in the double-digits.
The Bengals are back in the mountain west next week taking on Utah Valley and Utah State.
