Pocatello, ID - Idaho State Volleyball was riding high, coming off of an undefeated opening week that featured a big five-set win over Northern Colorado.
However, the most important match of the season is always the next one, and the Bengals had to defend their home-court advantage against the Montana State Bobcats on Thursday night and the Montana Grizzlies on a Saturday afternoon. Two teams that, regardless of record, make for a tough draw for whoever lines up across from them in any sport.
In a cat-on-cat matchup vs. Montana State, the Bengals found themselves in an early deficit as the Bobcats came to play, carrying a tenacious defense that has typically been seen wearing orange and black in Reed Gym. Idaho State held leads of 18-11 and 22-16 at one point in the first set, but the 'cats scratched and clawed their way back and required eight additional rallies to come away with the set 30-28.
The Bengals soon found their backs against the wall when MSU took set 2 to go up early in Reed, but they continued to fight their way back with a clutch effort, finishing long rallies on top after nearly a full minute straight of action.
But when the Bengals are down, they're never out, and they came alive when the pressure was highest. Shifting into a new gear, set three was all Bengals with a convincing 25-16 win.
Set 4 was more of the same, starting neck and neck before ISU began to pull away with an unrelenting offensive attack, balanced between
Jamie Streit,
Sadie Bluth, and
Meline Robarge. Senior setter
Aliyah Sopo'aga also got in on the action with what should be a patented multi-directional set over to an area where no Bobcat could make a play on it.
Despite the Bengals clawing their way out from an 0-2 deficit, the Bobcats went on an explosive offensive attack in the fifth and final set. With the store tied 5-5 early, MSU went on a 10-1 run to hand the Bengals their first conference loss (28-30, 22-25, 25-16, 25-21, 6-15).
Returning to action on Saturday afternoon, the Bengals also returned to their form for most of the season against the Montana Grizzlies.
The daunting Bengal defense got an early start in the first set, making one of the trademark blocks that makes them the best in the country,
Meline Robarge and
Jaydin Watts shared the first block of the day, and from there, the first set was the Watts show.
The sophomore not only shut down the Grizzlies' offensive attack but was a weapon in her own right, icing the set with a kill that rang out through Reed Gym.
The Griz weren't going to go away, fighting back from a 2-0 deficit to force a fourth set, but at the end of the day, the Bengal defense never backed down, finishing with 17 total team blocks on the afternoon to win a decisive 3-1 shootout over Montana (25-19, 25-21, 24-26, 25-16).
Idaho State now sits at 3-1 in conference play, which is good for sole possession of second place with one more match played than T-1st Sac State and Weber State. The Bengals will return to action at home against the latter of those teams, with a Friday night orange-out of Reed Gym scheduled against Weber State on Oct. 11 at 7:00pm
BENGAL BITES
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Idaho State recorded 17 team blocks against the Griz to move their season total to 206.0. The Bengals are currently the only NCAA team to eclipse 200 team blocks and still stand firmly at #1 in the nation over second-place College of Charleston with 164.0
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Jaydin Watts was all over the place for ISU against Montana, leading the team in both kills (12) and blocks (8)
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Watts, Meline Robarge, and Marci Bell continue to sit among the best blockers in all of Division 1 volleyball. Watts (82.0) and Bell (81.0) currently sit at fourth and fifth in the country, and Robarge (63.0) rounds out the top-50.
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Seniors Sadie Bluth and Jamie Streit have enjoyed storied careers at ISU and are poised to reach a major career milestone with 1000 kills. With most of a conference season still to play, Bluth sits at 971 career kills and Streit has recorded 926, needing 29 and 74, respectively to hit the 1K mark. As top offensive weapons for the Bengals with 12 matches left, there's plenty of time to get it done.
