Bozeman, MT - Last year, Idaho State Volleyball only played two matches that went to a fifth set, winning one. The year before, the team was 4-5 in those contests.
This year, the Bengals have turned up the heat when the pressure was highest and have now matched the win total of the previous two years' worth of five-setters, sitting at 5-2 after this road weekend in Missoula and Bozeman.
This stat is just one of many reasons why ISU has had its best season in years under third-year head coach Sean Carter. They are 18-5 overall, 9-2 in Big Sky Conference play, and riding a five-match win streak dating back to mid-October. The latest episodes of this exciting series came on a pair of road rematches against the Montana Grizzlies on Thursday night and the Montana State Bobcats on Saturday night.
On Halloween night, the Bengals had to do their trick-or-treating in Dahlberg Arena, the home of the Griz, who are led by 2022 Coach of the Year Allison Lawrence. Regardless of the record, the maroon and silver are always a tough draw on their home field, and it was going to take a complete team effort to get it done.
They did just that, overcoming a rough first set and alternating the first four with Montana to force a fifth, where the orange and black worked their magic and ran away with the 3-2 win (16-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-19, 15-7).
That team effort was highlighted by multiple Bengals having standout performances, including Jamie Streit (15), Sadie Bluth (14), Marci Bell (10), and Jaydin Watts (10) all having double-digit kills. Streit was taking shots all night, finishing with 60 total attacks, the fourth-most by a Big Sky player in a single match this season.
Marci Bell made plays on offense and defense for ISU, finishing among the team leaders in both kills and blocks
Despite some key plays early, the Bengals found themselves in a 1-2 deficit after the third set, and needed to get some momentum going. Enter senior
Peyton Michaelson, playing in just her third match of the season.
Michaelson entered when the Bengals needed a spark and provided one, finishing with two blocks, two digs, and a kill. Her efforts led the Bengals to force the fifth set, where they did what they have done all year.
This win gave the Bengals the momentum they wanted to carry over to Bozeman for a rematch with Montana State. The 'cats were coming off a home loss vs. Weber State, but before that, they had swept their rival Griz 3-0 in Missoula, and if you ask either of those teams, a dominant win over the other is a morale booster for the rest of the year. Not only that, but MSU is responsible for one of ISU's two conference losses, a near-reverse sweep for the Bengals in Reed Gym that ultimately went the way of the Bobcats.
Saturday night's matchup was just as competitive and was furthered by neither team playing an overly clean game. 68 combined errors led to some adverse situations for both teams, but all in all, it was a slugfest in Bozeman that was back and forth all night long between two quality volleyball programs.
Marci Bell built off a strong performance in Missoula, leading the team in kills with a career-high 14 and finishing second in blocks with 6. A known defensive force, the junior has been on another level offensively since conference play started, finishing with at least eight kills in 10 of 11 conference matches this season.
Just as they did with the Griz, the Bengals traded sets with the 'Cats throughout the first four. The fifth set was the most competitive that either team has had this year, with the score being knotted up seven different times in the best-of-15 set. At the final tie of 12-12, the Bengals turned on the juice, winning three of the next four points in dramatic fashion.
Jamie Streit put as emphatic of a statement on the win as one could with a kill that shook the ground in Shroyer Gym (16-25, 29-27, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13).
This sealed the undefeated weekend for Idaho State, putting them at 18 total wins. Defensively, ISU was bolstered by
Jaydin Watts' 16 total blocks over the weekend, recording eight apiece in Missoula and Bozeman. Watts has been a breakout superstar in her sophomore season, leading the team with 127 total blocks and sitting in fifth with 167 kills.
Asiah Sopo'aga has also had a career year since transitioning to libero full-time. The senior had 43 digs and only one error on the weekend, bringing her total to a career-high 359 in the former with at least five matches to play.
The Bengals continue to sit in second place in the Big Sky standings with a 9-2 conference record, trailing only the Northern Colorado Bears and only because they have one fewer conference loss than the Bengals with one less match played. The teams have the same 18-5 overall mark and each has nine conference wins. The next opponent for the Orange and Black, Weber State, sits in third place behind them at 7-3 and 11-11 overall. If ISU were to pick up the sweep over the Wildcats on Nov. 8, a Bears loss to either Portland State or Sac State would likely put the Bengals atop the Big Sky in time for the ISU-UNC rematch in Reed Gym on Nov. 14.
Either way, the Bengals will have work ahead of them with likely matchups of #2 vs. #3 (ISU vs. WSU) and #1 vs. #2 (ISU or UNC vs. the other) on deck.
Bengal Bites
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The Bengals' streak of leading the country in total blocks briefly ended after eight weeks when the College of Charleston surpassed them. However, ISU is back on top after this weekend with 281.0 team blocks on the year, compared to CC's 276.5. ISU (3.07) is one of only four teams in the nation averaging over three blocks per set, meaning that the Bengals could realistically lead all of college volleyball in total blocks by the end of the year.
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Jamie Streit had a monster weekend with 28 combined kills, bringing her career total to 996. Needing just four kills to hit the illustrious 1,000 mark, Streit leads the team in that stat with 278 and 3.07 per set, putting her well on track to join Sadie Bluth in the list of Bengals to hit the 1K mark this season.
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Jaydin Watts has been a force in the middle as a blocker, ranking ninth in all of D1 Volleyball with 127 total blocks. Marci Bell is tied for nineteenth in the same category with 117. The duo ranks second and third in the Big Sky behind Eastern Washington's Bri Gunderson, who is tied for fourth in the country with 141.
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Marci Bell has turned on the jets offensively since Big Sky play has started, and currently ranks third in the conference with a .346 hit%. If the season ended today, Bell would have the fourth-best hitting percentage in a season in ISU history.
