Bengals Headed to California for UCI/Adidas Invitational

Pocatello, ID - The Idaho State Volleyball team is coming off a strong start at the season-opening tournament in Reed Gym, which featured statement 3-1 wins over Cal State Northridge and Seattle U, as well as hanging tough with a San Diego State squad who dominated the genetic lottery, listing ten players between 6'1" and 6'5".

Now it's time for the Bengals to hit the road for their second tournament of the season, trading the orange and black campus for Orange County, CA at the UCI/Adidas Invitational in Irvine.

Hosted by the UC Irvine Anteaters, the tournament will also feature the University of Portland Pilots and the Bradley University Braves. The Bengals will face each team once from Sep. 5-7 in a round-robin format.

Quick scouts and match information can be found below.

Quick Scouting - University of Portland Pilots
Hometown: Portland, OR
Matchup with ISU: Thurs, Sep. 5 - 7:00PM MT / 6:00PM PT
2024 Record: 3-0 with wins over Stetson, Bethune-Cookman, Manhattan
2023 Record: 9-19 (4-12 conf.)
Player Highlight: A strong offensive squad, the Pilots have recorded 176 kills in three matches, including 53 from junior Maui Robins, who leads the team by a wide margin with 53. A two-time All-WCC team nominee, Robins is also third on the team in blocks (9) and fourth in digs (27).

Quick Scouting - UC Irvine Anteaters
Hometown: Irvine, CA
Matchup with ISU: Fri, Sep. 6 - 8:00PM MT / 7:00PM PT
2024 Record: 2-1 with wins over North Dakota, New Mexico
2023 Record: 11-19 (9-9 conf.)
Player Highlight: UC Irvine has been a defensive stalwart to begin the fall season. Graduate student Katie Smith and junior Campbell Jensen have recorded 70 combined digs, and the senior duo of Ella Gardiner and Ofure Iselen have 29 blocks between them.

Quick Scouting - Bradley Braves
Hometown: Peoria, IL
Matchup with ISU: Sat, Sep. 7 - 11:00AM MT / 10:00AM PT
2024 Record: 1-2 with a win over St. Thomas
2023 Record: 9-22 (2-16 conf.)
Player Highlight: The Braves feature a balanced offensive attack with three players recording over 20 kills to begin the season, led by junior Iva Popovic with 38.

Bengal Bites
Ringing the Bell
After recording 23 blocks and averaging 2.1 per set (leading the conference in both), Marci Bell was named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week for leading the Bengals to a 2-1 record in the opening weekend. This is the first POTW election for the Bengals this season and the second career nominee for Bell.

Scoring Machines
The only way to win a volleyball match (or most sports for that matter) is to score more points than your competition and the Bengals are doing that in spades, leading the Big Sky in total points per set with 18.36, half a point over second place. Senior Jamie Strait is one of three players in the conference to record over 40 individual points so far this season, averaging 4.18 per set.
 

Defense Wins Championships
Aided in large part by Marci Bell's stellar opening weekend, the Bengals are also atop the Big Sky in total blocks with 47 to start the season. This sits at 15 more total and averages over a full block more per set than second place.