Seiji Wood
Sports Editor
The Idaho State volleyball team is 12-10 so far this season and 6-4 in the conference.
They have eight matches remaining to close out the season before the Big Sky Conference tournament.
Through the first 10 conference matches, ISU has the same record this year that it held at this point last year, but the Bengals started off hot going 6-2 in the conference before recently dropping back-to-back matches to Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, both of which were at home.
After the two-match losing streak, the Bengals are now tied for third in the conference standings with Northern Colorado. Idaho and Sacramento State are tied for first with an 8-2 conference record and Northern Arizona and Weber State are tied for second at 7-3.
“There’s a different dynamic,” said Haylie Keck, ISU’s libero. “Everyone comes into practice wanting to work really, really hard. We all want to individually improve ourselves to make the team better and it’s kind of a turnaround from last year. It’s awesome.”
Brooke Pehrson is in the top 10 for both hitting percentage and blocks in the conference. She’s eighth in hitting percentage and second in blocks with 109.
Last week, Pehrson cracked ISU’s top ten in career blocks. Pehrson also has the eighth-most block assists in ISU history and is closing in on a spot on the solo blocks list.
Chelsea Johnson is having a career-season herself. Johnson leads the conference in assists with 993 but is second in the rankings due to the average assists per set. As a sophomore, she’ll continue to play a big part for ISU volleyball for years to come.
Abby Garrity is making the most of her senior year. Garrity is in the same boat as Johnson, she leads the conference in kills but ranks third in the conference because of her average kills per set.
Keck leads the conference in digs with 491 and has the most digs per set. Keck was third in the all-time digs list, but recently moved into second.
The Bengals have had three matches where they have swept the opposing teams. Those wins came against Southern Utah, Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado. The Bengals have only been swept once this season, which was against first-place Sacramento State.
The Bengals have competed in three five-set matches. They’ve won two of the three. They beat Northern Arizona and Portland State but lost to Southern Utah.
“We’ve played the two 1-7 teams in the last two matches, and I don’t believe there are any teams in our conference you can sleep on,” said head coach Rick Reynolds in a press release after a loss to Southern Utah.
The Bengals have now started their second round of conference games and have gone 0-2 so far. They lost to Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, who they beat during the first round of conference games.
Last year, the Bengals ended their season on a four-match losing streak then lost in the first round to Idaho in the Big Sky Conference tournament.
This year, the Bengals have a chance to make a deep run. A strong end to the regular season will give them the best shot to accomplishing that by earning a higher seed going into the conference tournament.
ISU will continue their conference play this week when they go on the road to take on Idaho and Eastern Washington, two teams ISU beat in the first-round of conference games.
