Aug. 27, 2009

Match Notes: UniWyo Cowgirl Classic

Pocatello, ID--Idaho State opens the 2009 season at the UniWyo Cowgirl Classic, a round robin tournament, on Friday, August 28 in Laramie, Wyoming at the UniWyo Sports Complex. The Bengals will open their first day of competition with two matches as they play South Dakota State at noon and Rutgers at 5 p.m. The Bengals will finish up the tournament playing the host Wyoming on Saturday, August 29 at 7 p.m. Live Stats will be available for the tournament at www.wyomingathletics.com.

The Bengals return nine lettermen and four starters. Idaho State welcomes seven newcomers including three junior college transfers. Top returners include Emily Waldron who led the team in points, kills and service aces, Paige Palmer who led the team in digs, Sarah Carson who led the team in block assists and total blocks, and Jaclyn Hone ISU's leader in kills per set. Idaho State opened the 2008 season with a new head coach, a new style and a desire to grow and improve.

Though the Bengals had a rocky start dropping its first seven matches. Toward the end of the season the Bengals posted a four game winning-streak and a six-game home winning streak. The last time ISU posted such a streak was in 1990 with a seven-game home winning streak under head coach Jon Potter. That season Idaho State posted a 22-10 overall record and a 14-2 Big Sky Conference record. ISU went on to capture the Big Sky Conference tournament Championship, ISU's only Big Sky Championship in school history.

The Bengals had several notable performances in 2008, including 23 double-double performances, three 20-plus kill matches and 11 20-plus dig matches, all of which were earned by Palmer. Last season Palmer set the all-time single season digs record in ISU history with 503. She also was named to the all-tournament team at the Best Western Shocker. Idaho State returns one setter, Karissa Legaux, who posted 448 assists to average 5.97 per set. Legaux shared the floor with Blakely Peppinger last season. Idaho State brings two walk-on setters, the first is Savannah Leckington, a junior college transfer from Western Wyoming Community College, and the second is Malia Bird a freshman from Eagle High School. All three setters made the traveling squad.

ISU's returning setter Karissa Legaux had 448 assists in 2008.

Sophomore Hone returns to the Bengal line-up and is expected to make a solid impression. Last season Hone walked-on to the squad. Hone went on to lead the Bengals in kills per set with 2.56 with a majority of her match play occurring in Big Sky conference games. In her first season she posted a career-high 20 kills against Montana at home. She returns as a scholarship athlete for the 2009 season.

Idaho State opens its season against South Dakota State on Friday. ISU is 13-18 in season openers since 1978. The last time the Bengals won a season opener was in 2006 under Mike Welch when the Bengals defeated Wisconsin-Green Bay. ISU won two straight matches to start the season. The last time Idaho State won both its double-header games on a season opener was in 1996 when the Bengals defeated Tulsa and Southern Illinois on August 30 at the Washington State Cougar Challenge. Both Idaho State head coach Chad Teichert and South Dakota State head coach Nana Allison-Brewer are facing off in the season opener of their second career years as head coaches. Both coaches had a ten-game winning record in their first seasons with their teams.

Head coach Teichert In his first season with the Bengals led ISU to a 10-20 overall record and a 5-11 Big Sky record, ISU's best performance since 2006. He also led the Bengals to a 7-4 home record (.636). Teichert pulled the Bengals through five set matches leading the team to a 3-1 record (.750).

All four of the head coaches of the participating teams of the UniWyo Cowgirls Classic have just one year under their belt with each of their respective teams. Only Idaho State and SDSU completed their first career seasons, while Rutgers and Wyoming completed seven and 13 years respectively. However, only ISU and SDSU had ten victories each last season while Rutgers posted two and Wyoming posted five.

South Dakota State returns nine lettermen and two starters. South Dakota State went 10-17 overall last season and 8-8 for fifth place in the Summit League. SDSU's head coach is Nanabah "Nana" Allison-Brewer who had her first season last year. It is Idaho State and South Dakota State's first meeting. The Jackrabbits return Ellyce Youngren, an outside hitter, who averaged 2.56 kills per set, 0.15 aces, 0.60 digs and 0.79 blocks per set.

Rutgers returns 12 lettermen and six starters. They return from a 2-22 overall season and went 1-13 in the Big East Conference for a 14th place finish. Head coach CJ Werneke led a young team through 17 road contests last season. He posts a 113-107 career record over seven years. It is Idaho State and Rutgers first meeting. The Scarlet Knights return outside hitter Caitlin Saxton who led the team averaging 2.71 kills and 0.21 service aces per game. She also averaged 2.60 digs.

Wyoming returns just four letterwinners from last season including three of its starters. The cowgirls bring in 10 newcomers. Last season head coach Carrie Yerty led the cowgirls to a 5-20 season and an eighth place finish in the Mountain West with a 4-12 record. Yerty has a career record of 238-194 over 13 years. Wyoming returns Dani Bedore, an outside hitter, who averaged a team leading 3.06 kills, along with 1.70 digs, .54 blocks per set and a .198 (288-128-810) hitting percentage.