Oct. 20, 2008

Complete Match Notes: Eastern Washington and Portland State

Quickly
The Bengals posted two victories in its last three matches for an overall record of 5-15. They are the only team at Idaho State to post a Big Sky Conference victory as they have defeated Eastern Washington at home and Montana State on the road. Idaho State posts a 2-6 conference record and hold eighth place in the Big Sky. The Bengals will hit the road this upcoming weekend to the most Northwestern conference teams Eastern Washington and Portland State.

About Idaho State
Idaho State has had a confidence building week as it ended its five game losing streak with a win against Utah Valley at home. The Bengals posted 136 kills over the week and posted a .146 attack percentage. Sophomore Britta Bartschi posted 32 kills over the weekend for a .262 percentage and recorded seven blocks. Jaclyn Hone was also a dominate force as she recorded 29 kills, 37 digs, three service aces and block assists and one assist. Sophomore Ashlyn McDowell was a wall against her opponents as she posted 13 kills, 12 block assists and two solo blocks, as well as three assists and two digs.

The Bengals have turned up the heat as they head toward the conference tournament posting a 2-4 (.333) record in October, up from a 3-8 (.273) record in September and an 0-3 (.000) record in August. The Bengals are a .500 in four game matches with a 4-4 record and gained their only 3-0 victory against Eastern Washington, the first time the Bengals had beaten another Big Sky team other than Montana State since 2006.

About Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington is on a three-game winning streak at home as they posted a 3-1 victory over Portland State and 3-2 victories over Gonzaga and Sacramento State. The Eagles posts a 9-9 overall record and are tied for second in conference with a 5-3 record which Portland State, Weber State and Sacramento State share with the Eagles. Eastern Washington is an endurance team as they post winning record in four and five set matches. The Eagles are 2-6 in three set matches, 4-2 in four set, and 3-1 in five sets. They post a .219 hitting percentage in conference and have kept their opponents to a .199 percentage. The Eagles have recorded 34 service aces and posted 63 blocks and 459 digs in conference.

Haley Hills leads the attack for Eastern Washington as she records 156 kills in conference and has had 359 attempts with only 55 errors for a .281 percentage. The Eagles have one main setter in Ashley Hamilton with 318 assists and has posted 36 kills herself with 1.16 a set. She has had 84 attempts and posts a .298 attack percentage. The Eagles has nearly matched their opponents in blocks per set as they post 2.03 and their opponents post 2.13. They record 63 total blocks, with seven being solos.

Eagles Series and Last Meeting
The Eagles are just two matches ahead of the Bengals in their 31-29 series lead. The last time the two team met Idaho State captured its first home victory of the season in straight sets (25-19, 25-19, 28-26). The victory marked the first home match and conference win for head coach Chad Teichert. The Bengals came onto the court with intensity and focus as they fought for every ball in the first set which contained 12 tied scores and five lead changes. ISU showed its continual improvement as they maintained a positive energy allowing the Bengals to tie up the Eagles at 16-16. ISU went on to score nine points in the final plays holding Eastern Washington to just three.

In the second set, ISU kept down the errors as they posted nine kills with one error from 27 attempts for a .296 percentage. Junior Emily Waldron posted four kills and eight attacks as well as a service aces gaining five points for her team in the set.

Senior Brenda Cooper and sophomore Britta Bartschi became pivotal players in the tough fought third set for the Bengals. Cooper posted three kills and eight attacks with zero errors for a .375 attack percentage, as well as recording two block assists. She earned four points on her own accord. Middle blocker Bartschi earned 4.5 points as she posted three kills from nine attempts with two errors for a .111 percentage as well as service ace and a block assist.

Overall, the Bengals posted 29 kills with only 12 errors for a .157 percentage for the match while Eastern Washington recorded 39 kills and 33 errors from 130 attempts for a .046 percentage. Senior Blakely Peppinger recorded 22 assists as well as a service ace and block assist.

The Bengal service game and defense attributed to the victory as ISU posted six service aces and brought down the roof posting seven team blocks to Eastern Washington's four. Senior Cooper recorded three block assists and a solo block. Sophomores Bartschi and Sarah Carson also posted three block assists each. Redshirt Junior Paige Palmer led the back row as she recorded 16 digs.

Junior Emily Waldron posted a double-double against Portland State with 12 kills and 16 digs.

About Portland State
The Vikings will host Idaho State following a match against Weber State on Thursday, October 23 at the Peter W. Stott Center at 8 p.m. Mountain time. The Vikings posted five straight victories to open conference play but have dropped their last three matches to post a 5-3 conference record to tie for second in the Big Sky. Last week the Vikings dropped a 3-2 decision to Sacramento State capturing the second and fourth sets (25-22, 18-25, 25-14, 18-25, 17-15). Portland State out blocked its opponents ten to seven and record 2.2 blocks per game.

Marija Vojnovic, Lindsey Steelle and Jennifer Oney lead the attack with 2.53, 2.23 and 2.36 kills per set respectively. However, the offense is centered around Vojnovic who posts the most kills and is the most accurate with a .180 attack percentage. She also leads the team with 18 service aces. Even with their kills they big swingers are not as successful at the block as Erica Jepsen and Tracy Vargas post the most blocks for the Vikings and record a block per set each. Portland State uses a primary setter in Fradella Nique who averages 10 assists per set. The back row defense is led by Steele and Jalen Pendon with Pendon posting 342 digs this season with five each set while Steele posts 3.18 each set.

Vikings Series and Last Meeting
Portland State leads the series 23-14. Idaho State has fallen to the Vikings six times since its last victory in 2005 under head coach Mike Welch when the team posted a 3-2 hard fought win (30-23, 36-34, 23-30, 33-35, 19-17).

The Bengals had its home opener against Portland State falling in straight sets (25-23, 25-18, 25-22). The Bengals held a 7-2 lead to start the match against the Vikings until PSU caught up at 12-12 in the first set. The Bengals pushed forward but were unable to regain the lead. ISU started off slow in the second set and could not recover. In the third set ISU began with solid play and posted a strong 10-6 lead. Unfortunately, the Vikings were able to consistently string together points. ISU and Portland State went back and forth for a nail biting third set that consisted of five tie scores and four lead changes, but the Vikings would come out victorious.

Sophomore Sarah Carson had nine kills, a season-high, and only recorded one error for a .533 percentage. Senior Brenda Cooper posted eight kills. The Bengals recorded more attack attempts but eventually hit the wall as Portland State was able to put a hand on the ball and keep the Bengals attacks from becoming scoring opportunities. Portland State recorded 10 total team blocks to ISU's four. Portland State's Erica Jepsen posted six block assist, a match high and was responsible for earning 11 points for her team. Senior Blakely Peppinger also recorded a double-double when she led the Bengals in assists with 37 and posted 11 digs.

Injury Report: Mickelsen
Junior middle blocker Kolay Mickelsen will be out of commission due to an injury to her left hand sustained during practice. The 6-1 Highland High School graduate posted a season high six kills and four digs.

Bengals Get Creative
Playing late night games can often provide a lot of free time as hotels place check out time around noon, and the afternoon before the Montana State match was no exception. Fortunately, for the Bengals a team building exercise presented itself when a bead show was taking place at the Wingate by Wyndham hotel in Bozeman, Montana on Saturday, October 18 in the afternoon.

After study hour, the Bengals were separated into two teams, upperclassmen and lower classmen, and were given the task of creating team bracelets. The bead show supplied thousands of different kinds of beads that allowed their imaginations to be put to the test. The underclassmen put together their bracelets on site in the lobby with the upperclassmen carefully searched through all the beads to find what they wanted. The team bonding exercise proved successful as the Bengals posted a 3-1 victory over Montana State later that night and each team member left with a memento of the occasion. Open the game notes in PDF format to see a picture gallery.

This Week's Schedule
10/20-Practice 6-8:30 p.m.
10/21-Practice 6-8:30 p.m.
10/22-Travel Day
10/23-at Eastern Washington 8 p.m.
10/24-TBA
10/25-at Portland State 8 p.m.
10/26-Travel Day