Volleyball loses to Idaho in fifth set
Senior Liz McArthur had a career-high 26 kills, but it wasn’t enough to topple the University of Idaho as the Aggies fell to the Vandals in a five-set heartbreaker 3-2.
“Liz has meant a ton to our program,” head coach Grayson Dubose said of the all-American. “I can’t think of a kid who’s more representative of Aggie Athletics and embodies the phrase ‘student-athlete.’ She’s changed our program. I appreciate all of her efforts and what she’s done.”
Utah State got off to a great start, racing to a five-point advantage and establishing some early momentum. McArthur had two kills in the initial run and finished with six in the set. The Vandals weren’t going to go away quietly, and fought back to tie the set at 13’s.
That’s when the dog fight began.
The two teams battled back and forth much of the night, with three of the five sets being decided by two points. Utah State squeaked out the first set 26-24 after 10 ties and four lead changes. Junior outside hitter Josselyn White tallied two key kills before the Aggies put the set away.
Idaho came out firing in the second set and hit .387 as a team, while rocketing to a 9-2 lead and forcing an early Utah State timeout.
The Vandals kept pouring it on, and the Aggies were unable to slow down senior outside hitter Alicia Milo and sophomore outside hitter Allison Walker. Milo recorded a team-high 28 kills, while Walker added 23 kills, and Idaho fended off an Aggie comeback to take the set 25-19.
Idaho kept its momentum going into the third set, but McArthur wasn’t going to be denied. McArthur’s third kill of the set moved her into sole possession of third place on Utah State’s all-time kills list, passing Amanda Nielson, who had 1,369 kills for her career.
McArthur said it was a good match.
“Any of the matches this year, with my teammates this year, are going to be good memories forever,” she said. “There are a lot of people that have been with me throughout my whole career. I have so many good memories here.”
McArthur’s kill also gave USU some momentum, and the Aggies put together a 10-5 run to put some distance between them and the Vandals, but Idaho didn’t go away.
Idaho responded with a 10-5 run of its own, and the teams found themselves tied at 22. McArthur took over and after putting two kills away, White finished it off for another 26-24 set victory.
USU used that momentum, going on a 10-2 run midway through the fourth set, to build a seemingly comfortable lead at 18-10.
Then the wheels came off.
Idaho stormed back, and just like that the Vandals were within one, at 23-22. The Aggies were unable to capitalize on two match-point opportunities and their self-destruction resulted in Idaho taking the set in dramatic fashion 27-25.
“We lost the momentum,” McArthur said. “We had done a good job of giving ourselves a good lead. We just weren’t able to pull it off tonight — kind of a bummer.”
The Aggies never recovered, and the Vandals cruised in the fifth set, scoring seven of the first 10 points. Idaho made it to a 15-8 fifth-set victory to complete the improbable comeback.
USU finished hitting .212 for the match, while Idaho had a .259 hitting percentage. USU also tallied 11.5 team blocks, compared to nine for Idaho.
“We just have to get better,” DuBose said. “We have to make better choices, better decisions and be more aggressive. We have to get some momentum back, headed into the conference tournament. We have to make sure we’re dialed in for those two matches.”
Utah State falls to 6-6 in WAC play and 11-14 on the season. Idaho improves to 8-4 in the WAC and 14-11 on the season.
The Aggies were hurt by the loss to Idaho, in that a win would have moved the two teams into a tie for the third seed in the WAC tournament, with two games to go in the regular season. USU now trails Idaho by two games and moves into a tie with Fresno State University for the fourth seed.
Utah State travels to the University of Nevada on Nov. 10 and Fresno State on Nov. 12 to close out the season. Both matches are scheduled for 8 p.m.
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu