Another Close Loss to a Nationally Ranked Team
For the second straight night, The Evergreen State College showed just how close it is to a volleyball breakthrough, pushing a nationally ranked team to a fifth set before coming up just short of a victory.
Last night it was No. 13-ranked Eastern Oregon that came back from a 2-1 set deficit to top Evergreen. Tonight, College of Idaho (13-1 overall, 5-1 CCC), ranked No. 8 in the NAIA Top 25 national poll, rallied from two sets down to pull out a 22-25, 17-25, 25-18, 25-20, 15-12 Cascade Collegiate Conference victory over the Geoducks (4-9, 1-5) inside Costantino Recreation Center.
Defensive play at the net proved to be the key for the Coyotes as they recorded six team blocks in both the third and fifth sets on the way to finishing with 14 team blocks.
Evergreen played its best set of the season to open the match, hitting .467 with 17 kills and just three errors on 30 attack attempts. Natalie Taylor led the way with seven kills and one error in 13 swings, followed by Chloee Hunt with five kills and one error on six attempts. College of Idaho hit .333 in the set but simply couldn't keep pace with the hosts.
The Geoducks maintained their high-powered offensive display in the second set with Taylor and Hunt both notching four kills, and it looked like Evergreen would record the biggest upset in program history.
College of Idaho had something to say about that, however, leaning on their defense at the net and mixing in just enough offense to earn the comeback win. The six blocks in the third set resulted in a negative hitting percentage for Evergreen, and both Brenna Meehan and Mali Sawyer had four kills to help turn momentum to the Coyotes' side of the net.
Evergreen gained the early advantage with a 10-6 lead in the fourth set, but the Coyotes replied by scoring 11 of the next 13 points to go on top 17-12. They never led by less than three points the rest of the way, forcing the fifth set.
College of Idaho held a pair of three-point leads early in the set before the Geoducks came back to tie the score at 7-7. At 9-9, College of Idaho recorded consecutive blocks to go ahead by two points, and it eventually closed out the victory on a stuff block by Jackie Van Vliet and Brenna Meehan. The six team blocks in that short set led to another negative attack percentage for the host team.
Van Vliet and Taylor Alexander both had six block assists and seven different College of Idaho players got in on the block party. Offensively, Meehan and Alexander both recorded 12 kills, Alaina Slate added 11 and Marija Djonovic paced all players with 46 assists. College of Idaho hit .191 as a team.
For the Geoducks, Taylor and Hunt led the way with 17 and 15 kills respectively, while Matalasi Laban finished with 44 assists. The Geoducks finished with a .117 attack percentage. One night after getting 36 digs, a number that ranks her fourth on Evergreen's single-match digs list, Tori Wegdahl registered 35 digs, which ties for sixth best in program history.