OREM, Utah – Utah Valley University volleyball fell to Idaho State in three tightly contested sets on Friday night at the PE Building (22-25, 24-26, 22-25). The contest marked UVU's (3-9) 2014 home opener as well as its opening match of the annual La Quinta Inn & Suites Invitational.
"We haven't been able to finish off sets very well and we struggled with that again tonight. We've got to be better at controlling those opportunities when we have them." said head coach Sam Atoa. "We played good enough to win. But it came down to those final two or three points and we were not the better team."
With the opening set all knotted up at 14-all, UVU managed to reel off four straight points to take an 18-14 advantage. Junior Lauren Bakker and sophomore Kiahna Steiner led the run with back-to-back blocks. ISU (4-7) answered right back, however, as it managed to tie the set at 20-20. The Bengals managed to take the opening frame by scoring five of the final seven points.
ISU then held the upper hand in the early stages of the second set as it jumped out to an 8-3 lead. The Wolverines closed the gap to within one on a number occasions and finally managed to tie the score at 20-all following a kill from sophomore Macky Treanor. The set then went back and forth from there until ISU picked up a pair of late consecutive kills from Mackenzie Filer and Alydia Fields-Grimm to take the frame by a score of 26-24.
UVU answered back in the third set as it took a quick 6-2 advantage. With the Wolverines later holding a 10-7 advantage, ISU struck back five straight points to take a 12-10 lead. Idaho State managed to withstand a late UVU run as it held on to take the set, 25-22, and the contest in straight sets.
Treanor paced Utah Valley in the loss with 11 kills while Bakker added nine kills, four blocks and a .533 hitting percentage. Senior McKenna Tait also recorded a match-high 17 digs while fellow senior Jen Hardman and freshman Sierra Starley each chipped in 17 assists.
Tressa Lyman led the Bengals with 11 kills while Fields-Grimm added 10 of her own.
The La Quinta Inn & Suites Invitational will continue on Saturday with four more matches at the PE Building. UVU will take part in two of them, as they will face UC Riverside at noon and Portland in the tournament finale at 7 p.m.
