Bengals head out for final weekend of regular season jostling for position in next week’s conference tourney
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POCATELLO — In the throes of a season-worst three-match losing streak, the Idaho State University volleyball team embarks on an a two-game road trip to end the regular season.
The Bengals (18-8, 9-5) finished their home schedule Saturday with a 3-2 loss to Northern Arizona (12-13, 5-9). Now, they will travel to California, to face Sacramento State (17-10, 10-4), then Oregon, to face Portland State (7-18, 6-8).
How this final weekend of the regular season shakes out will determine ISU’s seeding position when the Big Sky Tournament kicks off next Wednesday at Sacramento State. The Bengals, who are currently the No. 4 team in the standings, could finish as high as the second-seed and as low as the fifth-seed.
ISU beat both upcoming opponents at Reed Gym in late-October.
Sacramento State, currently the No. 2 team in conference standings, has, like the Bengals, already secured a tournament spot. So, taking Thursday’s match would give them a 2-0 season record over the reigning conference champs — and perhaps a mental edge.
Following that 3-1 Oct. 26 victory over the Hornets, ISU head coach Sean Carter spoke highly of the opponent’s attack.
There is a “cat-and-mouse game” when defending a team with three powerful attackers also capable of scoring with finesse, he said. Committing too much to defend any one angle will open a lane in another.
So, Carter said, his team will need to rely on something it has relied on all season — one of the top blocks in the country.
“It’s a psychological factor, when you can get some stuffs on people — then they’ve got to force some attacks into some ways that they didn’t want to,” Carter said following that match.
The Bengals remain one of just three teams in the country averaging more than three blocks per set (3.01) — joining Wisconsin (3.09) and Louisville (3.07).
An affective block, Carter explained, forces teams away from their gameplan and strengths, and often leads to unforced errors. And that was the key to ISU’s Oct. 26 victory, in which they out-blocked the Hornets, 10-3.
Two days prior, the Bengals out-blocked Portland State, 6-9, and won the match in straight sets.
The Big Sky Volleyball Championship tournament, featuring the top eight teams from the 10-team conference, will begin Wednesday at 10 a.m., with four matches set for Wednesday. The semifinals are set for Thanksgiving, with the finals — the winner of which will qualify for the NCAA Tournament — set for 7 p.m. Friday.