Idaho Takes Big Sky Volleyball Crown

The 23rd-ranked Idaho volleyball team won the Big Sky Conference regular-season title with a victory over Northern Arizona on Friday night before a crowd of 1,272 at Memorial Gym in Moscow.

“It feels good to win,” said UI coach Tom Hilbert, whose team beat NAU 15-8, 15-10, 10-15, 15-2. “But we need to win the rest of our matches. We want to continue to play well all the way through the Big Sky tournament.”

Idaho (10-1 Big Sky, 22-4 overall), which won for the 43rd straight time at Memorial Gym, will be home tonight against Weber State at 7:30.

Against NAU (7-5, 11-9), the Vandals were led by senior Tzvetelina Yanchulova and junior Kyle Leonard. Yanchulova had match highs of 24 kills and 14 digs while Leonard had 14 kills, 14 digs and four service aces.

Freshman Kim Exner posted a career-high 27 kills and 19 digs as Eastern Washington defeated Weber State 16-14, 15-13, 15-17, 15-13 in Cheney.

The Eagles (2-9 Big Sky, 7-18) took early leads in the first two games, but watched as the Wildcats (2-9, 7-18) battled back to make them close. Kellie Glaus had 20 kills and 16 digs for the Eagles.

Sarah Silvernail had 29 kills as Washington State outlasted Cal 14-16, 15-9, 15-11, 15-17, 18-16 in Pacific-10 Conference play at Harmon Gym in Berkeley.

Jen Canevari and Shannon Wyckoff added 14 kills apiece for No. 9 WSU (10-3, 18-3), while Keren Oigman had 13 and Jennifer Stinson seven. Cal is 4-10, 11-12.

Lori Peters had nine kills, Josi Hopkins added 17 digs and Jenni Rosselli made five blocks as Community Colleges of Spokane downed Mt. Hood 15-10, 15-12 at the Shoreline Crossover. The Sasquatch begin championship-round play today.

Gonzaga won for the second time this season in West Coast Conference play, rallying for a 5-15, 15-9, 15-5, 15-9 win over St. Mary’s at Martin Centre.

Wendy Wilson had 17 kills and Nora Grasham added 12 for Gonzaga (2-8, 4-23), which got 48 assists from Nicole Lamoure. Vanessa Dahl led the Gaels (3-7, 7-17) with 12 kills and 10 digs.

Swimming

Mandy Griffiths won the 200 and 400 freestyle as Washington State defeated Simon Fraser 115.5-83.5 at Burnaby, British Columbia.

Soccer

Leighton O’Brien and Guillermo Jara scored two goals each as San Diego (4-0 WCC, 11-2-2) kept its WCC title hopes alive with a 5-0 win over Gonzaga (0-4-1, 2-10-2) at Spokane Falls CC.

Michelle Richardson scored with 20 seconds left in the second overtime to lead St. Mary’s past Washington State 1-0 in non-conference women’s play in Pullman.

The Gaels (6-10-1) snapped a seven-game losing streak. WSU is 4-11-1.

Annmarie Snorsky’s scored twice as San Diego (5-1-0, 10-5-1) beat Gonzaga (0-6-0, 0-17-0) by a 3-0 count in WCC play at SFCC.

, DataTimes