Vandals need to rebound
The University of Idaho, coming off a 3-1 loss – it’s first of the season – to Missouri on Saturday, kicks off its Big West Conference schedule at home this week. Pacific (3-2) visits at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Cal State Northridge (3-3) at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Both matches will be played in Memorial Gym, and Vandals coach Debbie Buchanan seems confident her Vandals (5-1) can bounce back from the tough loss to Missouri.
“It’s a hard loss for us,” Buchanan admitted after her team’s tightly contested 27-30, 21-30, 31-29, 30-32 defeat in Columbia at the Tiger Invitational. “They played well and they could probably be a top-25 team. But I think we can be a top-25 team, also.
“We’ll be ready for Thursday night. We need to get back on track and stay strong more often.”
The Vandals opened the Missouri tournament with a lackluster 3-2 win over Mississippi State that prompted Buchanan to say, “It’s a win, but it doesn’t feel like one. We came out flat and we weren’t prepared enough. We just didn’t do what we normally do well.”
UI turned it around in a 3-1 win over Arkansas State, before bowing to the tournament hosts.
Zags head to Pullman
Gonzaga University (3-5), which needs only one more win to match its victory total of last season (4-16), will kick off another busy week with a non-conference match against Washington State tonight at 7 in Pullman.
The Bulldogs look to snap a 14-match losing streak to the Cougars (1-6), who lead the series 19-5.
The Zags will also play in the Idaho State Classic in Pocatello this weekend, facing Idaho State on Friday and New Mexico State and Wyoming on Saturday.
WSU, which picked up its first win under first-year coach Brian Heffernan by beating Miami 3-2 in theLoyola Marymount Tournament in Los Angeles Saturday, travels to Denver this weekend to face Radford on Friday and Syracuse and host Denver on Saturday.
EWU at Hawkeye Classic
Eastern Washington University (1-5) continues its torturous early season schedule by traveling to Iowa City this weekend to play in the Iowa Hawkeye Holiday Inn Classic.
The Eagles open play at 9 a.m. (PDT) Friday against Furman, then face host Iowa at 5 p.m. The Hawkeyes (6-1) are coached by former Washington State coach Cindy Fredrick and play a home match against Creighton tonight.
Saturday, EWU – which has already played four nationally ranked teams – will face Chicago State at 9 a.m.
“The competition in this tournament will be well balanced,” Fredrick said. “Also, being from the Northwest, I know Eastern Washington will pose a tough challenge.”
Bucs take it to NWC
Whitworth (6-1) tested itself against one of the best NCAA Division III teams in the country last weekend and lost. But Coach Steve Rupe is hoping the experience his team gained in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to La Verne, Calif. – ranked No. 2 in this week’s AVCA poll – in the Whittier/Occidental Invitational will provide a huge lift when it opens Northwest Conference play at Pacific (1-6) on Friday.
The Bucs, who also have a Saturday road game at Linfield College (2-4) in McMinnville, Ore., knocked off Pomona-Pitzer 3-0 prior to losing to La Verne by scores 30-21, 30-20, 30-31.
In earlier games in the Whittier/Occidental Invitational, Whitworth beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripts 3-1 and Redlands 3-0.
Quick Sets
Defending Northwest Conference champion Linfield (2-4) went 1-3 in the Whittier/Occidental Invitational, beating Whittier, but losing to La Verne, Claremont-M-C and Redlands… . Idaho is 6-2 in Big West Conference openers since joining the league 1996, but the Vandals have not started BWC play 2-0 since 2000 when they knocked off UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton… . The American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Top-25 preseason poll had eight of Washington State’s 2004 opponents ranked in the top 18. Five – No. 3 UCLA, No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 Washington, No. 10 Cal and No. 17 Arizona – are in the powerful Pac-10.