Vandals start season with solid wins

The Idaho Vandals are off to their best start in four years after sweeping three opponents at the Idaho Volleyball Classic last weekend.

At 5-1, Idaho has matched the start of the 2004 team. The Vandals didn’t drop a set in beating Notre Dame, Washington State and Eastern Washington. Their lone loss was in the season opener against Middle Tennessee, now 6-0 and ranked No. 13.

“We did play well, and the nice thing is we still have a ways to go for improvement and things we can work on to make us better,” coach Debbie Buchanan said. “Our kids just fought through it. For us not to lose a game was huge. Our serving was tough.”

UI’s Sarah Loney was the tournament MVP. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Idaho’s Haley Larsen and Sarah Conwell, EWU’s Ashley Hamilton and Hayley Hills and WSU’s Emily Rooney.

“Offensively, this is the best we’ve been in a few years,” said Buchanan, whose team will face Seattle, Oregon State, UC Riverside and tournament host Portland State this weekend. “We’re hitting at a higher percentage and we’re definitely getting more kids involved.”

Cougars stay home

WSU (3-3) hasn’t had to board a plane for tournaments at Boise and Moscow, and this week the Cougars won’t even have to board a bus. They open their home schedule against Gonzaga (2-5) tonight and remain home this weekend for the Cougar Challenge Tournament. The Cougars take on No. 18 Wichita State (8-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, and Northwestern and Montana State on Saturday.

“In our first two tournaments, we played pretty similar,” WSU first-year coach Andrew Palileo said. “The biggest difference was (in Moscow) the teams were better so we didn’t get away with some of the mistakes we made the first week.

“I think it’ll be a great tournament (this weekend) with Wichita State in the top 25. Hopefully, it’ll be a competitive tournament.”

Beyer helps Vandals

Corina Beyer, a standout at Timberlake High in Spirit Lake, who was Pac-10 All-Freshman team honorable mention as a setter at Washington State in 2006, is a volunteer assistant coach at Idaho.

Beyer sat out last season after transferring from WSU to Auburn. At Auburn, she had surgery to correct shoulder problems, but doctors also had to remove a rib and recommended that she discontinue her playing career, Buchanan said.

“It’s hard thing to go through as a player, it’s just hard,” said Buchanan, whose playing career at USC was cut short after one season by multiple knee surgeries. “But it’s great for her to be involved with us and helping us out.”

Notes

Mead High grad Erin Norris, a junior at Central Washington University, was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference co-player of the week after finishing with 44 kills and nine aces in the CWU Invitational. Norris set a school record as a sophomore with 70 aces. … EWU libero Mandy Daniels (foot) did not play in Moscow. The Eagles hope she returns for this weekend’s tournament in Eugene, where EWU will face Baylor (7-0) and No. 12 Oregon. … WSU’s Palileo was impressed with Idaho and EWU. “Idaho is a nice, solid team. I think they’ll be able to compete with New Mexico State (in the WAC) for sure. I’m not sure about Hawaii, because I haven’t seen them play in a while,” he said. “Eastern plays good defense and they run a system that’s pretty effective for them.” … Hawaii is No. 10, with its only losses to No. 1 Penn State and No. 5 UCLA. … Four Vandals rank in the top 50 nationally with their per-set averages: Haley Larsen (seventh, 4.75 kills), Kelsey James (24th, 10.95 assists), Anna McKinney (49th, 1.3 blocks) and Kelsey Yonker (50th, 4.6 digs). … The WCC is represented in the poll by No. 15 San Diego.