Senior setter Andri Dewey was asked how she’s preparing for Idaho State’s first-round matchup in the upcoming Big Sky Conference volleyball tournament. After a pause, the pride of Green River, Wyoming responded, “As someone who’s never been, I’m not quite sure.”

In fact, when the Bengals take the court in Ogden, Utah at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dewey will not be alone. None of the Bengals have played in a Big Sky Conference tournament. So even though ISU finished eighth in the conference regular season standings, squeezing into the post-season for the first time in four years is a pretty big deal for the Bengals.

“That’s huge,” Dewey said. “That’s something we haven’t done since 2018 and that was our goal this season. So it doesn’t really matter how we got there. It’s like a clean slate for us.”

Their reward for making the post-season is a matchup with regular season champion Northern Colorado, which finished 13-3 in league play and is riding an 11-game winning streak. The Bengals, who finished 13-16 overall and 5-11 in league, aren’t intimidated, however. Back on Sept. 22, they administered one of the Bears’ three conference losses in a five-set thriller at Reed Gym.

A lot of water has passed under the Bengal bridge since then, however. ISU started the season 9-5 after the win over UNC, including a stunning upset over UNLV, who finished as regular season Mountain West Champions with a 27-3 record and a 17-game winning streak. But, despite a road win over eventual second-place Big Sky finisher Weber State, the Bengals stumbled home with a 4-11 record.

“I’m remembering some highlights of the match we put together against UNLV that showed that we can play at a really high level,” first-year ISU coach Sean Carter said. “But it’s also consistency. The great teams don’t have as low of lows. We had some really high highs, but we just gotta learn to be consistent.”

That lack of consistency was on full display at Reed Gym Saturday night in the Bengals’ matchup with Montana State. ISU won the first two sets of the match, dropped the third, then led 21-19 in what could have been the decisive fourth. But Bengal outside hitter Jamie Streit took a wicked shot to the head from a Bobcat spike and crumbled to the floor, and ISU seemed to fold at that point. MSU scored five of the last six points to tie the match at two sets apiece, then cruised to a 15-7 win in the final fifth set.

“I think when we started, we were playing kind of free,” Dewey said. “And then I don’t know what happened, but it was like we were really scared of losing and we started to play not to lose, not playing to win.”

As he looks back on his initial season at the Bengal helm, Carter sees building confidence in players who’ve never been successful enough to get into the conference tournament as job No. 1.

“What I’ve learned is that I have to instill in these players a belief that they can do this thing,” Carter said. “It’s okay to be aggressive and to be urgent. And to be just excited about certain opportunities. So the mental side of stuff will build the culture.”

The most immediate opportunity is trying to take down a very good Northern Colorado team that features three of the conference’s top 10 in hitting percentage, the league leader in assists, and the No. 2 player in kills.

“You have to play a near perfect match,” Carter said of beating the Bears. “I mean, they rightfully are the best team in the league. They haven’t lost in a really, really long time. We got ‘em. We maybe surprised them a little bit in the first match of the year. And they were at full strength, so that gives us some confidence.”

The Bengals have been led this season by Dewey (ninth in the league in assists), freshman middle blocker Emrie Satuala (third in the league in blocks, eighth in hitting percentage), outside hitter Sadie Bluth (ninth in kills, tenth in points), and Streit (ninth in service aces). Streit’s availability for Wednesday’s game is unknown following her injury.

When the Bengals beat the Bears back in September, they had to overcome a two-set deficit, then hung on by their finger tips to win the final three sets, 26-24, 25-23 and 15-11. Satuala had 14 kills in the match, Bluth 12 and Streit 11.

“We just kind of didn’t quit,” Carter said. “ They blew us out a couple of sets and then we did everything we had to do, and we played really good defense. We passed the ball well enough, and we had a couple of good (individual) performances.”

Even though UNC came back to sweep the Bengals in three sets in the rematch, Dewey is still looking forward to challenging the Bears. “I’m actually pretty excited,” Dewey said. “They’re a really good team, but like (assistant coach Haylie Keck) said in the locker room: we play really well as the under dogs. So it’s exciting to be the under dogs and show them what we got.”

Senior nightSix Bengals played their final match at Reed Gym Saturday night: Dewey, outside hitters Danielle Devlin, Kennedee Tracy and Taylor Burnham, libero Rachael Driskell and middle blocker Rachael Warren.

“I’m really proud of this group,” Carter said. “I think we’ve learned that every little thing matters. It’s really hard to win in this league. It’s a great group of coaches, and I’m really blessed to be a part of this.”

Brad Bugger has been observing athletics in southeastern Idaho for over 40years as a sportswriter, broadcaster and fan. He can be reached with comments, questions and column suggestions at bpbugger@gmail.com