POCATELLO - During warmups before each Idaho State volleyball match, Paige Palmer gets three chances to dash to the net, leap and hammer a spike across the net.

Three times she repeats the routine, and then it's over.

As the Bengals libero, Palmer is by rule not allowed to spike or block the ball when it is above the height of the net, which means she rarely makes highlight-reel plays that result directly in Idaho State points.

But that's just fine with Palmer. For the redshirt junior, the feeling of nailing a spike just can't compare with that of saving a ball that seems destined to bounce off the hardwood. It can't compare with watching a hitter across the net furrow her brows in frustration.

Palmer calls her three pre-match spikes the "highlight of her week" - with the exception, of course, of all the other plays she's in the middle of while playing defense.

"I have this crazy passion for the back row," Palmer said. "It all starts with you. Everyone that watches volleyball sees the biggest hitters. We get to give them the perfect pass so that they can get a good kill."

Palmer and her Idaho State (3-12, 1-3 Big Sky) teammates continue their conference schedule with a clash against Northern Arizona (11-3, 3-2) at 7 p.m. today at Reed Gym.

Win or loss, Palmer likely will be right in the thick of the action. She leads the team with 229 total digs, an average of 4.49 per game. Her production has swelled to 5.38 per game in the Bengals' four conference matches so far, which ranks second behind Northern Arizona's Brittany Stowers' 6.37.

Palmer also leads Idaho State with five 20-dig performances this season. No other Bengal has one.

Her teammates have a straightforward explanation for those numbers - Palmer simply wants the ball more than anyone else on the court.

"She has a lot of heart," defensive specialist Jenna Proost said. "She's hard on herself. When she doesn't play perfectly, she gets upset. I think that helps her out a lot. She expects perfection."

Palmer suggests a humbler reason for her dig totals. In her fourth year at Idaho State, she simply has grown more comfortable with the speed of the collegiate game.

She admitted that Big Sky play often left her frazzled during her freshman campaign in 2005, and it wasn't until deep into her sophomore season that she began moving intuitively on the court.

This season simply represents a progression of her learning to read opposing hitters and move with her own blockers to cover swaths of the court they can't. After that, it's just having the guts to place her body in front of screaming line drives.

"You just kind of put your helmet on and try to read the spike," Palmer said. "My favorite part is frustrating the other team. You dig it, and they get really mad because they want to get a kill. That's probably the best feeling ever."

Palmer can't explain that feeling, except for the fact that she's always known it. Her three older brothers each excelled at the strong safety position at Lone Peak (Utah) High and taught her, whether in softball, soccer or basketball, to always concentrate first and foremost on playing defense.

That became a moot point when she joined the volleyball team her sophomore year of high school. She was suffering from bulging discs in her back, and doctors advised her against the jumping that playing on the front row would entail.

Not a problem. After the first few occasions she saw an opponent seethe with anger after losing a point to one of her digs, after the first few times she lofted perfect passes that led to a thunderous spikes by her teammates, she no longer wanted to play any other position anyway.

"Once I had a few of those passes in, I felt like that was what I wanted to do," Palmer said. "I wanted to be on the back line."