Griz drop four-set decision to Vikings
11/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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The University of Montana volleyball team dropped back to .500 in Big Sky Conference play with a 3-1 loss to Portland State Saturday night at the West Auxiliary Gym in Missoula, Mont. The Grizzlies will enter their final three weekends of regular-season play with an overall record of 10-12, 6-6 in Big Sky matches.
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Portland State won its fourth straight match to pull within half a game of Big Sky-leading Northern Colorado at 9-3. The Vikings improved to 16-6 overall.
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Montana will have back-to-back single-match weeks (at Montana State, home with Sacramento State), then conclude regular-season play at Weber State and Idaho State Nov. 21-22.
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Despite the loss, the Grizzlies remained in fifth place in the Big Sky, trailing Northern Colorado (9-2), PSU, Eastern Washington (8-4) and Sacramento State (6-4).
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Montana was on the verge of taking a convincing win in the opening set, but the Vikings rallied back from a 24-21 deficit to score the final five points in a 26-24 victory.
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Back-to-back Montana hitting errors made it 24-23, then the Vikings put down consecutive kills to take their first lead since 5-4 at 25-24.
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Portland State finished it off with a Nique Fradella service ace.
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Stunned by PSU???s first-set rally, the Grizzlies fell behind quickly in the second set 5-1. Portland State would hold leads of as many as 10 at 19-9 and 21-11 before Montana rallied back to cut the lead to three, 22-19.
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After a Portland State timeout, Lana Zielke put down back-to-back kills to end the rally and send the Vikings to a 25-21 win.
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PSU hit .358 in the opening two sets.
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Montana came out of the break and got off to a 6-2 lead in the third set, but Portland State would come back to take a 16-11 lead and force a Griz timeout.
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Montana responded by scoring the next eight points to go up 19-16. Junior Whitney Hobbs had three kills during the run, redshirt freshman Paige Nash two blocks.
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A kill by junior Jaimie Thibeault gave Montana a set point at 24-22. Portland State scored two straight, and it took UM???s sixth set point to finish it off, 29-27.
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Hobbs scored the final point on a service ace.
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The fourth set was tied at 16-16 when Jennifer Oney and Marija Vojnovic put down consecutive kills for the Vikings. PSU kept the lead the rest of the way in the 25-21 win.
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Vojnovic had a match-high 18 kills for the Vikings, who hit .240 for the match.
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Oney had 12 kills and Zielke 11 on .526 hitting.
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Christie Hamilton had six blocks for Portland State, helping PSU to an 11.0 to 10.0 blocking advantage.
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Thibeault led the Grizzlies from her middle blocker position, finishing with 15 kills on .344 hitting. She also added four blocks and three of Montana???s 15 service aces.
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Hobbs had 12 kills, sophomore Britney Brown had 22 digs and Nash finished with a team-high five blocks.
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Junior setter Taryn Wright neared a triple-double with 41 assists, 11 digs and a season-high seven service aces.
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Montana hit .145.
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Montana will face Montana State next Friday at 7 p.m. in Bozeman.
