Griz back alone in fourth after win at Weber
11/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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The University of Montana volleyball team took over sole possession of fourth place in the Big Sky Conference with a 3-1 victory at Weber State Friday night, 31-29, 22-25, 25-18, 26-24. The win, which was the Grizzlies??? third straight and fourth out of their last five, improved Montana to 13-12 overall, 9-6 in league play.
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Weber State, which entered the match tied with UM, dropped to 19-12, 8-7 in Big Sky matches.
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The Big Sky has one night of regular season matches to go, with four matches taking place Saturday.
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Eastern Washington (17-10, 12-4 BSC) assured itself of at least at tie for first place with a 3-1 win at Sacramento State (9-22, 7-8 BSC) Friday. The Eagles hold the tiebreaker over Portland State (18-7, 11-4 BSC) and will take the No. 1 seed into next week???s conference tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28-29, at PSU.
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The Eagles also wrapped up hosting rights for the 2009 Big Sky tournament.
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Portland State plays at Sacramento State Saturday. Other matches tomorrow night include Northern Arizona (14-10, 6-9 BSC) at Northern Colorado (16-8, 10-5 BSC), Montana State (3-22, 0-15 BSC) at Weber State and Montana at Idaho State (10-19, 5-10 BSC).
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The Bengals were 3-2 winners over Montana State Friday night.
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Montana will face Weber State next Friday morning in the No. 4-No. 5 matchup at Portland State???s Stott Center. The Wildcats could retake the No. 4 seed with a win Saturday night combined with a UM loss at ISU.
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The Grizzlies won Friday???s match by going just seven players deep the entire match.
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???This was a hard-fought match,??? Montana coach Jerry Wagner said. ???We were just very determined to play through the tough spots, more so than the first time we played them. That was the difference tonight.
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???We stuck with the same lineup for the entire match because it came down to needing to ball control, and that was the lineup that could give us what we needed to win.???
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With the Weber State game plan focusing on sophomore Jaimie Thibeault, who finished with eight kills on .115 hitting and three blocks, sophomore Amy Roberts came up big.
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The outside hitter had 19 kills, her second highest total of the season, on match-best .366 hitting. Roberts also had 13 digs, her seventh double-double of the season, two blocks and two service aces.
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???Weber put all of its focus on stopping Jaimie tonight, and that allowed everyone else to do some nice things,??? Wagner said. ???Amy was a first-class outside hitter from start to finish.???
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Junior Whitney Hobbs had 13 kills, 13 digs and two blocks. Hobbs??? 13th kill of the night came from the back row and pulled Montana within 23-21 in the fourth set after the Wildcats had opened a three-point lead.
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Hobbs???s kill sparked a 6-1 Montana run to close out the match.
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Senior Jade Roskam also reached double figures in kills with 10.
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Junior Taryn Wright had 47 assists, 14 digs, five blocks and four kills, sophomore Brittney Brown had 20 digs and freshman Brittany Quick had five kills and a team-high seven blocks, a season best.
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Montana out-hit Weber State, .194 to .151. The Wildcats had a 17.0 to 10.0 blocking advantage at the net.
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Chelsea Bair and Leah Burmeister both had 14 kills for WSU. Amy Dunford had a match-best 10 blocks.
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Montana raced out to a 17-10 lead in the opening set, but Weber rallied to take a 21-20 lead on a Montana attack error.
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The set was tied at every point from 24-24 to 29-29, with both teams fighting off set points.
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Tied at 29-29, Weber State had a ball-handling error and an attack error, giving Montana a 1-0 lead.
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Weber State broke free from an 18-18 tie in the second set with a kill and a service ace and led the rest of the way. The Wildcats hit .300 for the set.
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Montana fell behind 4-1 in the third set, but the Grizzlies came back to tie it at 10-10 and didn???t trail again, hitting a match-high .485.
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Weber was on its way to evening things up at 2-2 when the Wildcats scored four straight points in the fourth set to turn a 20-19 deficit into a 23-20 lead.
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After Hobbs made it 23-21, Roskam pulled the Griz within one at 23-22 with a kill. Back-to-back attack errors by WSU gave Montana match point at 24-23.
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After a Weber timeout, Jenna Leggat made it 24-24 with a kill, but a Roskam kill and a WSU attack error gave the Grizzlies the victory.
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Montana plays at Idaho State Saturday night at 7 p.m. Live stats are available at ISUBengals.com.
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Tournament notes: Eastern Washington is locked into the No. 1 seed at next weekend???s tournament at Portland State, while Portland State will be the No. 2 seed and Northern Colorado No. 3.
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Montana and Weber State will fill the No. 4 and 5 seeds, in some order.
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The final spot will be filled by either Sacramento State or Northern Arizona. A Hornet win or a Lumberjack loss Saturday would send Sac State to the tournament. An NAU victory with a Sacramento State loss would give Northern Arizona the sixth and final tournament spot.
