Bobcats rally, end long-standing streak
10/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Montana State volleyball team limited Montana to its lowest hitting percentage of the season and came back from a 2-1 deficit to post a 28-30, 25-20, 21-25, 25-18, 16-14 victory Friday night at Dahlberg Arena. The win snapped the Bobcats??? Big Sky Conference losing streak that had reached 44 matches.
Montana State, which improved to 3-15 overall and 1-8 in league play, hadn???t won a conference match since 2006.
Montana, which hit just .048, its first match of the season under .100, dropped to 9-11 and saw its four-match winning streak come to an end. The Grizzlies fell to 5-4 in Big Sky play and into a fourth-place tie with Sacramento State.
The loss also snapped Montana???s seven-match winning streak over Montana State.
Playing in front of a quiet Dahlberg Arena crowd that had little opportunity to get behind the home team, it was the Bobcats who looked like the team challenging for a Big Sky Conference tournament spot.
After falling behind 2-1, Montana State held Montana to -.031 hitting in the fourth set and -.029 hitting in the fifth.
MSU???s Kyla Hendry had 16 kills for the match on .353 hitting, with six blocks.
???I thought Montana State outcompeted us tonight, simple as that,??? a dispirited UM coach Jerry Wagner said shortly after the match. ???They were very consistent and did an excellent job of blocking and controlling one of the league???s better offenses. We just didn???t have an answer for them.
???Kyla Hendry was great tonight. She was the best player on the court.???
Montana State took Montana???s season-high crowd of 1,512 out of the match right from the start, jumping out to a 10-5 lead in the opening set and forcing a Montana timeout.
Both teams had set-point opportunities in the opener before Montana took advantage of its fifth set point with a kill by sophomore Brittany Quick.
Montana State broke an 11-11 tie in the second set with three straight points, then kept the lead the rest of the set, hitting .206.
Montana never trailed in the third set, hitting a team match-high .116, to take a 2-1 lead.
Montana State came right back to hit its own match-high .222 in the fourth set to take a dominating 25-18 win that featured a handful of double-digit leads for the Bobcats.
The Grizzlies never had a match point in the final set, while the Bobcats took advantage of their second match-point opportunity to earn their long-coming victory.
With the set tied at 13, Nicole Grypiuk and Kylie Edinger teamed up to block the Big Sky Conference???s top hitter, Montana junior Jaimie Thibeault, making it 14-13.
Senior Taryn Wright answered with a kill to give the Grizzlies new life, but Grypiuk quickly extinguished that with back-to-back kills to end the match.
Montana State, which hit .140, had four players finish with double-figure kills. In addition to Hendry???s 16, Grypiuk had 13 and Edinger and Jodeen Rademacher 10 each. Edinger matched Hendry with six blocks.
Taylor Faught had 52 assists and Meghan Albiston 29 digs.
Thibeault finished with 16 kills on .200 hitting, well under the .410 hitting percentage she had entering the match.
Sophomore Brittany Quick matched a career high with seven blocks, helping the Griz to an advantage in blocking, their only statistical advantage on the night.
Redshirt freshman Paige Branstiter had a career-high 12 kills and four blocks, Wright had 42 assists, 13 digs, five blocks and three service aces and junior Brittney Brown added 18 digs.
Montana will host the Big Sky Conference???s co-leaders next weekend at the West Auxiliary Gym. The Grizzlies will meet Portland State (13-7, 7-2 BSC) Friday at 7 p.m. and Eastern Washington (13-7, 7-2 BSC) Saturday at 7 p.m.
