Griz drop second match of road trip
9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Montana volleyball team dropped to 0-2 in Big Sky Conference play with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-21, loss at Portland State Saturday night. The loss was the Grizzlies??? first three-set defeat of the season and third straight to drop to 4-8.
Portland State, the preseason Big Sky favorite, won its fifth straight match to improve to 7-5. The Vikings upped their record to 2-0 in Big Sky play, matching Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado through the opening weekend of league play.
The Grizzlies hit well above their season average of .209 against PSU, finishing at .244, and had a 10-4 advantage in team blocks, but the Vikings hit .330 and pounded 18 more kills than Montana.
Portland State junior outside hitter Whitney Phillips, a transfer from New Mexico State, did the most offensive damage, finishing with 19 kills on .405 hitting.
???Portland State deserves the preseason attention it got. They are a steady team, they are deep at every position and they have a lot of firepower,??? UM coach Jerry Wagner said.
???We???re just not passing the ball very well right now. Until we get that shored up, we???re going to have a tough road.
???We???ve got a single-match week coming up, and we need that. We need some extra time in the gym to get some reps.???
Montana held a handful of early leads in the opening set before the Vikings went on a run that put them up seven points mid-way through the set, 18-11.
PSU continued to roll into the second set, jumping out to a 6-1 lead and holding a sizeable advantage the rest of the set. Portland State hit a match-best .424 in the second.
As they did against Eastern Washington Friday night after dropping the first two sets, the Grizzlies played a solid third set, but unlike Friday they couldn???t pull out the victory.
After a service ace by senior Taryn Wright gave Montana a 21-20 lead and forced a PSU timeout, the Vikings rattled off five straight points to close out the match. Phillips had three kills in the match???s final four points.
Junior Jaimie Thibeault led Montana offensively for the second straight night, finishing with a team-high nine kills on .400 hitting. She also had a match-best four blocks.
Senior Whitney Hobbs had seven kills and three blocks, and Wright finished with 25 assists, five digs and two service aces.
Marija Vojnovic had 10 kills, 13 digs and three service aces for PSU. Setter Nique Fradella had 37 assists.
Montana will play at Montana State Friday at 7 p.m. in Bozeman in the team???s only match of the week. The Bobcats (2-9, 0-2 BSC) were swept by Portland State Friday and Eastern Washington Saturday.
