Griz heading east for North Dakota Classic
8/31/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 31, 2011
The University of Montana volleyball team continues its season this weekend at the two-day, four-team North Dakota Classic in Grand Forks, N.D. Montana and North Dakota will be joined at the tournament by Wisconsin-Green Bay and Southern Utah.
The Grizzlies will face North Dakota Friday at 6 p.m. (MT), Southern Utah Saturday at 10 a.m. (MT) and Wisconsin-Green Bay Saturday at 4 p.m. (MT).
The tournament will be held at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
Coverage: North Dakota's tournament webpage can be found here. Live stats for each of the tournament's six matches will be available free of charge. Video of the six matches is also available through the tournament page with the purchase of a UND Insider package.
Where they stand: All four teams in the tournament have played one weekend of matches.
Montana is 1-1 after splitting its two matches last Friday at Temple's tournament in Philadelphia. The Grizzlies lost in straight sets to tournament champion South Carolina last Friday afternoon, then downed Stony Brook 3-1 Friday evening.
The tournament was cut short so teams could depart the area early Saturday before the arrival of Hurricane Irene.
North Dakota opened the season at Wisconsin-Green Bay's tournament and went 1-2. The Fighting Sioux lost to then-No. 19 Dayton in four sets last Friday, then played a pair of five-set matches Saturday.
UND topped Green Bay in its first match Saturday, then lost to James Madison later in the day, falling 24-22 in the fifth set.
Southern Utah went 1-3 at its own tournament last weekend. The Thunderbirds lost to Drake in four sets and Boise State in three sets Friday, opened Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Pacific, then closed the tournament with a 3-2 victory over Utah State.
Green Bay went 1-2 at its home tournament last weekend. The Phoenix topped James Madison in five sets Friday, then lost to North Dakota in five sets and Dayton in four sets Saturday.
Series histories: Montana and North Dakota have met twice before, both meetings coming in the last two seasons, both at Montana's tournament, both in five sets. The Grizzlies won 3-2 in 2009, the Fighting Sioux won 3-2 in 2010.
Montana and Southern Utah will be meeting for the first time Saturday.
Montana and Wisconsin-Green Bay met at UWGB's season-opening tournament in 1999. The Grizzlies came away with a dominating 3-0 victory, 15-3, 15-1, 15-5.
Big Sky Conference preview: Montana should take the time to get familiar with the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center and the greater Grand Forks area (aka "God's Country" to those of us who have been fortunate enough to live there). Starting next fall North Dakota will be a member of the Big Sky Conference.
Southern Utah will also be joining the league next fall, which will give the Big Sky 11 volleyball-playing members.
More on Montana: The Grizzlies opened their season with a 3-0 loss to South Carolina last Friday. Montana hit .215 in the opening set and had four set-point chances, but the Gamecocks came away with a 34-32 victory, then rolled to 25-15 wins in sets two and three.
Montana dropped a tight opening set to Stony Brook, 25-23, despite hitting .257. The Grizzlies won a close second set by the same score, then hit better than .300 in the third set and better than .400 in the fourth set to win their first match of the season.
Montana trailed 19-12 in the fourth set before finishing off the win with a match-closing 13-1 run.
Sophomore Kayla Reno, who would finish with a team-high 18 kills, had eight of her kills in the fourth set as Montana rallied for the win.
"A lot of our expectations for this year are hinged on playing better overall team offense," UM coach Jerry Wagner said.
"Over the course of the weekend I saw better offense. I thought we attacked all parts of the net really well, and I thought our ball control was where it needed to be to run a better offense."
After hitting just .141 against the Gamecocks, Montana hit .288 against the Seawolves, a mark the Grizzlies hit just once in 28 matches last fall.
Montana out-dug its opponents on the weekend and was narrowly out-blocked. In the absence of the graduated Jaimie Thibeault, the Montana career leader in the category, blocking was an area of concern entering the season for Wagner.
"I was very encouraged by our digging numbers," he said. "Maybe it didn't show up in the blocking numbers, but I was very encouraged by the presence that our block had and the influence it had on good hitters on the teams we faced.
"We were able to influence, filter and touch a lot of balls on the block."
Reno opens strong: Sophomore outside hitter Kayla Reno averaged 4.43 kills and 5.00 digs per set on .324 hitting in Montana's two matches at Temple. She added three service aces in the two matches and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Server.
Against South Carolina, which won the tournament with a 3-0 record, Reno had 13 kills on .286 hitting and added a career-high 19 digs.
Against Stony Brook, Reno matched a career high with 18 kills on .359 hitting. She also added 16 digs and three service aces.
"I was very impressed," Wagner said very succinctly about Reno's play. "We saw it developing in the off-season, so we knew she was capable of this.
"We've always been high on her offense, but in those two matches it was the consistency of her overall game that was so impressive.
"She created some opportunities with her blocking, and she stepped up her ball-handling to an improved level."
Murphey listed as day to day: Sophomore libero Megan Murphey suffered a groin injury during extra points in the season-opening set against South Carolina and had to sit out the remainder of the tournament. She had eight digs in the opening set alone when she was forced to the bench.
Through Wednesday she has yet to rejoin the team for practice.
"Megan's a good defensive player," Wagner said. "She is up with the speed of the game, and she was reading around our well-placed block very well and making plays.
"And she was coming up with controlled digs, the type that turn into points. We were getting a lot of transition off her digs."
Freshman Kaitlyn Molloy played the final six sets of the tournament and finished with a solid 3.83 digs-per-set average.
Notes that will make you a smarter Griz volleyball fan: With sophomore Kayla Reno attacking the left side and freshman Kelsey Schile the right, the pair is hitting .295 and averaging over seven kills per set. The twosome had just 12 attack errors between them in two matches last week. ... Senior Brittany Quick and sophomore Brooke Bray are combining to hit .317 in the middle. ... Outside of those four, the rest of the team hit .031 against South Carolina and Stony Brook. ... Bray finished with a sick seven kills/zero errors/eight attacks (.875) line against the Seawolves. ... Montana's 6-2 offense is running smoothly in the early going. With sophomore Kortney James (6.14 aps) and Schile (6.86 aps) running the offense, Montana leads the Big Sky Conference in both assists (13.43/s) and kills (14.14/s). ... The Grizzlies also rank second in digs (19.14/s), nearly three digs per set better than the No. 3 team. ... Reno ranks first in the Big Sky in kills (4.43/s) and points (5.14/s, figured by kills plus service aces plus blocks divided by sets played) and third in service aces (0.43/s) and digs (5.00/s). ... Bray ranks second in hitting percentage (.407), Quick ranks fourth in blocks (1.14/s).
Upcoming: Montana will play its first home matches of the season when the Grizzlies host their own tournament Sept. 9-10. The tournament will include Cal State Fullerton, Idaho and South Dakota.
There will be four matches Friday, running from 10 a.m. through the evening, and late-afternoon and evening matches Saturday.
