Griz home for Northern Arizona, Southern Utah
11/7/2012 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 7, 2012
The Montana volleyball team will host Northern Arizona and Southern Utah this week as the end of the regular season draws near. The Grizzlies will face the Lumberjacks Friday at 7 p.m. and the Thunderbirds Saturday at 7 p.m. at the West Auxiliary Gym.
Live coverage: Fans who can't make it to the matches can monitor the action through Big Sky TV or via live stats. Links to both services can be found on the volleyball schedule page at GoGriz.com.
Where they stand: Montana (6-19, 4-12 BSC) is tied for ninth (out of 11 teams) in the Big Sky Conference. Northern Arizona (20-5, 12-4 BSC) is alone in third place, Southern Utah (9-19, 5-11 BSC) is tied for seventh.
Tournament talk: Every team in the Big Sky Conference has played 16 of its 20 regular-season league matches. With two weekends of the regular season remaining, the top four teams have already clinched spots in the six-team Big Sky tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 23-24, at Greeley, Colo.
Idaho State (20-5, 14-2 BSC) and Portland State (18-9, 14-2 BSC) are tied atop the standings and in prime position to win the regular-season championship. The Bengals and Vikings meet in Portland on the final Saturday of the regular season.
Northern Arizona and fourth-place Northern Colorado (18-8, 11-5 BSC) have also clinched tournament spots.
Likely to round out the six-team tournament field are Montana State (14-10, 8-8 BSC) and North Dakota (13-14, 8-8 BSC). MSU and UND hold three-game leads over both Sac State (9-17, 5-11 BSC) and Southern Utah with four matches to play.
Montana is still mathematically alive (.00002 percent chance) to make the tournament. At a minimum the Grizzlies would need to win their final four matches and have Montana State go 0-4.
Why it's still important: Beyond keeping alive the mathematical possibility of extending the season, Montana coach Jerry Wagner wants to make one thing in particular a staple of his program: The Grizzlies playing their best volleyball of the season when the calendar turns to November.
"There are 29 matches in the season. We want to compete our best in all of them, and also strive to get better and better as the season progresses," he said.
"So these matches are very important for us going forward, no matter our position in the standings. We want to create the mindset that when it gets to this point of the season we're used to being at the top of our game."
Most recently: Montana went on the road last week and lost both ends of the Idaho State-Weber State road trip for the first time since 2004. ISU downed the Grizzlies in three sets, while the Wildcats needed five, with a 15-13 win in the fifth set.
Southern Utah lost at home twice last week, falling to Portland State in five sets and Eastern Washington in three.
Northern Arizona split against the same two teams. The Lumberjacks lost to the Eagles in five sets, with a 23-21 decision in the fifth. Northern Arizona came back and gave Portland State just its second league loss in four sets. The win kept NAU within two of the Big Sky co-leaders.
Trending: Montana has lost four straight matches, all on the road. Those losses come on the heels of a three-wins-in-four-matches stretch. ... Northern Arizona is 20-5 overall but has gone just 2-2 in its last four. Of course those losses both came in five sets, first on the road at Sac State after giving up a 2-0 lead, then at home to Eastern Washington, suddenly and surprisingly the hottest team in the league. ... Southern Utah's 3-0 win over Montana on Oct. 4 was one of the team's last happy moments. The Thunderbirds have since gone 1-9.
Home and away: Montana is under .500 at the West Auxiliary Gym for the season at 4-6, part of the reason the Grizzlies are on the outside looking in at the tournament field. Four of those six losses have come in Big Sky matches, three in five sets. ... Northern Arizona is an impressive 13-4 away from home this year, 7-4 in true road matches. The Lumberjacks are 5-3 in league road matches. ... Southern Utah is 5-14 away from home, 2-6 in Big Sky road matches.
The first time around: Montana lost in three sets at both Southern Utah and Northern Arizona when the Grizzlies traveled south last month. Both were matches that got of hand.
The Thunderbirds and Lumberjacks combined to hit .365, and they outscored Montana over the six sets 150-98. The Grizzlies hit .108 and lost at SUU, 25-21, 25-18, 25-20, and hit .110 and lost at NAU, 25-8, 25-11, 25-20.
"For sure we need to come up with a way to slow these teams down," Wagner said. "We need to be better at reacting to (any runs they go on) and controlling the tempo so the matches are more to our liking.
"We can do that by taking away some of the things both teams do well."
Big Sky power: Four of the Big Sky Conference's 11 teams hold NCAA RPIs in the nation's top 90. Idaho State tops the list at 57. Portland State is 81, Northern Colorado 88 and Northern Arizona 90.
Montana comes in at 229.
Look to the middle: Northern Arizona has two of the best young middle blockers in the Big Sky Conference in sophomore Sydney Kemper and freshman Payton Bock. In 16 league matches, Kemper is hitting .348 to rank third in the Big Sky. Bock is ranked fourth in hitting (.341) and second in blocks (1.41/s).
When the teams met in Flagstaff on Oct. 6, Kemper had nine kills on .692 hitting and three blocks, and Bock had 12 kills on .524 hitting and six blocks.
Montana's middles? Five combined kills on .000 hitting with three blocks.
Then look to the outside: When Montana met Southern Utah earlier in the season, the Thunderbirds did most of their damage on the outside. Analaine Mailoto had 17 kills on .378 hitting, or nearly half as many kills as Montana (35) had in the match.
Bray continuing push for All-Big Sky honors: In Big Sky Conference matches, junior middle blocker Brooke Bray is hitting .363 and averaging 1.13 blocks per set. The former ranks second in the league behind Northern Colorado's Brianna Strong (.407), the latter ranks seventh.
When using numbers from the entire season, Bray ranks third in both hitting (.347) and blocks (1.26/s).
Bray's .347 would be the second-best single-season hitting percentage in Montana history. Jaimie Thibeault hit a program-record .353 in 2009. No other player in program history has hit better than .305 for a season.
Upcoming: Montana will close out its regular season with its final road match at Sacramento State on Saturday, Nov. 17, then its final home match against Montana State on Monday, Nov. 19.
