Montana
Southern Utah
Grizzlies make quick work of Thunderbirds
10/11/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 11, 2013
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The Montana volleyball team hit a season-best .345 and rolled to its fourth three-set sweep of the season with a 25-12, 26-24, 25-16 victory over Southern Utah Friday night at the West Auxiliary Gym in Missoula.
The win gives the Grizzlies (7-9, 4-3 BSC) their fourth Big Sky Conference victory of the season, matching last year's total with 13 league matches still to be played. Montana remains tied for fifth in the Big Sky with Sacramento State (9-9, 4-3 BSC), a five-set winner at Weber State Friday.
Southern Utah (2-15, 1-6 BSC) entered Friday's match on a six-match losing streak, with just two set victories in those matches. Montana made sure early that the Thunderbirds knew they were outmanned.
The Grizzlies jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the opening set and were never threatened, hitting .375.
"The plan going in was to set the tone at the level we know we have to play at to be successful," UM coach Jerry Wagner said. "For two full sets we played at the level we need to and executed the offensive and defensive part of our game plan very well."
Montana raced out to a 7-2 lead in the second set. A Southern Utah kill made it 7-3, then Jenna Bradfield served three straight aces against three different Grizzlies to turn the tide. What looked like another runaway victory turned into a tight battle that had 13 ties and six lead changes.
"Southern Utah is a good team with good players," Wagner said. "We passed the ball well in the first set, so they knew they had to serve better, and it worked out for them in that stretch and got them believing more than I had hoped and let them back in it.
"To their credit, they stayed on top of things and made it a back-and-forth affair."
The Thunderbirds had the first opportunity to win the second set at 24-23, but a ball-handling error on SUU freshman setter Joanna Christenson evened the score at 24-24, and freshman Claire McCown and senior Brooke Bray put down consecutive kills to give the Grizzlies the win.
"It's nice to know we can execute in a tight game, but I believe it should have been more under our control," Wagner said. "We should weather that short storm and get right back to the level we were trying to set for the night."
Montana hit .406 and committed just two attack errors in the final set to pull away for the victory.
Five Montana players took all but four of the team's 110 swings in the match, and they all hit .267 or better. Bray finished with 13 kills on .393 hitting, and senior Kayla Reno had 13 kills on .323 hitting.
Juniors Kelsey Schile and Natalie Jones both hit better than .300 and both had a match-high four blocks. Senior Kortney James had 37 assists and 10 digs, and senior Megan Murphey totaled a match-high 17 digs, a number of them highlight-reel worthy.
Montana will host Northern Arizona (11-5, 5-2 BSC) Saturday at 7 p.m. The Lumberjacks lost in five sets at Montana State Friday night.
