Montana
Eastern Washington
Griz grind out four-set victory over Eagles
10/31/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 31, 2013
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No one said the road to the Big Sky Conference tournament was going to be easy, nor did anyone claim all the wins that it will take to advance to Portland had to look pretty. Some of them might look like it did Thursday night.
Facing a team below it in the standings and needing a win to further solidify its standing among the Big Sky's top six teams, Montana pulled out a tough 26-24, 16-25, 25-20, 25-23 victory over Eastern Washington that gave the Grizzlies their first season sweep of the Eagles since 1995.
"That was a hard-fought match," said UM coach Jerry Wagner after watching the two teams hit .128 and combine for 57 attack errors. "Eastern threw absolutely everything they could at us, and they made a lot of great adjustments to try to slow down some very hot hitters on our team, and it worked.
"They caught us on a night when we maybe weren't as sharp as we have been, and that could have spelled a bad thing, but fortunately our kids were able to grind one out and stay with it."
Montana (11-11, 8-5 BSC) won for the fourth time in five matches and is 7-3 in its last 10, but it was an ugly way to get there.
The Grizzlies fell behind in the first set with three attack errors and a ball-handling error in the first four points, and that sequence seemed to set the tone for the entire night. But so did what followed. Freshman Sadie Ahearn served up a pair of aces, and Montana quickly got back to even at 5-5.
In retrospect, the most important plays of the match probably came late in the first set, after Eastern had taken a 24-22 lead.
Junior Kelsey Schile came up with a kill to cut the lead to one, and that put freshman Raegan Lindsey on the service line. Showing no fear or lack of confidence, she ripped off back-to-back aces, and a kill by senior Brooke Bray allowed Montana to steal the opening set despite hitting just .023.
"Raegan saved us," Wagner said. "Winning that opening set, one we maybe didn't deserve, allowed us to prolong things and create more time to get the ship righted."
Whatever momentum Montana gained in pulling out a dramatic first-set win didn't show up in the second. The Eagles (7-17, 4-9 BSC) hit .333, the best set hitting percentage for either team all night, and cruised to an easy win.
The Grizzlies were locked in a tight battle early in the third until Lindsey once again got the serve. She rang up four quick points to give Montana an 11-7 advantage. It's a lead the Grizzlies would hold the rest of the set.
The closing set was the tightest of the match, with eight ties and three lead changes. Montana seemed to finally have some winning separation when Bray and senior Kortney James had back-to-back blocks on Allie Schumacher to go up 21-19, but Eastern came back to tie it at 21-21.
Julian, who led both teams with 16 kills, produced the match's final tie when her kill evened the score at 23-23. A Reno kill made it 24-23, and Julian's attack error on the next point gave Montana the match.
"I'm going to credit our kids for hanging in there," Wagner said. "The only thing I can see that we did better than them on paper was dig the ball.
"Our serving and our passing were also above average all night and gave us a chance to get it going."
On a night when Montana had 32 attack errors, the steady and collected Reno had just three, and she finished with a team-high 15 kills on .218 hitting. Schile, who had nine attack errors, finally got things going offensively later in the match and added 11 kills, as did Bray, who hit .348 and had seven blocks.
James had 42 assists and 14 digs, and she matched her career high with a match-high eight blocks.
Montana used a team effort to dig Eastern Washington. Five players had 10 or more digs, with senior Megan Murphey leading the way with 19. Reno and James both had 14, Lindsey finished with 11, and Ahearn added 10.
The Grizzlies will need to sharpen up their play before Saturday's showdown with Portland State (12-10, 9-3 BSC) if they expect to have a chance at knocking off the Vikings for the first time since 2004.
Portland State, which has defeated Montana 19 straight times, plays at Montana State on Friday night before meeting the Grizzlies on Saturday at 7 p.m.
