Bray named Big Sky Player of the Week
11/26/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 26, 2013
Montana senior middle blocker Brooke Bray was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week Tuesday by the league office. It was the first time this season and the second time in her career that Bray has been so honored.
Bray is the third Grizzly to be named Big Sky Conference Player of the Week this season. Senior setter Kortney James and senior outside hitter Kayla Reno have also been recognized. This is the first season since 1994 that three different Montana players have earned player of the week honors.
Bray was recognized for her role in leading Montana to wins Saturday and Monday over Sacramento State and Montana State. The middle blocker averaged a team-high 3.25 kills on .380 hitting and added 2.0 blocks per set as the Grizzlies ended the regular season on a three-match winning streak.
Facing a Hornets team on Saturday that needed a win to make the conference tournament, Bray was mostly unstoppable. She matched a career high with 19 kills and had just three attack errors on 33 swings to hit .485.
She also added eight blocks as the Grizzlies used a 15-10 blocking advantage to overcome Sac State's +14 advantage in kills.
In Monday's three-set dismantling of Montana State, the Grizzlies' eighth straight win at Bozeman, Bray had seven kills and eight blocks, the latter a season high for a three-set match.
Bray, second-team All-Big Sky Conference as a junior, is part of a senior foursome, along with Kortney James, Megan Murphey and Kayla Reno, that will leave the program as one of the more accomplished classes in program history.
The players' names show up seven times in the Montana record book, with Bray ranking fourth in career hitting percentage (.260), fourth in block assists (399) and fifth in total blocks (448), and all four have three times been named Academic All-Big Sky Conference.
Team success has been fleeting, but the quartet led Montana to a fifth-place Big Sky Conference finish this season and back to the postseason, its first trip to the Big Sky tournament since 2010 and one year after a 6-23 season.
"I'm so happy that the four of us have been able to end our careers like this," Bray said. "Like (coach Jerry Wagner) has said, we were at rock bottom (after last season), but we've been able to turn it around.
"We're playing well going into the tournament and our heads are high, but I don't think we've all played our best match at the same time, and that's actually a good thing. We still have our most important matches to come, and I think we're all going to put it together."
On Montana's last trip to the Big Sky tournament, in 2010 and also to Portland, this year's seniors all played key roles as freshmen.
The Grizzlies jumped out to a 2-0 lead on No. 1-seed Portland State in the semifinals, but the Vikings rallied to win in five sets. Bray and James started the match, Reno and Murphey played all five sets off the bench. Bray had eight kills on .318 hitting and seven blocks in her only postseason match.
Little did they know at the time that it would be three more years before they would be back in the postseason. The Grizzlies finished a game out of a tournament spot in 2011 and tied for last place a season ago.
Montana's turnaround in 2013 has so far resulted in nine more wins than last year. The Grizzlies' 15 victories going into this week's tournament are the most in Wagner's eight seasons.
On Friday No. 5 Montana will face No. 4 Northern Arizona in the tournament quarterfinals at 1 p.m. (MT) at Portland State's Stott Center. The Lumberjacks beat the Grizzlies twice this season, both times in four sets.
"That freshman year everything is so new," Bray said. "You have freshman nerves before every match. Now it's a different mentality.
"We lost twice to NAU this year, but we know what we have to do to win. I think this is our time."
