Montana
Idaho State
Bengals rally, drop Grizzlies in five
11/8/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 8, 2013
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Idaho State rallied from late deficits in all three of its set victories and handed Montana a dispiriting 3-2 loss Friday night at the West Auxiliary Gym, 25-23, 18-25, 24-26, 25-21, 15-12.
The loss was the second straight for the Grizzlies (11-13, 8-7 BSC) and keeps them looking over their shoulder at their nearest pursuers for the Big Sky Conference tournament.
Montana, alone in sixth place in the Big Sky, is up two games on seventh-place Northern Colorado (10-15, 6-9 BSC) with five league matches remaining. The Bears were surprising four-set winners at North Dakota Friday night.
Idaho State (16-10, 10-5 BSC) solidified its fourth-place standing with the victory.
While the loss dropped Montana to 0-7 against the top four teams in the league -- North Dakota, Portland State, Northern Arizona and Idaho State -- it marked the first time the Grizzlies have competed as equals, swing for swing, point for point.
"What we can take from this is that we played a team that is in front of us and executed a lot of things that we had hoped to do well," UM coach Jerry Wagner said. "We hadn't done that against any of the teams that are in front of us, so that was a step forward."
The match could have been a major breakthrough had Montana held on to its leads in the sets the Grizzlies lost. Montana led 19-17 in the opening set, 20-18 in the fourth set and, most unsettling of all, 9-4 in the final set.
The loss soured what was a coming-out party for freshman Claire McCown. The outside hitter, who had reached double-digits in kills just once this season, with 13 at Texas Tech, had 23 kills on .315 hitting, including a 10-kills-on-12-swings tour de force in the second set alone.
"That was really special," said Wagner, who recruited the former middle blocker to be an outside hitter for the Grizzlies. "There are going to be big steps for her, because she's making the transition to being an outside hitter on a full-time basis. She's starting to figure it out."
Senior Kayla Reno nearly matched McCown. Reno had 22 kills, which matched a career high, on .281 hitting. But with the match slipping away from Montana in the fifth set, Reno, certainly against her wishes, was not a factor.
Idaho State went from trailing 9-4 in the fifth set to leading 14-10 when the Grizzlies inexplicably went away from what had been working for over two hours, namely setting Reno and McCown, who had 45 of the Grizzlies' 61 kills on the night.
After back-to-back kills by ISU pulled the Bengals to within 9-6, Montana went three times to middle blocker Natalie Jones, who was set just 12 times the entire match and finished with a negative hitting percentage.
All three times Jones was blocked for points that deflated Montana and sparked Idaho State to its third straight victory over the Grizzlies.
"Plain and simple, we didn't stick with what had been working," Wagner said. "We lost our composure and didn't stick to our plan.
"We should have set Kayla every single ball at that point, because she was the hot hitter. Even if they dug her, they wouldn't have been scoring points directly off our attacks."
During the deciding 11-point swing, when Idaho State outscored Montana 10-1, the Grizzlies did not create a single point for themselves on either offense or defense. Their only point came on an unforced hitting error by the Bengals.
It was the second time, according to Wagner, that Montana lost its focus.
The first came after the Grizzlies had picked up a rousing 26-24 win in the third set to go up 2-1. With all the momentum, Montana allowed Idaho State to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the fourth set, five points that loomed large when the set was later tied 20-20.
"There were two points when I thought we got ahead of ourselves and weren't in the moment," Wagner said. "We lost some composure and consistency during the first part of set four. And at 9-4 in the fifth set, we just needed to stick with what was working and set certain people."
Montana hit .223 in the loss, its best percentage in its last five matches, and out-dug the Bengals by seven, 66-59.
Senior setter Kortney James had 58 assists, one off her career high, senior libero Megan Murphey totaled 16 digs, and Jones finished with a team-high six blocks.
Despite the loss, Montana is still playing from a position of strength in the standings. The Grizzlies hold a season sweep over Northern Colorado, which amounts to a three-game lead in the standings with five to play, and three of Montana's final five matches are against the three teams at the bottom of the league standings: Weber State, Southern Utah and Montana State.
The Grizzlies will host Weber State (7-22, 3-12 BSC), which lost in three sets Friday at Montana State, on Saturday night. While the match doesn't fall into the category of must-win, it's clear the Grizzlies will still need to beat the teams they are supposed to beat before any tournament spots are clinched.
Saturday's match is made even more important by this: Three of Montana's final four matches are on the road, including a season-ender at Montana State on Monday, Nov. 25.
"We need to come out tomorrow and expect Weber to bring everything they have and come after us with reckless abandon," Wagner said, "and we can't let down. We have to be at the top of our game."
