Montana
Nevada
Montana falls to Nevada, wins tournament
9/14/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 14, 2013
Box Score
The Montana volleyball team lost in five sets to Nevada Saturday afternoon in its final match of the Lone Star Showdown at Lubbock, Texas, but the Grizzlies still won the tournament title.
Montana (3-6) and Cal State Fullerton both finished the tournament with 2-1 records. The Grizzlies won the tiebreaker over the Titans because of their 3-0 sweep of CSF Friday evening.
The tournament championship is the first for Montana since winning Maine's tournament in 2005.
Seniors Kortney James, who was the MVP, and Kayla Reno were both named to the all-tournament team. It was the third time in three tournaments this season that Reno has been so recognized.
After surprising heavyweights Texas Tech and Fullerton on Friday, both in 3-0 sweeps, Montana faced a one-win Nevada team on Saturday that was coming off 3-0 losses Friday to both the Titans and Red Raiders.
Another 3-0 victory seemed imminent, but the Grizzlies could not pull out the victory despite holding set leads of 1-0 and 2-1 and a 14-11 advantage in the fifth set.
"Our phrase for today was to come out humble but hungry," said UM coach Jerry Wagner. "And I never felt like we were hungry.
"We watched (Nevada) lose twice in three sets yesterday, and we're still a team that can let our guard down. We did, and that's what led to the ups and downs of our play."
Montana looked like the team that dispatched Texas Tech and Cal State Fullerton in straight sets when the Grizzlies rolled to a 25-18 win over the Wolf Pack in the opening set.
Nevada was 1-7 entering the match, with six losses in straight sets. Credit the Wolf Pack for not accepting another one.
Tessa Lea'ea would finish with 22 kills, and Nevada improved its hitting percentage every set the rest of the match after struggling to a -.091 percentage in the opener.
"We were definitely locked in early, but we had no answer for Lea'ea," Wagner said. "It was a struggle today. We were a little more up and down in our play than I would have expected after yesterday.
"We were steady almost the entire way through six sets yesterday, and today we didn't have that."
Nevada won the second set 25-22, Montana went up 2-1 with a 26-24 win in set three, and the Wolf Pack forced a fifth set with a 25-22 victory in set four.
The tight decisive set had 12 ties, the penultimate deadlock coming at 11-11. That's when kills by junior Kelsey Schile, sandwiched around a Nevada attack error, put the Grizzlies up 14-11.
The Wolf Pack produced a kill to make it 14-12, then used a nothing-to-lose approach on the ensuing series of serves to claim the victory.
Grace Anxo's first gutsy serve was overpassed by the Grizzlies, and Nevada put down a kill to pull to within 14-13. Anxo then pounded two straight serves into the tape, and both carried over and dropped untouched to the floor for aces that put Nevada up 15-14.
A kill by Kinsey Minter completed the blink-of-an-eye comeback.
"Credit the server in that situation," Wagner said. "She went for it with aggressive serving, even though it could have resulted in a loss, and she stole the momentum.
"The way Nevada played with the game on the line was what we talked about after the match. If we can learn from that, then even a defeat can be a victory."
Reno had 16 kills, senior Megan Murphey totaled a career-high 26 digs, and senior Brooke Bray finished with a season-high 10 blocks.
James had 44 assists, a career-high 20 digs and five blocks to add to her MVP resume. In three tournament matches, she averaged 9.64 assists and 3.73 digs, a number that ranked second on the team. She also added 11 kills and nine blocks.
The match was the final non-league one for Montana, which now looks ahead to Big Sky Conference play. The second season begins next Friday and Saturday when the Grizzlies make their 2013 home debut by hosting Northern Colorado and North Dakota at the West Auxiliary Gym.
