Montana
Portland State
Portland State continues mastery over Montana
9/27/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 27, 2013
Box Score
Montana went into its match at Portland State Friday hoping to change history. Instead it took the Vikings just 75 minutes to add to it.
Portland State hit .409 and defeated Montana for the 19th consecutive time, winning Friday afternoon at PSU's Stott Center, 25-12, 25-17, 25-11. It was the Vikings' 14th straight win at home over the Grizzlies and kept the Big Sky Conference preseason favorites unbeaten through three league matches.
Since opening its Big Sky schedule with a 3-0 victory over Northern Colorado last Friday, Montana (4-8, 1-2 BSC) has dropped back-to-back 3-0 decisions to league heavyweights North Dakota and Portland State.
"We certainly didn't represent anywhere near anybody's expectations," said UM coach Jerry Wagner.
"I never had an inkling we were going to have this type of match. We had a great week of preparation. We had a nice practice last night. Everything was right on, which makes our reaction tonight unacceptable."
Portland State (6-7, 3-0 BSC), which has yet to drop a set during its 3-0 Big Sky start, jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first set and a 7-2 advantage in the second. In the third, the Vikings hit .560, with 15 kills and just one hitting error on 25 attacks.
Cheyne Corrado, Aubrey Mitchell and Jaklyn Wheeler all had 12 kills on collective .424 hitting, Cara Olden had nine blocks, Kaeli Patton had six of the Vikings' 12 service aces, and Garyn Schlatter totaled 32 assists as Portland State put down 46 kills to Montana's 21, which came on .098 hitting.
"Portland State did to us exactly what they did to Eastern Washington Monday night (in the Vikings' 3-0 win over the Eagles at the Stott Center)," Wagner said.
"They served the ball tough. They have the best setter in the conference by far, and she puts all those hitters in a position to score. They pass the ball great in their own gym, and we didn't do any of the above."
Montana, which has hit .080 over its last two matches, had just seven kills in each of the three sets as the Grizzlies lost for the 14th time in their last 15 Big Sky road matches.
Senior Kayla Reno led the Grizzlies with five kills, senior Megan Murphey had two service aces, and senior Brooke Bray added three blocks.
The Grizzlies will attempt to change another ugly history Saturday night when they face Eastern Washington (5-9, 2-1 BSC) in Cheney, where Montana has not won since 1995.
The Eagles won in five sets over Montana State on Thursday.
