Montana
South Dakota
Coyotes rally, defeat Griz in five sets
9/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sep 6, 2013
Box Score
The Montana volleyball team jumped out to a two-set lead but couldn't finish off South Dakota Friday afternoon, and the Coyotes rallied back for a 3-2 victory over the Grizzlies at the Cougar Challenge in Pullman, Wash.
After winning the opening two sets, 25-23, 25-19, Montana dropped the next three, 25-20, 25-22, 16-14. The Grizzlies never had a swing for the victory in the fifth set.
The loss left Montana with a record of 0-2 at the tournament and 1-4 overall, but coach Jerry Wagner was still enthusiastic after the match. His team that hit .130 in Friday morning's four-set loss to Texas Tech hit .269 against South Dakota and had season-high seven service aces.
The performance upped Montana's season hitting percentage to .231.
"First of all, our passing was much closer to where it needed to be in this match, and you see that in our hitting percentage," Wagner said. "That's where I see us being able to hit on a consistent basis, so I'm very excited about the direction that that can take."
Wagner went with a simple, no-surprises lineup against the Coyotes, and it resulted in a number of impressive hitting performances.
Senior Kayla Reno totaled 20 kills, two off her career high, on .263 hitting and added 19 digs. Joining Reno on the left side was sophomore Gabby Crowell, who also played all the way around and finished with 11 kills and a career-high 10 digs.
Senior Brooke Bray and junior Natalie Jones, who has taken firm hold of the second middle blocker position, were fantastic in the middle. Both put down 13 kills while combining to hit .377 with seven blocks.
Junior Kelsey Schile played on the right side and finished with 10 kills on .280 hitting. Freshman Raegan Lindsey spelled Schile in the back row.
Senior Kortney James was the primary setter and finished with 56 assists, three off her career high, and senior Megan Murphey locked down the libero position. She finished with 21 digs.
Those players put Montana in a position to knock off the team that defeated Idaho State, picked second in the Big Sky Conference preseason coaches' poll, last weekend in four sets.
"This was our most complete match of the year," Wagner said. "We were consistent passing the ball the whole match, and it never got away from us. We had our chances."
Montana rallied behind Reno in the opening set after the Grizzlies fell behind 23-18. Reno had four kills, Bray had two and Crowell added a service ace as Montana closed the set on a 7-0 run.
That carried over to the second set, and Montana went up 2-0 by hitting .353 through the opening two sets.
With a chance to finish off the sweep, the Grizzlies fell into a six-point hole in set three, and that gave South Dakota new life.
"(The players) knew things were coming together (after two sets), and they knew they were playing well, and darn it if we didn't try to hurry through the third set so we could get it over with," Wagner said.
"We were in a hurry to be done and feel good, and we got in our own way by thinking too far ahead."
Montana gave itself a chance in the fourth set after going up 22-21 on a Schile kill, but like the Grizzlies did in set one, the Coyotes closed on an unanswered run to win 25-22.
The tight fifth set had 11 ties.
Deadlocked at 11-11, South Dakota gained separation with consecutive kills. Down 14-12 and facing two match points, Montana got a kill from Schile to make it 14-13 and a solo block from Bray to even it at 14-14.
A South Dakota kill gave the Coyotes another match point, and a Montana attack error ended the match.
Montana will try for its first win of the tournament Saturday at 2 p.m. (MT) when the Grizzlies face unbeaten (as of Friday afternoon) Washington State (4-0).
