Montana
North Dakota
Griz fall in four sets to division leader
10/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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In a matchup of the Big Sky Conference North Division's last unbeatens, North Dakota defeated Montana in four sets at the West Auxiliary Gym in Missoula Friday night, 20-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-16.
UND moves to 3-0 in league play, 15-5 overall, while the Grizzlies, who won a pair of five-set road matches last weekend, drop to 2-1 in the Big Sky, 2-13 overall.
Montana extended its solid play from last weekend right through the opening set Friday. The Grizzlies hit .273, forced North Dakota into 10 attack errors and had UND on its heels.
But then North Dakota upped its play, and Montana failed to match it. UND hit .303 the final three sets to remain one of three teams still without a Big Sky loss, joining Southern Utah and Idaho of the South Division.
"The team in the first set is the team I witnessed transform itself last weekend, but certainly North Dakota wasn't going to go away. They know how to keep working and pushing back, and we responded to that moment the wrong way," said UM coach Jerry Wagner.
After getting out-blocked 6-4 in the opening set, North Dakota controlled the net the rest of the match, adding 10 more blocks in the final three sets to the Grizzlies' three, while limiting Montana to .135 hitting.
"I thought they did a great job defensively creating a turn in the match and making things not quite so easy for us as it was in the first set," said Wagner.
"And that was the difference. Our response to their pushback wasn't where I thought it would be and wasn't where it needed to be, simple as that."
Not that Montana was completely overwhelmed the final three sets of the match. The second set was tied 19-19 before UND scored three straight points to take control, and behind the serving of redshirt freshman Tess Hellerud, Montana rolled to a 7-1 lead at the start of set three.
But from that point on, North Dakota outscored Montana 49-27 to win going away.
"I wrote it on the board (in the locker room)," said Wagner. "You don't always get what you wish for, you get what your work for. And that pretty much sums it up.
"We put the work in last week, but we didn't outwork the other team tonight. We were tentative, and I didn't expect that."
The loss overshadowed the continued high-level play of redshirt junior middle blocker Capri Richardson, who had a team-high 14 kills on .448 hitting and three blocks. Redshirt senior Natalie Jones had eight kills and a team-high six blocks.
But an off night passing the ball led to an off night setting the ball, and that limited the production of Montana's left-side hitters. Sophomore Claire McCown, Hellerud and freshman Janell Sparks combined for 17 kills, but they came on .000 hitting.
Faith Dooley had a match-high 18 kills on .562 hitting to lead North Dakota. Chelsea Moser, the reigning Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, had 11 kills and 10 blocks, and Nikki Husfeldt had 49 assists.
Montana will host Northern Colorado (8-7, 1-2 BSC) Saturday at 7 p.m. The Bears, who got off to an 0-2 start in league last week at home, roughed up Montana State Friday night, 25-15, 25-15, 25-12 on .398 hitting.
