Griz looking to lock down tournament spot this week
11/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Montana volleyball team will try to clinch a spot to next week's Big Sky Conference tournament when it hosts Idaho State and Montana State this week at the West Auxiliary Gym in its final regular-season matches.
The Grizzlies will play the Bengals on Thursday and the Bobcats on Saturday. Both matches are at 7 p.m.Where things stand: North Dakota (11-3 BSC), Idaho (11-3 BSC) and Northern Colorado (10-4 BSC) out of the Big Sky's North Division and Idaho State (13-1 BSC) and Northern Arizona (10-4 BSC) out of the South Division have qualified for the Big Sky tournament.
The final three tournament spots will be filled by a combination of four teams that are still alive: Montana (6-8 BSC), Portland State (6-8 BSC), Eastern Washington (5-9 BSC) and Southern Utah (5-9 BSC). The Grizzlies hold head-to-head tiebreakers over both PSU and SUU and are sitting in a good position.
All four teams have two league matches remaining. Portland State hosts Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington hosts Northern Colorado and North Dakota and Southern Utah plays at Portland State and Sacramento State.What's at stake (for Montana): The Grizzlies could go 0-2 this week and still make the tournament, but considering Montana is on a three-match losing streak -- all 3-0 sweeps -- that wouldn't be advised.
"I'd like us to win our way there," said UM coach Jerry Wagner.Montana's three-match losing streak has come against three teams already qualified for the tournament: Idaho at home and on the road at Northern Colorado and North Dakota last week.
The Grizzlies reached 20 points in just three of nine sets against the Vandals, Bears and UNC, but Wagner says those final scores are misleading."When you don't put balls away and don't win long rallies, it's going to look a lot different than it appears in the final score," he said.
"Our big thing now is keeping the team confident that we're capable of putting together long stretches where we're ending play earlier and winning some long rallies. When that's the case, we can have some great outcomes."There is also the matter of avoiding the No. 8 seed and a matchup against the home team in the quarterfinals. The tournament's No. 6 and 7 seeds wouldn't face the No. 1 seed until the championship match (assuming Idaho State made it through).
What's at stake (Idaho State): The Bengals have already clinched the Big Sky's South Division and tournament hosting rights. One more win would assure ISU the league's top overall record and the program's first outright title since 1990.What's at stake (Montana State): If Montana can't upset Idaho State Thursday night, Montana State could play the role of spoiler on Saturday and keep the Grizzlies out of the postseason (if other matches go a certain way). That's about all the Bobcats have left in a mostly forgettable season.
MSU is 5-21 overall, 2-12 in Big Sky matches and has just one true road victory this season, 3-0 at Southern Utah. Since 2005 Montana State is 26-124 in league matches with just one postseason appearance (in 2012).Saturday match notes: Senior night for Natalie Jones and Kelsey Schile. ... Part of the Can the Cats Food Drive. Bring five or more nonperishable food items and get in free. ... The match is sponsored by Karl Tyler Chevrolet and Cadillac. ... The match is part of the Brawl of the Wild Series, presented by Town Pump Food Stores and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. Montana State, with its cross country sweep of Montana, leads the 2014-15 series 2-1.
A continuation of 2013: Idaho State finished third in the Big Sky Conference last fall, then rolled to the tournament championship, with a 3-1 victory over No. 2 North Dakota in the semifinals and a 3-0 sweep of No. 1 Portland State (at PSU) in the championship match.Dating back to last season, Idaho State has won 22 of its last 24 matches against league opponents. The only losses: a five-set setback to Portland State last November and a five-set loss to Northern Colorado this season.
The only starter Idaho State lost off last year's team could have been a big one, 2012 Big Sky MVP Lori Mendenhall, the team's setter. But having everyone else back made the transition to redshirt sophomore setter Hayley Farrer smoother.She ranks third in the Big Sky in assists at 10.7/s, behind only Idaho's sublime Meredith Coba (11.2/s) and Northern Arizona's Jensen Barton (10.8/s).
"Their setter has done a great job of coming in and picking up where Mendenhall left off, and that's allowed them to not miss a beat," said Wagner.The first meeting: With Idaho State and Montana in different divisions, Thursday's match will be their first of the season.
When Montana and Montana State met back on Sept. 27 in Bozeman, it resulted in another classic Griz-Cat match.MSU hit .290 in the opening two sets to win 25-16, 25-21, but for the second time in three years, Montana stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to win and remain undefeated in Bozeman since 2005.
The Grizzlies held the Bobcats to .038 hitting in sets three and four to even the match at 2-2. In the fifth set, Montana broke free from a 9-9 deadlock with three straight points -- two coming on kills from Claire McCown -- and held on for a 15-12 victory.It improved Montana coach Jerry Wagner to 15-2 against Montana State and made the Grizzlies, who had won in five sets at Weber State two nights earlier, 2-0 in league play. They were two big road wins considering how tight things are in the standings today.
"What changed in that match was that we kept working on the things that were going to help us be more fluid and more consistent in our play," said Wagner."We were coming off a match where we'd done some things really well, so I felt the players knew it was coming. And it came along at the right time."
Who to watch for (Montana): Redshirt junior middle blocker Capri Richardson is having a huge conference season. She ranks fifth in the Big Sky in league matches in both hitting percentage (.352) and blocks (1.22/s), and should be on her way to second-team all-league honors.North Dakota's Faith Dooley is the only other player in the Big Sky to rank in the top five in both categories.
Who to watch for (Idaho State): Redshirt junior outside hitter Tressa Lyman, who was first-team All-Big Sky last year, is a strong candidate for MVP honors this season. She ranks second in the league in kills (3.57/s) on a solid hitting percentage (.223) for a left-side hitter.Who to watch for (Montana State): Junior middle blocker Natalee Godfrey is hitting .361 in league matches.
Upcoming: The Big Sky tournament or the offseason. If it's the former, the schedule for quarterfinal matches at Pocatello next Thursday: No. 7 vs. No. 2 at 11 a.m., No. 6 vs. No. 3 at 1:30 p.m., No. 5 vs. No. 4 at 5 p.m. and No. 8 vs. No. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
