Montana
South Alabama
Griz drop second straight five-set match
9/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Box Score
The Montana volleyball team lost its second five-set decision of the day Friday evening when the Grizzlies lost 3-2 to South Alabama at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic in Laramie. Montana fell in five sets to Ball State earlier in the day.
The Grizzlies (0-5), who hit .292 and had four players reach double-figure kills, had their best offensive outing of the season, but it wasn't enough to keep up with the Jaguars (1-4), who put down 19 more kills than Montana and had two players reach 20.
"We played consistent with the way we played earlier today," said UM coach Jerry Wagner. "Our offense is coming around, but so did theirs."
Sophomore Claire McCown had 18 kills on .255 hitting, and redshirt junior Capri Richardson had a big match with 13 kills on .545 hitting and five blocks.
Sophomore Michelle Robinson had 11 kills on .435 hitting, freshman Janell Sparks had her best outing of the young season with 12 kills on .250 hitting and four blocks, and freshman libero Taylor Schile had a season-high 26 digs.
It wasn't quite enough to keep up with South Alabama, which won 25-22, 24-26, 27-25, 22-25, 15-8. Mechell Daniel totaled 24 kills on .352 hitting for the Jaguars, Jessica Lewis had 20 kills.
"Every team has things they go to that allow them to be pretty good, and we just were not able to slow down a couple of their better players," added Wagner. "We didn't make enough adjustments blocking-wise that would have allowed us to have a continued presence at the net."
After pulling out a tight win in the second set, Montana was in position to go up 2-1 when the Grizzlies built leads of 22-18 and 24-21 in the third set. A pair of kills by Daniel made it 24-23, and a service ace pulled South Alabama even.
Montana went up 25-24 on a Jaguar service error, but back-to-back kills by Daniel and a kill from Symone Stephenson gave South Alabama the victory.
Consecutive kills by Richardson late in the fourth set helped the Grizzlies, who hit .250 or better all five sets, even the score at 2-2.
In Montana's morning match, Ball State jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth set. A few hours later the Grizzlies dug themselves holes of 6-1 and 9-2 against the Jaguars and never gave themselves a chance to win.
"We had plenty of nice performances out there today," said Wagner, "but we're just making things really tough on ourselves when we can't find a way to make a key play here or there."
Senior Kelsey Schile totaled 29 assists for Montana, sophomore Raegan Lindsey had 22 and a match-high three service aces. Though the Grizzlies were winless on the day, the setters helped Montana hit .258 in its two matches.
Montana will face host Wyoming Saturday at noon. The Cowgirls, who defeated South Alabama in straight sets Friday afternoon, are 5-0 on the season and defeated the Grizzlies 3-0 last Saturday at the Montana Invitational.
