Griz at home seeking first Big Sky win

The Montana volleyball team will wrap up a four-match home stand this week when it hosts Idaho and Eastern Washington at the West Auxiliary Gym. The Grizzlies will play the Vandals on Thursday and the Eagles on Saturday. Both matches start at 7 p.m.

Eastern Washington plays at Montana State Thursday night. Idaho faces the Bobcats Saturday night.

Where they stand: Montana (4-14, 0-6 BSC) enters the final week of the first half of the Big Sky Conference schedule still seeking its first league win. ... Idaho (6-12, 3-3 BSC) is tied for third with Northern Colorado in the North Division standings and on the safe side of the early tournament bubble. ... Eastern Washington (11-6, 6-0 BSC) is atop the North Division standings and tied with unbeaten South Division leader Idaho State for the overall race to host the league tournament next month.

What's at stake: For Eastern Washington, which was picked eighth in the preseason coaches' poll and went through an early-season coaching change, the perks that come with starting 6-0: first place in the division, tied atop the overall standings, in the early discussion of tournament hosts.

For Idaho, the chance to put a little more separation between it and two of the four teams below it in the league standings as teams start jockeying for tournament position.

For Montana, the opportunity to pick up its first league win of the season and snap a six-match losing streak. And don't even start in on tournament talk. First-year coach Brian Doyon wants his team focused on today's practice and nothing more.

"Our main focus is just getting the team better every day," he said. "It's getting this team to move as a group in the same direction and give ourselves a chance to get a win our next match out."

The week's 10 storylines:

1. After two matches at home this week, Montana will be on the road the next two weeks, first at Portland State and Sacramento State, then at Eastern Washington and Idaho. Nothing easy about that.

Which makes getting that breakthrough win this week that much more important.

"All of our matches have been important, but the way it's set up, with us without a win and on the road the next two weeks, these are particularly important," said Doyon, who's had consistent practice time with his team the last week-plus for the first time since August's preseason.

"The training we've had at home has been great. The team has been responding really well. I think we're figuring some things out and have worked out quite a few kinks."

2. Idaho setter Meredith Coba is one opposing player you should cheer for. Last November, 12 days after toying with Montana in a 3-0 sweep in Missoula, the Big Sky's former top setter tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus, and fractured her femur while the Vandals were playing North Dakota.

She was back by the team's 2015 opener, at Hawaii, and she is now playing regularly in Idaho's 6-2 system. Don't be afraid to cheer for her when starters are introduced Thursday night. She's earned it.

3. Montana's six Big Sky Conference opponents have hit .273 against the Grizzlies, which makes winning difficult. Montana has just 11 fewer kills than those six opponents but 51 more attack errors. The team's .182 hitting percentage in league is a big reason the Grizzlies have just three sets win in six matches.

In league matches, Montana ranks last in opponent hitting percentage and in the bottom three in both blocks and digs.

"We haven't been getting the blocks, but we've been fine with our digging," said Doyon. "I think we're doing a good job on part of the defensive side.

"One thing we need to do is slow down the other teams' key hitters. We haven't been able to slow them down well enough yet."

4. Junior libero Sadie Ahearn recorded 36 digs in Montana's 3-0 losses to Northern Arizona and Southern Utah last week, an average of 6.0 per set. It's a small sample size -- the national leaders have been doing it for an entire season -- but only one player in NCAA Division I is averaging more than six digs per set.

"She's doing a great job holding down the fort back there," said Doyon. "Picking up balls, getting the tips, getting the big-time digs. We're not getting the blocks right now, but we're getting the digs.

"Sadie is doing a huge job helping us get the transition opportunities. Now it's up to our attackers to manage the ball and put it away on second- and third-ball opportunities."

In league matches, Ahearn's 4.57 digs rank sixth in the Big Sky.

5. Montana out-blocked Northern Colorado 10-7 when those teams met in Greeley on Oct. 3. No kidding. In their next match the Grizzlies got out-blocked by Northern Arizona 13-0, then two nights later 12-4 by Southern Utah. What gives?

"We matched up really well against Northern Colorado," said Doyon. "We really focused on seeing their hitters, knowing where their hitters were going and figuring out what they can do. And they got into a little bit of a pattern, and that allowed us to set up a really good block.

"We have to be able to do that again this weekend. Both of these teams distribute the ball a little more evenly, so blocks are going to be harder to come by. Hopefully we can get the digs and transition opportunities we've been getting."

6. Eastern Washington is now under interim head coach Michael King, after Wade Benson stepped down into a non-traveling assistant coach position last month. King was the program's interim head coach in 2014 during Benson's leave of absence following treatment for throat cancer.

7. Speaking of the Eagles, they are 6-0 in league, but are they for real? They are hitting at the net (.246 in league) and defending at the net (.135), but five of their first six Big Sky matches were at home. A week from Thursday EWU plays at Idaho State. That might give the league a better idea.

8. Senior middle blocker Capri Richardson continues to be on a tear. Her hitting percentages the last four matches: .357, .417, .435, .467. Her season .348 hitting percentage ranks second in the Big Sky behind the .358 of Southern Utah's Ann Clappier.

Richardson was second-team All-Big Sky Conference last season. Depending on how the team ends up doing, she might get some first-team looks as a senior.

"Capri has been really solid. She's doing a good job taking some big swings and challenging the other team. They're double-blocking her, and she's still being able to get kills. She's stepped up big time for us. We hope she can continue to ride that wave through the rest of the season," said Doyon.

"Brianna Gardner and Hailey Jackson have also done a nice job. We've been relying more and more on our middles to get kills for us and help soften up the pins."

9. Montana has not beaten Idaho since 1999. ... Since going 1-24 against Eastern Washington between 1996 and 2008, the Grizzlies have gone 7-6 against the Eagles.

10. Shout out to Northwestern, former program of first-year Griz assistant coach Bryce Williams, for knocking off No. 3 Penn State Saturday night. And now the Cubs have advanced to the National League Championship Series? Good living on the north side.

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Players Mentioned

Sadie Ahearn

Brianna Gardner

Hailey Jackson

Capri Richardson

University of Montana Athletics