Griz unable to finish off Vandals

Thursday, October 15

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

4-15, 0-7BSC

Idaho *

7-12, 4-3BSC

Idaho

Montana

10/15/2015 11:07:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana volleyball team built a 2-1 lead on Idaho Thursday night at the West Auxiliary Gym and led 12-10 in the fifth set, but the Grizzlies were unable to finish and get their first Big Sky Conference win of the season. The Vandals rallied for a 25-22, 22-25, 25-27, 25-22, 15-13 victory.

After Idaho (7-12, 4-3 BSC) built a 9-7 lead in the fifth set, the teams traded 5-1 runs to end the match. Sparked by three kills from redshirt freshman Mykaela Hammer, Montana (4-15, 0-7 BSC) went up 12-10. The Vandals answered right back to give the Grizzlies their seventh straight loss.

"I thought we played a complete game tonight. We were in it the entire match and had it tied at 13s. That's right where we want to be," said first-year coach Brian Doyon. "But fifth sets are always a gamble. A kill here or there changes the outcome."

The loss puts a stain on what was Montana's best match since starting its Big Sky schedule. The Grizzlies hit .251, had five players record 10 or more kills and blocked mostly evenly with Idaho.

(10/16/2015) VB: vs. Idaho (10.15.15)

"We did things really well tonight. We executed the game plan, and the girls came out and battled hard," said Doyon. "We got some transition points, which means we got some great digs, and we got some good blocks.

"It's always disappointing to lose, but the team is excited about the way it's playing and coming together. And I'm really excited about things, regardless of what our win-loss record is."

The players Montana has been relying on, senior outside hitter Hannah Sackett and senior middle blocker Capri Richardson, were on their games Thursday night. Sackett had a match-high 19 kills on .275 hitting, and Richardson added 14 kills and a team-high five blocks.

What the Grizzlies had been lacking and what kept them in it to the final points Thursday was the play of Hammer and freshman outside hitter Lia Gaogao. Hammer, getting it done on the right side, had 16 kills, double her previous season high. Gaogao added a season-high 12 kills and 11 digs.

"Lia and Mykaela had huge matches for us," said Doyon. "Lia got 33 attempts and hit .242. That's a great night. Mykaela had 29 attempts and hit .276. And that's a great night for her.

"Our game plan was to really push our right sides and make their left sides have to play defense against us. Mykaela did a great job of doing that."

Idaho scored the final three points of the opening set to go up 1-0, but Montana fought back to take the next two. The Grizzlies were in control through the back half of set two and finally finished off set three on their fourth set-point opportunity.

The Vandals built a 24-18 lead in set four before a late coaching move by Doyon almost allowed his team to come back. With Idaho repeatedly hitting over 5-foot-6 setter Raegan Lindsey, Doyon replaced her with 6-foot-3 Brianna Gardner, who hadn't played previously in the match.

Gardner got a kill her first point in the match, assist: Michelle Robinson, and later teamed with freshman middle blocker Hailey Jackson to make it 24-22, but that would be as close as the Grizzlies would get.

"We made a blocking sub at the end to get Bri on the right side. She got some blocks and got us back into it," Doyon said.

"They were hitting over Raegan quite a bit. We were getting digs off of it, so it wasn't bad. We just wanted to slow down their offense a little more and get a block or two and see if we could transition that way."

In the fifth set, a Hammer kill put Montana up 13-12 and forced an Idaho timeout. The Vandals finished off the match with a kill, a Griz attack error and a kill from Sarah Sharp, who had 18 kills on .333 hitting and six blocks.

Lindsey had a career-high 66 assists and a pair of blocks, and nearly had a solo block on one of Idaho's hard-hitting left sides early in the match. Jackson finished with a season-high 10 kills on .400 hitting and three blocks, junior libero Sadie Ahearn had 21 digs, her most since the opening match of the season.

Montana will face Big Sky North Division leader Eastern Washington (12-6, 7-0 BSC) Saturday at 7 p.m.