Griz down Eagles for first Big Sky win

Saturday, October 17

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

5-15, 1-7BSC

Eastern Washington *

12-7, 7-1BSC

Eastern Washington

Montana

10/17/2015 11:19:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Closure. Finally.

Montana rallied from a 13-9 deficit in the fifth set and fought off two Eastern Washington match points to pick up its first Big Sky Conference victory of the season Saturday night at the West Auxiliary Gym and hand the North Division-leading Eagles their first league loss.

And though it was a 7-0 team facing a 0-7 squad, it hardly felt like an upset. Montana (5-15, 1-7 BSC) out-hit and more importantly out-blocked Eastern Washington (12-7, 7-1 BSC) to win 19-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-16, 20-18.

"The girls came out and stayed loose. I loved it. It was a really good match. Both sides came out and played well," said first-year coach Brian Doyon. "I don't think we elevated our game as much as played the game we know we can play."

After giving away a 12-10 lead in the fifth set in Thursday's 3-2 loss to Idaho, Montana looked absolutely veteran in rallying past the Eagles. Trailing 13-9, the Grizzlies made just a single error the rest of the set to close the first half of their league schedule with a win.

(10/18/2015) VB: vs. Eastern Washington (10.17.15)

"It sounds weird to say, but the fifth set on Thursday helped us in this fifth set," said Doyon. "They understood that this is end-game, and that we needed to stay loose and play a little more error-free.

"The girls executed our blocking schemes to get some big blocks at the end, and we had some really nice swings to put the ball away."

Senior outside hitter Hannah Sackett, who swung with confidence all match long, no matter her location on the court, no matter the pressure of the moment, totaled 31 kills on .351 hitting.

And she was at her best when her team most needed her to be. She had seven kills on .375 hitting in the fifth set. Her back-to-back kills out of a timeout with Montana trailing 13-9 sparked the Grizzlies' comeback.

"Seventy-seven attempts? Thirty-one kills on .351 hitting? That's big time. Hannah was awesome for us tonight," said Doyon. "I know she felt bad about Thursday's loss, and that she wanted more on her shoulders tonight. I'm just really happy with her."

Freshman outside hitter Lia Gaogao added a season-high 18 kills and five blocks on a night Eastern Washington kept Montana's middles mostly quiet offensively.

Junior Raegan Lindsey had 55 assists and a team-high 20 digs, and senior middle blocker Capri Richardson, held to just eight kills, had seven blocks to help the Grizzlies to an 11.5-4 blocking advantage.

The Eagles entered the match on a roll, having dropped just four sets while opening Big Sky 7-0, and they looked the part early on. EWU hit .394 in the first set and built a 19-9 lead before cruising to the win.

"The first set we weren't executing the game plan like we had hoped," said Doyon, whose team had 3.5 blocks in the second set once it got a handle on Eastern's offense. The Eagles hit just .044 in the second set and .143 over the final four.

Montana, at one time down 19-14, trailed most of set three but nearly made a comeback. The Grizzlies closed to within 23-22 but had an ill-timed service error and fell 25-22.

Montana, which hit .317 in the fourth set and .321 in the fifth, used the momentum of that near rally to handily win set four, then made the big plays in set five to defeat Eastern Washington for fourth time in the teams' last five meetings.

A service ace by Lindsey put Montana up 14-13 in the fifth, but kills by Ana Jakovljevic gave the Eagles a 15-14 lead and their first match-point opportunity.

Eastern Washington gifted Montana an attack error to even the match at 15-15, and Gaogao put down a kill to fight off another match point and even things at 17-17.

Gaogao put the Grizzlies up 19-18 with a kill, and another EWU attack error gave Montana the victory.

The Grizzlies' prime-time players were huge the entire match, but Doyon also used plenty of his bench to find the right combinations at the right time.

After starting the match at middle blocker, freshman Hailey Jackson later in the match started subbing for Lindsey, which left Montana without a setter on the floor but gave the Grizzlies more of a presence at the net on the right side.

Sophomore Brianna Gardner spelled Jackson in the middle and had five kills on .250 hitting and four blocks. Sophomore Brielle Rolle, redshirt freshman Rachel DeArman and freshman Cassie Laramee also saw action.

"We moved Hailey out of the middle and over to the right side to block for Raegan, and that was huge," said Doyon. "It slowed their offense down significantly. And Bri came in for Hailey in the middle and did a nice job."

Jakovljevic had 17 kills for Eastern Washington, Ryann Ensrud totaled 38 digs.

Montana will play its next four matches on the road, starting next week at Portland State and Sacramento State. The Grizzlies will play the Vikings at 8 p.m. (MT) on Thursday, the Hornets at 2 p.m. (MT) on Saturday.