Wyoming outlasts Montana in four sets

Saturday, September 5

Spokane, Wash.

6:00 PM (MT)

Montana

2-4

Wyoming

5-1

Montana

Wyoming

9/6/2015 1:57:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana volleyball team lost in four sets to Wyoming Saturday evening in the Grizzlies' final match of the Gonzaga Invitational in Spokane, 26-24, 26-28, 17-25, 20-25.

Montana (2-4) went winless at the tournament, falling to three of the better teams in the region. The Grizzlies lost to Utah Friday evening and to Gonzaga Saturday morning.

"The girls played really well all weekend against three really good teams that challenged us. They laid it all on the line," said UM coach Brian Doyon.

Montana played Wyoming twice last season and got whipped in straight sets in both. On Saturday, the Grizzlies were one point away from taking the second set and going up 2-0. But the Cowgirls closed out the set with three straight points, then went on to take sets three and four.

Montana took 38 more swings than Wyoming but only had eight more kills. The Cowgirls hit .281, the Grizzlies .181, with senior Hannah Sackett putting down 18 kills, senior Capri Richardson 13 and sophomore Janell Sparks 11.

Silerolia Gaogao had nine kills and a season-high 14 digs, junior Raegan Lindsey finished with 31 assists and 17 digs, both season highs.

Montana rallied from a 24-22 deficit to win the opening set. Richardson started the 4-0 run with a kill, redshirt freshman Rachel DeArman ended the set with a service ace.

The Grizzlies took a 26-25 lead in the second set on a Sparks kill, putting them one point from a 2-0 lead, but a Wyoming kill and service ace, followed by a Montana ball-handling error allowed the Cowgirls to tie it 1-1.

Wyoming hit .357 in the third set and held Montana to .020 hitting in the fourth to improve to 5-1.

"We did some really nice things tonight," said Doyon. "We played some really nice defense, but in the end we just weren't able to terminate when we needed to."

Montana will face Temple, Duquesne and Binghamton next weekend at Temple's tournament in Philadelphia.