Volleyball team = road warriors

The Montana volleyball team will make the first of two straight long road trips this week when it travels for matches at Northern Colorado and North Dakota.

The Grizzlies will play the Bears at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Greeley and the Fighting Hawks on Saturday in Grand Forks at 11 a.m. (MT).

Montana will be right back on the road next week, with matches at Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.

The reward: Four straight home matches against North Dakota, Northern Colorado, Portland State and Montana State before closing out the regular season with a trip to Idaho and Eastern Washington.

Tall task: Three of the four teams Montana will be facing on the road the next two weeks were picked first (Northern Arizona), second (Northern Colorado) and third (North Dakota) in August's preseason coaches' poll.

Where they stand: Montana has dropped its last four matches and is 4-12 overall, 1-5 in the Big Sky Conference. The Grizzlies are in sixth place in the North Division standings, 11th overall ahead of only Southern Utah, which has yet to win a league match.

Northern Colorado is 10-8 overall, 4-2 in the Big Sky. The Bears are tied with Eastern Washington in the North Division standings. Both are trailing 5-1 North Dakota.

North Dakota is 13-8 overall and has won six of its last seven. The Fighting Hawks are 5-1 in league, which has them atop the North Division standings and tied with Northern Arizona and Sacramento State in the overall race.

Coverage: Both matches can be followed through video at Eversport.tv or through live stats. Links to all services can be found at gogriz.com.

Trending (Montana): Mixed. The Grizzlies' four-match losing streak would indicate a team going south, but the eyeball test shows a team that is getting better by the match, regardless of results.

At .110, Montana is still last in the Big Sky in hitting percentage, but the team's offensive balance is giving its setters more options.

"We've been talking about generating more offense, and we're getting better at that each week," said coach Brian Doyon, whose team hit .281 in its first-set win over Idaho State and .171, .129 and .278 in the last three sets of Saturday's 3-1 loss to Weber State.

"Those are significant strides from what we were doing earlier in the season. We're doing a very good job of generating offense and playing at a higher competitive level. We're seeing a lot of successes as the young players on this team get more mature."

Trending (Northern Colorado): Up. The Bears may have lost at home to Sacramento State in four tight sets on Saturday, but UNC entered that match having won six of seven to establish itself as a threat not only in the North Division but the overall standings.

What to watch for: As usual, the Bears are one of the Big Sky Conference's top offensive teams, hitting .216 for the season. Montana is allowing .242 hitting. Can the Grizzlies slow down the Bears enough to give themselves a chance at the end of sets?

Trending (North Dakota): Way up. The Fighting Hawks went on the road two weeks ago and knocked off both Idaho and Eastern Washington in four sets. Then they returned home last week to hand Sacramento State its first league loss before knocking off Portland State in four sets.

What to watch for: Like it was last year, North Dakota is a fantastic defensive team. The Fighting Hawks dig more balls than any other Big Sky team and rank second in blocks behind only Weber State. UND complements that with good offense (.216).

Montana-Northern Colorado history: The Bears lead the all-time series 13-9 and have won the teams' last four meetings. Montana has won just twice on its 10 visits to Greeley, most recently in 2013.

Montana-North Dakota history: The Fighting Hawks hold an 11-1 lead and have won the last 11 meetings since the Grizzlies won the teams' first matchup in five sets in 2009. Montana has won just a single set in the teams' last 10 matchups.

Most recently: Montana dropped a pair of home matches last week, falling in four sets to both Idaho State and Weber State.

On Thursday, Chloe Hirst had 24 kills on .440 hitting to lead the Bengals to a 17-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-20 win. After being held to .000 hitting in the opening set, ISU hit .282 the rest of the way.

The teams were tied at 19-19 in set four before four straight Idaho State points decided the match.

Mykaela Hammer had eight kills on .333 hitting and a season-high eight blocks.

On Saturday, Montana was again just a few points from forcing a fifth set, but the Wildcats won 25-17, 20-25, 25-17, 25-22.

As previously noted, after a sluggish start (-.051 hitting in set one), the Grizzlies hit .196 over the final three sets against the team that leads the Big Sky (and ranks 12th nationally) in opponent hitting percentage (.150).

Montana had three players with double-digit kills -- Missy Huddleston and Alexis Urbach with 11, Lia Gaogao with 10 -- for the second time this season.

The hot list:

* Sadie Ahearn: The senior libero has seven straight matches with double-digit digs. She matched a season high with 20 against Idaho State and has 993 for her career. With another 130 digs this season Ahearn will crack the career top 10 in program history. Chance of getting there: 88 percent.

* Raegan Lindsey: With 1,615 assists, the senior setter is 77 from moving into 10th on the Montana career list. Chance of getting there: 99 percent.

* Alexis Urbach: The sophomore outside hitter has put down eight or more kills in eight straight matches. She is averaging a team-leading 2.83 kills per set in league on .227 hitting.

* Ashley Watkins: The freshman setter had an 18-kill, 10-dig double-double against Weber State, her third of the season.

* Lia Gaogao: The sophomore outside hitter had a season-high 10 kills on .364 hitting against Weber State.

* Missy Huddleston: The freshman outside hitter had 10 kills against Idaho State, 11 against Weber State, giving her double figures in back-to-back matches for the second time this season. She also had a season-high eight digs in both matches.

* Mykaela Hammer: The sophomore middle blocker had 16 kills and just three errors on 36 attacks against Idaho State and Weber State to hit .361.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* "He's cut! He's cut! The Russian is cut!" (Rocky IV): Eastern Washington proved Northern Arizona is indeed beatable, handing the Lumberjacks their first league loss last Thursday in Cheney in four sets. NAU needed five sets before picking up a win over Idaho on Saturday at Moscow.

* Three teams are tied atop the overall standings. Northern Arizona and Sacramento State are 5-1 in the South Division, North Dakota is 5-1 in the North Division.

* Southern Utah, at 0-6 in league, 2-16 overall, is the only Big Sky team without a conference win. ... Weber State is 9-0 against non-conference opponents, 3-3 against Big Sky opponents.

Thursday's schedule: Idaho at Weber State, Montana State at North Dakota, Sacramento State at Southern Utah, Montana at Northern Colorado, Eastern Washington at Idaho State, Portland State at Northern Arizona

Non-Montana match to monitor: Eastern Washington at Idaho State. The Bengals have quietly won three straight, all on the road. The Eagles are coming off home wins over Northern Arizona and Southern Utah and are trying to keep pace with North Dakota and Northern Colorado in the North Division.

Saturday's schedule: Montana at North Dakota, Sacramento State at Northern Arizona, Montana State at Northern Colorado, Portland State at Southern Utah, Weber State at Idaho State, Eastern Washington at Idaho

Non-Montana match to monitor: Both Northern Arizona and Sacramento State should win on Thursday, setting up a matchup between 6-1 teams.

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Players Mentioned

Sadie Ahearn

Mykaela Hammer

Missy Huddleston

Raegan Lindsey

Alexis Urbach

Ashley Watkins

University of Montana Athletics