Griz open four-match home stand Friday

The Montana volleyball team will open a four-match home stand this weekend when it hosts North Dakota and Northern Colorado at the West Auxiliary Gym.

The Grizzlies (4-16, 1-9 BSC) will play the Fighting Hawks (17-9, 8-2 BSC) at 7 p.m. on Friday and the Bears (13-9, 7-3 BSC) at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Northern Colorado plays at Montana State on Friday night.

Montana at a glance: The Grizzlies will be trying to put an end to an eight-match losing streak that has them sitting in last place in the Big Sky Conference standings with three weeks left in the regular season.

North Dakota at a glance: The Fighting Hawks lead the Big Sky's North Division and are within one of South Division leader Northern Arizona (9-1 BSC) in the chase to host the league's postseason tournament Nov. 17-19.

Northern Colorado at a glance: The Bears are in second place in the North Division, just one win behind North Dakota, with one head-to-head victory over the Fighting Hawks. In the overall league standings, UNC is tied for third at 7-3 with Sacramento State and Idaho State of the South Division.

We meet again: Montana played North Dakota and Northern Colorado just two weeks ago on the road and fell in straight sets in both.

In the Grizzlies' 3-0 loss at Greeley, Montana hit .176, its second-best performance in league matches this season, but the Bears were better, hitting .355. Only Iowa (.358) and Texas-San Antonio (.416) have hit for a higher percentage against Montana this season.

Northern Colorado won 25-18, 25-21, 25-19, hitting better than .300 all three sets.

Two days later Montana lost 25-23, 25-16, 25-16 at North Dakota. The Grizzlies entered the match having dropped 15 straight sets to the Fighting Hawks and almost pulled out the opener against an uncharacteristically error-prone UND.

But they didn't, and from there it was all North Dakota. The Fighting Hawks had 34 kills and just seven attack errors in sets two and three to hit .321.

Sophomore outside hitter Alexis Urbach had 11 kills on .231 hitting against Northern Colorado, 11 kills on .318 hitting against North Dakota.

Most recently: Montana wrapped up its stretch of four straight road matches with a 3-1 loss at Southern Utah on Thursday and a 3-0 loss at Northern Arizona on Saturday.

With Thursday's match at SUU even at 1-1, Montana led 24-21 in the third, one point from going up 2-1. Behind four straight errors by the Grizzlies (two receive errors, two attack errors), the Thunderbirds scored five straight to win 26-24, then finished the match with a 25-19 win in set four.

In Saturday's 25-22, 25-14, 25-19 loss at Northern Arizona, Montana finished with 25 errors and a .105 hitting percentage. The Lumberjacks had just six errors to hit .342.

Ahearn closing in: With 64 in her last three matches, senior libero Sadie Ahearn is closing in on the Montana top-10 list for career digs. She has 1,069 for her career and needs 55 more to pass Claudia Houle, who totaled 1,123 while playing for three seasons (2004-06).

Lindsey closing in even faster: With 1,690 career assists, senior setter Raegan Lindsey needs just three to move past Michelle Hall (1985-86) and into 10th place in program history. With No. 9 Mary Pederson (1983-84) holding more than 2,000 assists, No. 10 is as high as Lindsey will go.

Three-dot notes: Montana had zero service errors at Northern Arizona, the first time that's happened this season. It came two days after recording nine at Southern Utah. ... The Grizzlies' 65 digs at Southern Utah was their second-highest total of the season behind the 70 they had in a five-setter against Arkansas-Little Rock. ... Sadie Ahearn has had 20 or more digs four times in the last six matches. ... Alexis Urbach has had six straight matches hitting .222 or better. ... Since putting down 21 kills on .409 hitting in matches against Weber State and Northern Colorado, Lia Gaogao has been limited to .027 hitting the last three matches.

Upcoming: Montana will host Portland State and Montana State next Thursday and Friday, then wrap up the season at Idaho and Eastern Washington Nov. 11-12.

Around the Big Sky Conference: Northern Arizona is still the team to beat, but with its next four matches on the road, followed by a home match against North Dakota, the Lumberjacks are going to have to earn it.

After going to Sacramento State and Portland State this week, it's off to Weber State and Idaho State next week.

The league's second-best team, North Dakota, is at Montana and Montana State this week, then plays three of its last four at home, starting with Eastern Washington and Idaho next week, then closing the regular season at home against Northern Colorado, two days after playing at NAU.

If the cut to make the eight-team Big Sky tournament had to be made today, Weber State, at 4-6 in league, would grab the final spot.

Thursday's schedule: WSU at EWU, ISU at UI, SUU at PSU, NAU at SAC

Thursday match to monitor: Northern Arizona at Sacramento State. Everybody from Grand Forks to Greeley to Pocatello is a Hornet fan on Thursday, hoping Sac State can hand the Lumberjacks a second league loss and tighten up the conference race.

Friday's schedule: UND at UM, UNC at MSU, UI at EWU

Friday match to monitor: Northern Colorado at Montana State. The Bobcats are starting to get frisky. After playing Northern Arizona tough at Flagstaff last week, MSU went to Cedar City and swept Southern Utah. It's modest success, but Montana State is 3-4 in its last seven.

Saturday's schedule: UNC at UM, UND at MSU, ISU at WSU, NAU at PSU, SUU at SAC

Saturday match to monitor: Idaho State at Weber State. The Bengals, who opened league 0-3, enter the week on a seven-match winning streak. That includes a pair of impressive five-set home wins last week against North Dakota and Northern Colorado. ISU trailed UND 2-0 before storming back for the win.

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Players Mentioned

Sadie Ahearn

Raegan Lindsey

Alexis Urbach

University of Montana Athletics