Final home matches this week for volleyball team

The Montana volleyball team will play its final home matches of the season this week when it hosts Portland State and Montana State.

The Grizzlies (4-18, 1-11 BSC) will face the Vikings (14-10, 6-6 BSC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the West Auxiliary Gym and the Bobcats (5-16, 3-9 BSC) in Dahlberg Arena at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Montana will conclude its season next week on the road at Idaho and Eastern Washington.

What's at stake (Montana): While the Grizzlies have not yet been mathematically eliminated from making the eight-team Big Sky tournament, it would at a minimum require ending the season on a four-match winning streak, then getting a lot of help. Montana's last four-match winning streak came in 2013. Before that: 2009.

What's at stake (Portland State): After missing the Big Sky tournament last year for the first time since 2001, the Vikings are tied for sixth in the overall standings and in good position to make a return to the postseason in 2016. The Vikings play at Sacramento State on Saturday, then close at home with Weber State and Idaho State.

What's at stake (Montana State): The Bobcats have just two more league wins than the Grizzlies, but it has them only one game behind Idaho and Weber State for the final Big Sky tournament spot. MSU has the tiebreaker over Weber but faces a tough finish: home with Sacramento State on Thursday, then road matches at Montana, Eastern Washington and Idaho.

Bring food, get in free: Fans bringing five or more cans of food to Friday's match will be admitted to Dahlberg Arena free of charge. The donations will be given to the Missoula Food Bank and help Montana in its annual "Can the Cats" food drive competition against Montana State.

This week's storylines

1. Senior Night -- Friday night will be the final home match for senior libero Sadie Ahearn and senior setter Raegan Lindsey.

Ahearn, who played in her 100th career match on Saturday against Northern Colorado, is a fifth-year senior who redshirted her first season in 2012. Her 1,106 career digs leave her 17 away from moving into the top 10 in program history.

Lindsey, who has played in 108 matches, already ranks No. 10 in career assists with 1,727. The fourth-year player has missed just two matches in her career.

"We have two phenomenal seniors on this team, great kids and hard workers who have been the backbone of the program for a while now," said UM coach Brian Doyon.

Both players are three-time Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections, Ahearn as a sociology major, Lindsey as a marketing major.

"Sadie and Raegan have been invaluable to me," said Doyon, who is in his second year leading the program. "The energy and passion they have for the game and their drive has been infectious. It's helped me build this program, and they leave that legacy behind.

"As captains and seniors, they've been great role models for our younger kids. We have eight younger kids in the program that all look up to the seniors and all that they do."

2. A change in home venue -- Montana will be playing its first match inside Dahlberg Arena since 2009 when Montana hosts Montana State on Friday night. The last match in Dahlberg was also against Montana State and resulted in a 3-2 loss and a vow from the program's previous coach never to return.

Doyon has other ideas.

"I would like to start playing in there more often," he said, "because it's a great volleyball venue. I like the comfort and the seating for the fans.

"I also think it's well-suited for volleyball, because volleyball is best played in a big, open area. It's got high ceilings and big, open spaces. I like the feel of the game when we're down there. I think the fans will really enjoy it."

3. First look at Portland State -- Even though the season is almost over, because of the Big Sky's unbalanced schedule, Thursday night will be the first meeting between Montana and Portland State.

The Vikings have some similarities with both Sacramento State and Northern Colorado. The three teams lead the Big Sky in kills.

The Grizzlies were swept earlier this season by the Hornets, who had 13 more kills than Montana. In two 3-0 losses to the Bears, the Grizzlies were out-killed by 23.

"Portland State is a strong attacking team that generates a lot of points from its offense," said Doyon. "They've got a number of hitters who are doing really well, so serve-pass will be a very big part of the game.

"We've been doing well with our serve. If we can keep it up, I'm hoping we can cause them some difficulty."

Montana, sparked by Sadie Ahearn, has also been doing better with its defense. In Friday's 3-1 loss to North Dakota, the Grizzlies had a season-high 72 digs. Montana had 59 more in Saturday's 3-0 loss to Northern Colorado, the most for the team this season in a three-set match.

Ahearn has had 18 or more digs in each of the last five matches.

"I think both teams match up fairly well when it comes to floor defense," said Doyon. "Sadie's been doing a great job in the back row, so it should be a nice defensive battle. If we can score some points in transition, I think we have a good shot."

Portland State leads the all-time series against Montana 56-16, though the Grizzlies have won the last two matchups.

4. Second look at Montana State -- When Montana and Montana State met in Bozeman on Oct. 1, the Bobcats came away with a 22-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-22 victory. The Grizzlies hit .172 in their first-set win, then hit .021 over the final three sets to finish at .056 for the match.

"We got ourselves into a little bit of passing trouble over there, and that slowed our offense down," said Doyon. "I'm hoping we can come out on Friday and get our offense going. If we do, I think it will be a very good match."

The two teams rank last in the Big Sky in both hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage.

The teams are tied 54-54 in their series history.

5. Losing streak reaches 10 -- After getting swept at home last weekend by North Dakota and Northern Colorado, Montana saw its losing streak reach 10. That's the longest losing streak for the program since the 2014 team opened the season 0-12.

"All the players on this team are competitive and want to win, so not having success has been difficult," said Doyon.

"Because it's on the court, the wins and losses get a little more amplified, but I think the improvements I've seen throughout the season in our young athletes have been terrific. I love the way the team has come in and fought and battled and trained, regardless of wins and losses.

"These next two weeks will be character tests. Can we continue to fight? Can we continue to play hard and do well? I don't have any doubts about this group doing that, and that's the great building block I get to work with over the coming years."

6. Teams finally find an answer for Urbach -- Sophomore outside hitter Alexis Urbach, a transfer from UC Riverside, had a string of impressive performances come to an end last weekend.

Her streak of hitting better than .200 came to an end at six when North Dakota forced her into 12 hitting errors and a .025 percentage. Her streak of pounding out 11 or more kills also ended at six when Northern Colorado limited her to just two on Saturday on -.176 hitting.

Still, Urbach leads the team in both kills (2.45/s) and hitting percentage (.188) in her first year in the program.

"She is someone who has been there and done that in her career, and has a little more experience, so it just helps our team steady out with as young as we are," said Doyon. "We count on those players to lead us in a lot of ways. It takes some of the load off the younger players and helps free them up."

Around the Big Sky Conference: The battle atop the league standings is delightfully tight, with North Division leader North Dakota and South Division leader Northern Arizona both holding 10-2 Big Sky records with just two weeks of conference matches remaining.

Beyond that, UND is up just one in the North on second-place Northern Colorado, which has a 3-0 sweep of the Fighting Hawks to its credit. In the South, Sacramento State is just one behind NAU. Both teams swept the other on their home floors in their head-to-head matchups.

The match of the year might be on Thursday, Nov. 10, when North Dakota plays at Northern Arizona in the two division leaders' only head-to-head matchup of the season.

UND hosts Eastern Washington and Idaho in Grand Forks this weekend, teams it beat on the road last month. After playing at Northern Arizona next Thursday, North Dakota closes with a home match against Northern Colorado, which might carry its own significance.

Northern Arizona faces a tougher schedule this weekend, with road matches at Weber State and Idaho State. The Bengals have won eight of their last nine matches and could shake things up on Saturday night.

As for Weber State, the Wildcats will be in desperation mode. After entering league 9-0, WSU is clinging to the final tournament spot and has little room for error.

Upcoming: Montana will play at Idaho next Friday at 8 p.m. (MT) and at Eastern Washington next Saturday at 9 p.m. (MT).

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sadie Ahearn

Raegan Lindsey

Alexis Urbach

University of Montana Athletics