Griz rally, finish second in Kentucky

Saturday, September 17

Morehead, Ky.

Noon (MT)

Montana

3-7

Morehead State

4-9

Montana

Morehead State

Cassie Laramee and Lia Gaogao were named to the all-tournament team

9/17/2016 4:09:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana volleyball team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat host Morehead State in five sets on Saturday afternoon in the final match of MSU's Comfort Inn-vitational in Morehead, Ky.

The Grizzlies (3-7) won 21-25, 14-25, 25-22, 25-12, 15-8 to finish 2-1 at the tournament and place second behind Kent State, which won all three of its matches.

After digging itself a two-set hole, a young Montana team responded like veterans against the Eagles, hitting .333 over the final three sets. The Grizzlies had 21 kills and just three attack errors in sets four and five to hit .383.

"The girls stepped up and played really well," said second-year coach Brian Doyon. "We started to serve better and got ourselves in system.

"And defensively we created a lot of opportunities to score because we were playing good defense behind our serve, and the team did a really nice job transitioning and attacking after that."

Using a nearly complete squad of 12 players for the first time this season, Montana had its three best offensive performances of the season at the tournament, hitting .179 in Friday's 3-0 loss to Kent State, .290 in Friday's 3-0 sweep of Coppin State and .205 on Saturday on Morehead State's home court.

Sophomores Mykaela Hammer and Alexis Urbach, and freshman Missy Huddleston all had 11 kills on Saturday to lead Montana, which opens Big Sky Conference play next week with home matches against Eastern Washington and Idaho.

"I think it was important for us to come out and play better volleyball this weekend than we have been, and most of that was because we've got some players back," said Doyon. "That made a big difference in our offense."

Morehead State scored the final four points of the opening set to win 25-21, then closed out the second by scoring 13 of the final 17 points.

But Montana wasn't fazed. The Grizzlies built a 22-14 lead in the third set before holding on for a 25-22 win, then cruised through the final two sets to improve to 2-0 this season in five-set matches.

"Our setters did a good job of moving the ball around," said Doyon, who uses both senior Raegan Lindsey and freshman Ashley Watkins at that position. Lindsey finished with 27 assists and 12 digs, Watkins had 13 assists and a team-high three service aces.

"Their ability to distribute the ball and read what was happening with Morehead State's defense and setup gave our hitters opportunities to put the ball away, and our hitters took care of their job. We had a very nice effort from all of our hitters."

Five different players totaled eight or more kills for the Grizzlies.

Senior libero Sadie Ahearn had a team-high 15 digs, and Hammer had six blocks as Montana out-blocked an opponent for just the second time this season.

Sophomore Cassie Laramee had eight kills, nine digs and three blocks. Sophomore Lia Gaogao came off the bench to add eight kills on .316 hitting and three blocks.

Laramee and Gaogao were named to the all-tournament team.

"Cassie and Lia really stepped up in this match," said Doyon. "Lia came in off the bench and had a really nice match. It's good to have her back out on the court after missing from our lineup for quite a while."

Huddleston averaged a team-high 2.82 kills per set in three tournament matches on .289 hitting.

"Missy settled in and did a really nice job for a freshman playing in a five-set match today," said Doyon. "They served her a lot, so she had that pressure on her. She did a good job."

Montana will host the Eagles on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the West Auxiliary Gym, the Vandals at 2 p.m. on Saturday.