Another Griz team heading to Iowa

The Montana volleyball team will travel to Iowa State this week for three matches at the Cyclone Invitational in Ames.

The Grizzlies will play North Dakota State on Friday at 2:30 p.m. (MT), then face both Iowa and Iowa State on Saturday. They'll take on the Hawkeyes at 11:30 a.m. (MT), the Cyclones at 3 p.m. (MT).

Where they stand: Montana is 1-3. The Grizzlies opened the season going 1-2 at SMU's tournament in Dallas two weeks ago, which included a five-set win over Arkansas-Little Rock. In its single match last week, Montana fell at home in straight sets to Gonzaga, 25-18, 25-18, 25-9.

North Dakota State, picked second in the Summit League preseason poll, is 1-6 but coming off its first win of the season, a 3-0 sweep of Bradley in Fargo. One of the Bison's losses was in five sets at Big Sky Conference contender Northern Colorado.

Iowa is 6-1 and dropped just two sets in those six wins. The Hawkeyes' one loss came at home last weekend in straight sets against Butler. Iowa was picked for a 12th-place finish in the 14-team Big Ten, which has eight teams in this week's AVCA top 25 poll.

Iowa State is 3-2, with three straight-set victories and losses to No. 18 Creighton and last Friday at No. 1 Nebraska. The Cyclones were picked third in the Big 12 preseason poll, behind Texas and Kansas, teams ranked No. 3 and 4 in this week's national poll.

Coverage: All three of Montana's matches at the Cyclone Invitational can be tracked via live stats. The Grizzlies' match against host Iowa State on Saturday afternoon will have video streaming that is available for purchase.

History: Montana has gone 1-1 against North Dakota State, 0-2 against Iowa and 3-1 against Iowa State. Of those eight matches, only the Grizzlies' home loss to the Bison in 2008 has come within the last decade.

Montana outlook: In its home debut on Saturday, Montana fell in straight sets to an unbeaten Gonzaga team that is now 4-0. The Bulldogs used a balanced attack to hit .345 while limiting the Grizzlies to .040 hitting.

Montana was in sets one and two, trailing 15-13 in the opener and 17-14 in the second before Gonzaga pulled away to win both. The Bulldogs scored 16 of the match's final 19 points to win set three going away.

"Our athletes didn't like how it felt at the end of that match, because we played well in sets one and two," said coach Brian Doyon. "In sets one and two, we were doing a really good job."

It's been the team's offense that has been a limiter through the season's opening four matches. Montana is hitting .088, its opponents .298.

"One of the big things we're looking at is, can we start to generate offense?" said Doyon. "That's what we've been working on this week. Can we put a few more balls away? Can we get our pins loosened up and start getting kills? That's going to be a big thing going forward."

Montana will open the Cyclone Invitational with a North Dakota State team that will present a different challenge than will Saturday's two opponents.

"North Dakota State will be vastly different," said Doyon. "They play a very fast-tempo game. They move around a lot and use a lot of crossing patterns.

"We just need to recognize it and stay within our game. We need to maintain our composure and play the game in front of us and answer back."

Saturday's challenge will be huge. Literally. Iowa, which is hitting a healthy .301 through seven matches, has nine players six feet or taller. Iowa State also has nine six-footers.

"Iowa and Iowa State are big, physical teams," said Doyon. "They play at a really high level above the net, so we'll have to dig behind that as best we can.

"Offensively we need to move the ball around and do the things we can against the bigger players in front of us. We've got to find the open parts of the court instead of trying to hit right through the middle of the block."

Montana is averaging just 9.43 kills per set, more than a full kill behind anybody else in the Big Sky Conference statistics. That's not all on the hitters.

"We need to make sure we're keeping ourselves in system with our passing, and our setters need to make sure we're setting the ball that gives us the best opportunity to score," said Doyon.

"When we're in system, we need to take a big swing and try to put it away. We need to learn to be aggressive against teams, and that's a confidence thing. That's a learning process we're going through.

"And we're doing a lot of learning right now. The wins may not be coming, but the learning is, and that's encouraging. Every match I see us learning something new."

Grimsrud makes debut: Freshman middle blocker Janna Grimsrud, who did not travel to Dallas, made her season debut against Gonzaga. Her presence not only allowed Doyon to move Alexis Urbach to the outside, where she had six kills on .294 hitting, Grimsrud finished with a pair of blocks to lead the team.

"We'll work on getting her into the lineup a little more and getting her going," said Doyon. "She helps by giving us a little more size in the middle.

"She does a good job of getting her block movements and getting to the ball. She's got length, which helps us play defense behind her. Offensively we'll try to get her the ball in good situations when we're in system where she can move it around and get some kills."

Upcoming: Montana will travel to Morehead, Ky., next week to face Kent State, Coppin State and Morehead State.

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Players Mentioned

Janna Grimsrud

Alexis Urbach

University of Montana Athletics