Montana falls to North Dakota

Saturday, October 14

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

6-15, 1-7BSC

North Dakota

21-4, 6-2BSC

North Dakota

Montana

10/14/2017 9:42:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

By: Montana Sports Information

For as difficult as it was for her to watch from the sideline as North Dakota won its 21st match of the season and swept her team on Saturday night at the West Auxiliary Gym, the volleyball fan in first-year Montana coach Allison Lawrence couldn't help but be impressed.

Led by setter Sydney Griffin and middle blocker Faith Dooley, the Fighting Hawks (21-4, 6-2 BSC) hit .423 and defeated the Grizzlies (6-15, 1-7 BSC) for the 14th consecutive time, 25-16, 25-19, 25-17.

"You just have to admire their athletes. They are so subtle in the way they beat you. Of course there is nothing subtle about Faith or their setter. They are in your face and physical, but the rest of the team is so efficient," said Lawrence.

"They don't make a lot of errors. They just sort of wear you down and wait for you to make errors. You just have to sit back and say, Wow, they play really clean volleyball. It was frustrating, but at the same time I admire it."

For as clean as North Dakota's play was -- UND had just seven attack errors on 97 swings -- Montana's was anything but for the second consecutive night. The Grizzlies, who hit .150 against the Fighting Hawks, hit .120 on Friday in their 3-0 loss to Northern Colorado.

Montana's serve-receive and passing in general never allowed the Grizzlies to hang with either Northern Colorado on Friday or North Dakota on Saturday. They just weren't in system enough.

"What's frustrating is that in both matches this weekend, we had breakdowns with passing, and that's something we've been fairly solid in," said Lawrence.

"If we're going to be a team that has breakthrough moments, those things can't go away. Because then we're battling ourselves at the same time we're battling a Big Sky contender. So that part was frustrating, but it's also fixable."

Janna Grimsrud entered the match for Montana in the final set and totaled three blocks, including a crowd-pleasing solo stuff in a one-on-one encounter against the previously unstoppable Jordan Vail, but that would be the only hitting error of the match for Vail and Dooley.

North Dakota's two middles had 21 kills on just 34 swings to hit .588. Dooley, who had nine blocks at Montana State on Friday night in UND's 3-0 win, added five more on Saturday, while Vail totaled four.

"We never did slow down their middles," said Lawrence.

And even if the Grizzlies had, the Fighting Hawks, who were making their final appearance at the West Auxiliary Gym as a member of the Big Sky Conference, had plenty of other options to ruin Montana's night.

Griffin had six kills on six swings and added 35 assists, nine digs and a pair of blocks. Her three outside hitters all had seven kills while combining for just five attack errors.

As was the case on Friday, Montana showed some tantalizing glimpses before the season-high crowd of 556, but they were rarely strung together. Between those plays, North Dakota would rattle off another series of points. The match had just three lead changes.

"I think we showed ourselves in moments that if we have the passing and the serving, we're able to play with a team like that pretty well," said Lawrence.

Mykaela Hammer, who hit a negative percentage on Friday, bounced back with 11 kills on .207 hitting. Maddy Marshall wrapped up a successful weekend with another hitting performance better than .300. She had 10 kills on .304 hitting, making it four straight matches with 10 or more kills.

Baily Permann had seven kills on .312 hitting and two blocks. Cassie Laramee came off the bench to add six kills.

Montana will wrap up its four-match home stand against Southern Utah on Thursday and Northern Arizona next Saturday.