Lumberjacks serve up a sweep

Saturday, October 21

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

7-16, 2-8BSC

Northern Arizona

9-12, 5-5BSC

Northern Arizona

Montana

10/21/2017 9:36:00 PM | Volleyball

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By: Montana Sports Information

It was a 50-50 match at the West Auxiliary Gym in Missoula on Saturday night as Northern Arizona defeated the Montana volleyball team in straight sets, 25-18, 25-13, 25-18.

Half of the result was what the Lumberjacks did to earn the victory. Half of it was what the Grizzlies, who had 37 errors, including 10 in serve-receive, did to themselves.

Northern Arizona (9-12, 5-5 BSC), which won 3-1 at Montana State on Thursday night, finished off a road-trip sweep, while Montana (7-16, 2-8 BSC) wrapped up its four-match home stand with a 1-3 record.

"They served so well that our serve-receive was on its heels from the start, and things spiraled in a bad way for us from there," said coach Allison Lawrence. "It bled into our offense and just got us feeling passive. You could sense it in every part of our game."

The first sign that trouble was afoot: Lawrence was forced to call a timeout five points into the opening set, her team trailing 5-0.

(10/21/2017) VB: vs. Northern Arizona (10.21.17)

Northern Arizona had a service ace, Kaylie Jorgenson, who would finish with 17 kills on .438 hitting, had a pair of kills and Montana hit into a block.

The Grizzlies would match the Lumberjacks in kills for the opening set -- 12 apiece -- but Northern Arizona hit .375 while Montana had seven attack errors and hit .179.

The Lumberjacks were even better in the second set, putting down 15 kills without an error on 29 swings to hit .517.

"As much as I don't think we played our style of play and what works for us, NAU came in here to take care of business and set the tone, and they did that," said Lawrence.

"What we can take from this match is that we need to learn how to do that to other teams. They did that really well, and we could never find our game within that."

Montana finally played itself into the match in the third set, hitting .226, with Missy Huddleston putting down four of her team-high 10 kills, but it was the usual hindrances that kept the Grizzlies from hanging with the Lumberjacks.

Northern Arizona had six of its 10 service aces for the match in the set, and Jorgenson had seven kills on just 10 swings as the Lumberjacks extended what was a 16-14 lead into a seven-point victory.

"We expected them to serve well, and we expected them to play with a lot of pace, a lot of speed, and they did exactly that," said Lawrence.

Northern Arizona hit .374 in the victory, the second-highest hitting percentage Montana has allowed this season, and out-blocked the Grizzlies 8.0 to 3.0. The Lumberjacks' 10 aces matched the most given up by Montana this season.

Huddleston had 10 kills on .286 hitting to lead Montana. Mykaela Hammer added seven kills on .200 hitting and nine digs.

Ashley Watkins totaled four kills, 28 assists and a team-high two blocks. Lia Gaogao finished with 11 digs.

Montana will face North Dakota and Northern Colorado on the road next week.