Bears sweep Grizzlies in Greeley

Saturday, October 28

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 PM

Montana

7-18, 2-10BSC

Northern Colorado

13-12, 6-6BSC

Montana

Northern Colorado

10/28/2017 9:38:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Montana Sports Information

On the heels of one of its more encouraging matches of the season, the Montana volleyball team was unable to sustain any momentum from that performance.

Two days after falling in four sets at North Dakota, the Grizzlies lost in straight sets to Northern Colorado in Greeley on Saturday night, 25-13, 25-16, 25-16.

"We played a good match on Thursday and didn't switch gears to a completely different opponent tonight, and that's on me," said coach Allison Lawrence.

Montana (7-18, 2-10 BSC) fell behind in the opening set 10-1 and didn't hold a lead in either the first or the third. The Grizzlies' .038 hitting percentage was their second-lowest of the season.

Montana, now 1-10 in its last 11 matches against Northern Colorado in Greeley, lost to the Bears by the same 3-0 score at home two weeks ago.

"It was pretty similar to the match we played in Missoula. They were hard for us to slow down," said Lawrence.

"We couldn't get going because of our serve-receive, and that made us tentative. We looked off-balance and couldn't execute what we came into do."

Aided by five early errors by Montana, Northern Colorado (13-12, 6-6 BSC) raced out to a 10-1 lead in the first set. The Grizzlies wouldn't get closer than eight points.

Montana started the second set well. The teams were tied at 13-13 before the Bears ran off eight straight points to take control.

The Grizzlies fell behind 4-1 in the third and were never able to catch up.

"It felt like we prepared similarly to all the other matches we've played, but if I didn't prepare us well enough for this match, that's something I need to look at," said Lawrence. "I need to get us more prepared."

Emily O'Neil had 10 kills on .556 hitting and four blocks to lead Northern Colorado, which hit .290, had six service aces and out-blocked Montana 7.0-5.0.

Maddy Marshall led the Grizzlies with eight kills. Baily Permann had a match-high five blocks, Ashley Watkins totaled 24 assists, two blocks and a service ace.

Montana will play at Portland State on Thursday night, then host Montana State on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Dahlberg Arena. The Big Sky Conference has two weeks of regular-season matches remaining.