Vikings, Bobcats up next for volleyball team

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With the end of the regular season approaching rapidly, the Montana volleyball team will play a split week of matches, with one on the road, one at home.

The Grizzlies will face Portland State on Thursday at 9 p.m. (MT) in a match that will be played at Concordia University-Portland, as PSU's Stott Center continues to undergo a renovation.

Montana will host Montana State on Saturday night inside Dahlberg Arena. The match will start at 7:30 p.m., four hours after the start of the Montana-Northern Arizona football game.

With Montana's home football games this season lasting an average of three hours, 15 minutes, the adjusted start time for volleyball should allow Griz fans to double up on their spectating pleasure should they choose.

Get in free: Fans holding a football ticket will gain free admittance to Saturday night's volleyball match, as will fans donating five cans of food, which will go toward the annual "Can the Cats" food drive.

Where they stand:

Montana (7-18, 2-10 BSC): The Grizzlies are in last place in the Big Sky Conference's North Division and sitting 11th out of 12 teams in the overall league standings, ahead of only Southern Utah. Montana is still mathematically alive to make the league's eight-team postseason tournament.

Portland State (18-6, 9-3 BSC): The Vikings were picked fifth in the preseason coaches' poll and have slightly overachieved. They are two games behind South Division leader Sacramento State, who they play on the road on Saturday, and are tied with North Division leader North Dakota.

Montana State (8-13, 4-8 BSC): Under interim coach Daniel Jones, Montana State would make the Big Sky tournament if the cut was made today. But hurdles remain. The Bobcats open their week with a match at Sacramento State on Thursday night, and the Hornets have a lot to play for.

What's at stake:

For Montana: The Big Sky Conference tournament is the goal for every team at the start of the season, and the Grizzlies are no different. It's probably going to take six wins to make the cut, and Montana has two league victories with four matches to go, so the math is pretty simple.

For Portland State: The Vikings are one of four teams who have clinched a tournament spot, and the top overall seed is still a possibility. For that to happen, PSU would need to win on Thursday, then go to Sacramento and win on Saturday. And then still get a little bit of help.

For Montana State: The Bobcats have made the Big Sky tournament just once since 2005, but they are right in the mix this season. They are tied with Weber State at 4-8 and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Wildcats. Montana State gets Eastern Washington and Idaho at home next week.

The first meeting (Montana vs. Portland State): With the unbalanced schedule, the two teams will be playing for the first time this season on Thursday.

History: The Vikings lead the all-time series 57-16 and are 28-5 against the Grizzlies in Portland. Montana snapped a 21-match losing streak to Portland State with a home win in 2014 and put an end to a 15-match road losing streak against the Vikings with a win at the Stott Center in 2015.

The first meeting (Montana vs. Montana State): The Grizzlies hit .067, currently their fourth-lowest hitting percentage of the season, as the Bobcats won 25-22, 26-24, 25-17 in Bozeman on Sept. 30. It was Montana State's first 3-0 sweep of Montana in Bozeman since 2005.

History: Through 110 matches, Montana and Montana State are all square at 55-55. The Grizzlies hold a 28-20 advantage in matches played in Missoula. In 2014, '15 and '16, the two teams split their regular-season series.

Weekly preview:

Will Montana make the Big Sky Conference tournament for the first time since 2014? Or will the Grizzlies wrap up their season a week from Saturday, when they host Eastern Washington?

It's likely the tournament picture will become much clearer for many teams after this weekend, and little of that is on Montana coach Allison Lawrence's mind these days.

Sure, it was a tangible goal at the start of the season, but there was a more intangible one as well. And that's what she is focusing on this week.

"Our goal has been to get better every match and to be playing our best volleyball in November, whether that meant we were going to continue on past conference play or not," said Lawrence. "We want to be peaking now.

"We want to be playing our best, most efficient volleyball. You can measure that by statistics or you can measure that by feel. Keeping our focus on that and not strictly on wins and losses, that is what is going to keep us hungry regardless of when our season ends."

First up this week is Portland State. While the Big Sky division leaders -- Sacramento State in the South, North Dakota in the North -- have received most of the attention this fall, the Vikings are right there in the standings, tied with the Fighting Hawks for second overall, two behind the Hornets.

Portland State's resurgence -- the Vikings were the Big Sky's most consistent program for nearly a decade but haven't been top five since 2013 -- has come because of its play on offense.

PSU leads the Big Sky in kills by a wide margin and is hitting .245, a season average Montana has only reached three times this fall in a single match.

Sophomore outside hitter Caitlin Bettenay ranks second in the Big Sky in kills (3.99/s), junior middle blocker Katy Wilson ranks second in hitting percentage (.381) and senior setter Erin Clark leads the league in assists (11.36/s).

"Portland State is just very efficient. They don't have a lot of things that break down in their game. It's hard to make them make an error. They extend rallies and they don't give away easy points, so you have to be efficient on your side or they will wear you down," said Lawrence.

"They handle the ball really well and their setter does a nice job distributing their offense evenly, which is going to be a challenge for our block."

And then arrives on Saturday Montana State, which is coming off a 3-2 win on Saturday at North Dakota that snapped the Fighting Hawks' 20-match home winning streak. It was the Bobcats' biggest win since a 3-0 victory at Montana in November 2014 sent MSU to the Big Sky tournament.

When the teams met in Bozeman in September, there was only a single lead change in the first and third sets, and Montana couldn't close out a 22-19 lead in the second.

The big difference in the match came at middle blocker, a position that generated just four kills for Montana. That will be the key for Saturday night as well, because that's a position of strength for Montana State, with senior Kiana Black and 6-foot-4 freshman Kelsie White.

In Saturday's win at North Dakota, Black outplayed all-world Faith Dooley, who struggled to eight kills on .037 hitting, with only three blocks. Black totaled 20 kills on .447 hitting.

"The true test will be if we're able to take their middles out of the game," said Lawrence. "If we can't serve in a way that limits her opportunities, we're going to have to dedicate a lot of blocking resources to her."

Black and White combined for 13 kills in the first matchup on .300 hitting and nine blocks.

"That's something we didn't do as well as we wanted in Bozeman," added Lawrence. "They have great players at other positions, but if their middles are playing well, that's a big challenge for us. So that's where we're going to be putting a lot of our focus."

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* With the calendar now on November, thoughts turn to the postseason. With four matches remaining for every Big Sky team, Sacramento State (11-1 BSC), North Dakota (9-3), Portland State (9-3) and Idaho State (8-4) have clinched four of the eight tournament spots.

* If Sacramento State sweeps at home this week, over Montana State and Portland State, the league tournament will be in Sacramento for the first time since 2007.

* Idaho (8-4) is a tournament lock, as is Northern Arizona (7-5). And Northern Colorado (6-6) should plan on it as well.

* That leaves five teams fighting for the final spot, with Montana State and Weber State in the best position at the moment at 4-8. Those two teams, plus 3-9 Eastern Washington, all have challenging closing stretches to the regular season, with MSU holding the slight edge, with two matches against teams (Montana, Eastern Washington) in the bottom three in the standings.

* Thursday schedule: UM at PSU, MSU at SAC, UND at EWU, UNC at UI, ISU at SUU, WSU at NAU

Non-Montana match to monitor: Weber State at Northern Arizona. The Lumberjacks, who swept Sacramento State and Portland State at home last week, are rolling and play three of their final four at home. Montana, Montana State and Eastern Washington are all hoping Weber State falls.

* Friday schedule: UNC at EWU

Non-Montana match to monitor: Northern Colorado at Eastern Washington. As if you had a choice. The Eagles enter the week on a seven-match losing streak, which has them on the outside looking in at the current tournament field.

* Saturday schedule: MSU at UM, WSU at SUU, ISU at NAU, UND at UI, PSU at SAC

Non-Montana match to monitor: Idaho State at Northern Arizona. The Bengals have quietly won eight of nine and have already clinched a tournament spot, an impressive turnaround for a team on an 11-match losing streak on Sept. 30.

Upcoming: Montana closes out the regular season with home matches next Thursday and Saturday against Idaho and Eastern Washington. Without one on the roster, there will be no Senior Night this season.

University of Montana Athletics

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