Griz begin 2018 season with a win

Saturday, November 11

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

8-21, 3-13BSC

Eastern Washington

7-18, 4-12BSC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Eastern Washington	23	24	23	0
Montana	25	26	25	3

11/11/2017 10:22:00 PM | Volleyball

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By: Montana Sports Information

End a season like Montana did, by playing its best volleyball of the fall over the last several weeks, and do it without a senior on the roster, and it's easy to look at Saturday night's 3-0 win over Eastern Washington not as the final match of 2017 but as the next match toward something much bigger.

"The work we put in this fall, it wasn't just for this season," said sophomore setter Ashley Watkins, whose team defeated the Eagles 25-23, 26-24, 25-23, its first sweep in more than two months.

"There is so much more for us than just this season. We're not losing anyone and we're gaining people, so we're just going to build on this. It's going to be a continuation. It's all been preparation for the future."

Montana was building toward the type of performance it had on Saturday night for weeks, over the back half of the Big Sky Conference schedule.

There was the 3-2 win over Southern Utah, when Montana fell behind 2-1 but grabbed the match by the throat and won in five. The match in Grand Forks when Montana had North Dakota on the ropes.

The good showing at Portland State and Thursday's five-set loss to Idaho, which just set the stage for Saturday, when the Grizzlies held the Eagles to .131 hitting and used a balanced offensive attack to end the season on a well-played high note.

"We always wanted to be playing our best volleyball at the end of the year, whenever that end happened to be, and I thought we did that this weekend," said coach Allison Lawrence.

"Thursday was an unbelievable match, and it felt like tonight we were able to finish what we started in that match."

(11/15/2017) VB: vs. Eastern Washington (11.11.17)

Montana ends the season at 8-21 and with a deceiving Big Sky record of 3-13. It was only one win more than last year's 2-14 finish, but it feels nothing at all like 2016. A one-win improvement doesn't do the metamorphosis justice.

"That's only our third win in conference, but the amount of enthusiasm and joy we have when we play, it's really special," said Lawrence. "It just shows how we're taking steps toward becoming the team we want to be."

It's fitting that Montana lost in four sets at Eastern Washington to open its Big Sky schedule back on Sept. 21. It allows for a before-and-after examination of the Grizzlies.

In the first match, the Eagles hit in rhythm for most of the match and put down 18 more kills than the Grizzlies. It's what separated the two teams.

Stronger serving and a better block on Saturday allowed Montana to finish with more kills, and the Grizzlies doubled up the Eagles on the block.

"Compared to when we played them in Cheney, we were able to serve them tougher," said Lawrence. "They passed really well in the first match. It was very different this time around.

"But we've done that the entire second half of conference. We got so much better in the areas we were kind of struggling with in the first half. We've shown a pattern of getting so much better."

Montana trailed 22-19 late in the opening set but used a series of Eastern Washington errors, plus a well-timed service ace by Missy Huddleston when it was 23-23 to go up 1-0.

The Grizzlies built a 20-12 lead in the second, but Emma Dunn served her team on a 9-0 run that gave her team the lead and changed the set's momentum in a hurry.

But this is a different Montana team, and the Grizzlies were fine, even trailing 21-20. Maddy Marshall had three kills to get Montana back in it, and even an Eastern Washington service ace that hit the tape and dropped to the floor to make it 24-23 in favor of the Eagles didn't rattle the home team.

Mykaela Hammer, playing the entire match with a confidence and determination that only the Big Sky's top players possess, had a kill to even it, and Huddleston went kill-kill to put Montana up 2-0.

The Grizzlies trailed 14-11 in the third but used a pair of blocks to spark a four-point swing that put them up 15-14, and Montana would not trail again. Huddleston capped the season with a match-winning kill.

Marshall, just a freshman, finished with 11 kills on .320 hitting. Hammer also had 11 kills on .241 hitting. Baily Permann, another freshman, had nine kills, Huddleston added eight and McKenzie Kramer had a match-high four blocks.

And Watkins had 39 assists while helping Montana to a .213 hitting percentage, the third time in the season's final four matches the Grizzlies hit better than .200.

"Being on the court this season with these girls has been great," she said. "This is a good way to go out. Any win is good, but anytime you can do it in three, it makes it really sweet."