Season concludes with home matches

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The Montana volleyball team will conclude its season this week with a pair of home matches against Idaho and Eastern Washington. The Grizzlies will face the Vandals on Thursday and the Eagles on Saturday. Both matches will be at 7 p.m. in the West Auxiliary Gym.

State of the programs:

Montana (7-20, 2-12 BSC): The Grizzlies were eliminated from the chase for the eight-team Big Sky Conference tournament last week with losses to Portland State and Montana State. Montana, which hit 20 losses for the fourth straight year, is tied with Southern Utah for last place in the Big Sky standings.

Idaho (15-10, 10-4 BSC): After a home sweep last week of Northern Colorado and North Dakota, the Vandals are tied atop the Big Sky's North Division with the Fighting Hawks. Whoever emerges on top after this week's matches takes the No. 2 seed into next week's tournament at Sacramento State.

Eastern Washington (7-16, 4-10 BSC): The Eagles are still alive to make the postseason, but they would need 91 things to fall in their favor for that to occur. Eastern Washington snapped an eight-match losing streak on Friday night with a five-set home win over Northern Colorado. The Eagles opened league 3-2.

The first time around:

Idaho 3, Montana 0 (Moscow, Idaho; Sept. 23): The Vandals used their size advantage to force the Grizzlies into 26 attack errors and .071 hitting in a 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 win. Middle blockers Torrin Crawford and DeVonne Ryter combined for 16 kills on .481 hitting.

History:

Idaho leads the all-time series 34-27. The teams have split their 26 meetings in Missoula. The Vandals have won 11 of the last 12 matchups and 17 of the last 19. The Grizzlies' last win in the series came at home in five sets last season.

The first time around:

Eastern Washington 3, Montana 1 (Cheney, Wash.; Sept. 21): In the Big Sky opener for both teams, the Eagles used a more aggressive approach -- 25 more attacks led to 18 more kills -- to win 25-22, 25-21, 19-25, 25-23. Missy Huddleston had 18 kills for the Grizzlies, but Eastern Washington had better balance, with three players with 10 or more.

History:

Saturday night will be the 94th all-time meeting between the two teams, with Montana holding a 53-40 advantage. That edge is 26-13 in matches played in Missoula. The Grizzlies and Eagles have split their last 10 matchups, with Eastern Washington on a three-match winning streak.

Game-week preview:

And so another season comes to a close, and for the third consecutive year Montana will end up on the outside looking in when the Big Sky Conference tournament opens next week at Sacramento State.

While that was a goal of the team, it wasn't the most important of those set before the season opened in early August.

First-year coach Allison Lawrence, who knew firsthand what she was getting into after working the previous seven years as a Montana assistant coach, believes her team achieved its most important priority.

"Our first goal and our biggest goal was to get healthy and to begin functioning as a healthy team," she said. "That meant we needed every day to commit to our standards, as we defined them. And as we defined it, we needed to carry ourselves as a championship team.

"Those things aren't easy to do, but I felt like we made those changes, so I'm extremely happy. I feel like the season has been a success for that reason."

First up this week is an Idaho team that handled Montana quite handily when the teams met in Moscow back in September. Facing a team with really good size for one of the first times this season, the Grizzlies had 26 attack errors, an average of nearly nine per set. The Vandals finished with 9.0 blocks.

"They have speed and they have size, and that made them an incredibly tough team to play," said Lawrence. "When our hitters looked at them the first time we played them, they maybe thought to themselves, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to score around or through this block.

"Since then we've had enough matches against good blocking teams that we've started to learn how to problem solve."

Idaho's middles were a problem, as was the speed at which the Vandals played. Five players had seven or more kills as Idaho hit .234.

Montana's plan to combat that combination was to serve tough and not allow Idaho to get into a rhythm. That lasted through only the first part of the first set.

"When they are controlling the ball, they are so fast that your head is spinning," said Lawrence. "Our goal this week is to force them not to control the ball as well, and that's with our serving and with tougher and smarter attacking.

"If we get their ball control a little shaky and have confidence that we can score against any block they present, that's how we play them tougher."

Idaho ranks in the top five in the Big Sky in every statistical category outside of digs. The Vandals top the league in hitting percentage at .269 and rank third in blocks (2.56/s). Montana is hitting .164 and averages 2.02 blocks.

In junior outside hitters Sarah Sharp (3.65/s) and Kaela Straw (3.56/s), the Vandals have two of the Big Sky's top five producers in kills.

When Montana opened its Big Sky schedule at Eastern Washington, the Grizzlies dropped the opening two sets but played so well in the third, hitting .342, that Lawrence was certain her team was going to roll to a five-set victory.

And just like that, Montana fell behind 17-9 in the fourth and never challenged to push it to five.

"The theme so often this season for us has been our inconsistency, and that match was that to a T," said Lawrence. "We had stretches when we played really well, controlled the ball really well and really scored efficiently.

"But we made the same swing enough times in a row that they started to dig us, and once they made those adjustments and those balls started coming back, I think we lost confidence that what we were doing could beat them. I think we've learned from that."

Eastern Washington had 61 kills in the match to Montana's 43, in large part due to the play of Ashley Seiler, who had 16 of those. She also had 11 digs and played a key role in the Eagles' ball control.

"When she takes over and hits really well for them, it opens up their offense for everybody else," said Lawrence.

"If she's struggling, which needs to be one of our goals, it reduces her impact and forces other people into roles they maybe don't want to play."

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Sacramento State found itself in a 2-0 hole on Saturday afternoon at home to Portland State, but the Hornets came back to win in five sets. That not only gave Sacramento State tournament hosting rights for the first time since 2007, the Hornets are assured of winning the regular-season title outright.

* The winner of the North Division, either North Dakota or Idaho -- both are 10-4 -- will be the tournament's No. 2 seed. Portland State (10-4), Northern Arizona (8-6) and Idaho State (8-6) have also clinched tournament spots.

* The final two spots will be filled by Northern Colorado (6-8), Weber State (6-8), Montana State (5-9) or Eastern Washington (4-10).

* The tournament will be played next Thursday (quarterfinals), Friday (semifinals) and Saturday (championship).

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

Pay attention to: Southern Utah at Northern Colorado. With a tough road match on Saturday, the Bears could use a win on Thursday over the last-place Thunderbirds to wrap up their tournament spot.

Saturday's schedule: EWU at UM, UI at MSU, UNC at UND, PSU at ISU, SAC at WSU, SUU at NAU

Pay attention to: Sacramento State at Weber State. The Wildcats have won three of four but still likely need to get a result this week to make the tournament, since Montana State holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. Hosting Portland State on Thursday and Sacramento State on Saturday will make it a chore.

Upcoming: The offseason.

University of Montana Athletics

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