Montana closes weekend with loss to San José State

Saturday, August 31

Davis, Calif.

1 PM (MT)

Montana

0-3

San Jose State

1-2

San Jose State

Montana

Kelly Horning vs. North Dakota - 8-23-19

Photo by: Derek Johnson

Montana closes weekend with loss to San José State

8/31/2019 4:36:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Statistics (PDF)

By: Montana Sports Information

DAVIS, Calif. – It was a tough weekend for Montana, which opened the 2019 volleyball season with three defeats, dropping all nine sets. The Grizzlies led for just one point on Saturday, falling to San José State, 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-22).

Montana continues to search for its identity, running a young lineup that includes eight players who made their collegiate debuts this weekend, including six freshmen who earned 12 total starts.

While the Grizzlies fell to 0-3 for the second consecutive season, there are a couple things that have head coach Allison Lawrence encouraged.

First is the youth the Grizzlies are currently playing with. Lawrence has already seen growth in them throughout the weekend and is confident they will continue to rapidly progress as the season moves forward. Additionally, the competition this weekend appears to be steeper than it was during the opening weekend of 2018. Two of the three teams Montana played this weekend finished with winning records a year ago, including the Spartans – Saturday's opponent – which finished fourth in a competitive Mountain West. By comparison, the three teams Montana opened with a year ago went a combined 26-59 (.306).

Additionally, Montana – in 2018 – bounced back from a 0-3 start to have its best season in a half-decade, which can still be the case for 2019.

"It's frustrating, but I really do feel like we're in a better place than we were at this time last year," Lawrence said. "We responded well from yesterday, and if we continue to be resilient, I think we can be in a good spot once we get to conference. We just have to continue learning and continue growing."

Statistically, Montana opened the day with its best set, hitting .333. The biggest sign of growth, though, might have come in the final frame. Down two sets to zero, the Grizzlies once again fell behind early, trailing 10-3. They didn't fold, though, fighting their way back and eventually taking a brief 18-17 lead. Four of Montana's points during that run came from freshman Amethyst Harper, who tied for the team lead with seven kills.

The teams were tied at every point from 16-16 through 20-20, but Montana wouldn't score again until the Spartans had reached match point.

"I felt like we were competing better today," Lawrence said. "I don't know if we played better volleyball, but our ball control was better, our serve-receive was better. There was more intent to what we were doing."

Match Notables

Kelly Horning had five kills without recording an error (.417 hitting percentage). In two of her first three collegiate matches, the freshman middle blocker didn't record a single attack error.
Janna Grimsrud tied with Amethyst Harper for the team lead with seven kills. Grimsrud also had a team-most four blocks, while Harper had eight digs.
Casey Stites had two service aces, in addition to her 20 assists at the setter position.
Freshman middle blocker Alicia Wallingford made her collegiate debut. Over the weekend, eight of the 11 players who saw the court were playing for the first time.
Redshirt freshman Elsa Godwin earned her first career start. Six different freshmen made a combined 12 starts over the weekend.
Four of Montana's six attackers hit below .100, with Montana hitting just .091 as a team, including -.125 in the third set.
After recording just 15 digs in the season opener on Friday, Montana had 38 digs on Saturday, including a dozen from Sarina Moreno.
Once again, Montana's opponent had a heyday on offense, with SJSU hitting .359 and recording more than twice as many kills as Montana (49 to 24).
After having 31 errors in both matches on Friday, Montana cleaned things up a bit, including just two service errors (compared to 13 for SJSU).
Montana took a brief 17-16 lead in Set 3, the first time all weekend that Montana led while in double digits. The Grizzlies led for more than one point in just two sets this weekend and never by more than three points.
Set 1: Montana hit .333 as a team and was within two points as late as 19-17.
Set 2: Within a single point early, Montana was burned by an 8-0 Spartans run, being aced twice and making two additional errors.
Set 3: After falling behind early, 10-3, Montana worked back to take its first lead of the day, 18-17.

Quoting Lawrence
(on finishing the weekend with a strong third set)
"That was encouraging, for sure. I thought our responses were getting better. We extended a ton of rallies and were fighting in transition, but ultimately we weren't winning the points."

(on her message to the team after the weekend)
"The first couple weekends are all about our fight to stay who we are no matter the situation. We need to stay true to ourselves, whether we're up or down, so we've been trying to rely on what we've established already."

(on staying positive after three consecutive losses)
"There were moments of a lot of frustration and some doubt, but those are the situations where it's so obvious that we have to learn back in to what we're doing. That is when we will build the most strength and character."

Up Next
Montana will make a short trip to Spokane for the Gonzaga Invitational. The Grizzlies will play Ball State on Friday night before facing Grand Canyon and host Gonzaga on Saturday.