Montana closes non-conference play in Colorado

The first three weeks haven't been the start the Montana volleyball team envisioned. The Grizzlies knew there would be lumps as they transitioned from six seniors a season ago to nine freshmen in 2019, and the road became harder when a veteran starter had to unexpectedly be replaced at setter. Still, Allison Lawrence didn't envision an 0-8 start to the season, with the team still searching for its first set win of the year.

The first few weeks have been a grind, no doubt, as Lawrence and her staff try to quickly teach and develop a young group while determining the best way to make certain pieces of a puzzle fit together.

The low valleys aren't fun to be part of, or dig out of, but they also make the peaks that much more rewarding, like a season ago when the team posted its highest win total in a half-decade and qualified for the Big Sky tournament. Montana also knows that, as frustrating as the past few weeks have been, the Grizzlies will essentially receive a clean slate next week when conference play begins.

Before that, though, Montana has one more non-conference opportunity to try and develop itself into a more consistent team.

"The bright spots are really exciting, and moments where we're kind of overwhelming teams at those points," Lawrence said. "We have a physicality that is not matched by our opponents, but we'll have strong moments, and then things will slip and the momentum will shift. It's my job to figure out how to find that consistency that can take us to the next level."

There was no such thing as easing into a season, or for the eight freshman who have played and six who have started, easing into their careers. Montana will once again be challenged this weekend, facing two teams who are riding high on momentum.

Santa Clara is 8-2 on the year, including wins over Indiana (Big Ten) and Northern Colorado (Big Sky), plus victories over common opponents as Montana in CSU Bakersfield and San Jose State. Denver is the five-time defending Summit League champions, going 27-3 in 2018 and qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the fifth year in a row. The 2019 Pioneers are 6-3 on the season, with two of their losses coming to No. 1 Nebraska and No. 13 Hawaii. Montana's other opponent this weekend is Air Force, a team that is 2-7 with wins at Oral Roberts and against Little Rock, and with a common loss to Gonzaga.

The combined record of Montana's non-conference opponents entering the weekend is 58-44, a winning percentage of .568.

Regardless of who is on the other end of the net, however, the key for Montana will be on itself, controlling the things the Grizzlies can control.

"I want us to risk it by being aggressive and trying to put the pressure on the other team," Lawrence said. "Right now it's not fun, but my goal for this group is to stay connected. I want us to almost enjoy this pain and struggle and use it to have us grow stronger and more connected, because if we can do that, we'll be better off from this experience."

Montana opens the Thin Air Challenge, co-hosted by Denver and Air Force, Friday morning at 10 a.m. vs. Santa Clara. The Grizzlies will then make a short drive to the U.S. Air Force Academy to play the Falcons at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Grizzlies will be back in Denver to play the Pioneers at 6 p.m. Live stats can be tracked for all three matches this weekend. Montana's match vs. Air Force will be streamed through the Mountain West Network.

Thin Air Challenge Schedule

Date	Time	Opponents	Video	Live Stats
Thursday, Sept. 19	6 p.m. (MT)	Denver at Air Force
Friday, Sept. 20	10 a.m.	Montana vs. Santa Clara (at DU)		Live Stats
Friday, Sept. 20	6 p.m.	Santa Clara at Denver
Friday, Sept. 20	6:30 p.m.	Montana at Air Force	MW Network	Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 21	6 p.m.	Montana at Denver		Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 21	6:30 p.m.	Santa Clara at Air Force

SCOUTING SANTA CLARA

Santa Clara is 8-2 with victories over Indiana (Big Ten) and Northern Colorado (Big Sky).
Freshman OH Julia Sangiacomo leads the Broncos with 3.70 kills per set. She has had at least nine kills in every match this season.
Junior OH Allison Kantor ranks second on the team with 3.19 kills per set on .332 hitting. She had 19 kills and 18 digs in a win over Fresno State.
MB Alexa Dreyer is one of four Broncos averaging at least 2.00 kills per set. The senior is doing so on .404 hitting (32nd in NCAA).
Sophomore setter/right-side attacker Michelle Shaffer tied a school record with eight service aces vs. Northern Colorado. On the year, she ranks 15th nationally with 21 aces, and the Broncos as a team rank 35th, averaging 1.79 aces per set.
Shaffer recorded a triple-double in a four-set win over Marshall, totaling 12 kills, 11 digs and 24 assists.
SCU is hitting .285 on the season (22nd in NCAA) and has hit at least .311 in six of 10 matches.
The Broncos have not been out-blocked this season, averaging 2.39 blocks per set (65th). Senior MB Taylor Odom (1.38, 30th in NCAA) and Dreyer (1.03) are both averaging over a block per set.
The Broncos have had an incredible turnaround from last year, when they went 6-24 and won just a single league match.
SCU is led by first-year head coach Erin Lindsey, who previously was the head coach at Dartmouth (2011-15), being named the 2015 Ivy League Coach of the Year, and an assistant coach at Stanford, winning a national championship in 2018.

SERIES VS. THE BRONCOS

Montana and Santa Clara will play for the first time in more than 20 years, with the most-recent meeting coming in 1997 in Fresno, Calif. (3-0 Santa Clara). The Broncos won on their home court in 1984, while Montana was victorious in 1990, in Salt Lake City.

SCOUTING AIR FORCE

Air Force is 2-7 on the season, scoring victories at Oral Roberts and over Little Rock.
Sophomore OH Bailey Keith leads AFA with 2.83 kills per set. She ranks in the top 100 in the NCAA For both kills and points.
Keith was named to the Amy Svoboda Memorial Classic all-tournament team last weekend after recording 18 kills vs. Virginia Tech and 16 digs vs. UC Irvine.
Junior Andi Ahlers, the Falcons' leader for assists and service aces, has more than 1,000 career assists.
In addition to a team-most 11 service aces, junior libero Alex King is averaging 4.23 digs per set. She and Ahlers were named to the ORU Invitational all-tournament team in early September.
The Falcons rank 66th nationally with 1.66 service aces per set. They have four players with at least seven aces on the season.
Air Force is coming off of its best season in program history, setting a school-record with 17 wins.
Keith Barnett, who previously served as an assistant coach for three years, is in his first season as head coach at the Academy.

SERIES VS. THE FALCONS

Montana is 3-0 all-time vs. Air Force, including a season-opening victory over the Falcons in 2015, when Allison Lawrence was an assistant coach for the Griz. All three previous matches have gone to five sets, with Montana also winning twice in 1983 on a neutral court.

SCOUTING DENVER

DU is off to a 6-3 start, with two of its losses coming at No. 1 Nebraska and No. 13 Hawaii.
DU has eight different players averaging at least a kill per set, led by Lydia Bartalo's 3.16. Bartalo, a junior OH, earned 2018 All-Summit League honors.
Brianna Green's 1.41 blocks-per-set average ranks 16th in the NCAA. The freshman MB has at least five blocks in five matches, including nine vs. Army.
Senior Katarina Marinkovic earned All-Summit League recognition in 2018, but has not played in 2019. MB Tina Boe was an honorable mention selection in 2018. Through nine matches, the junior is averaging 1.48 kills and 0.68 blocks per set.
DU has won five consecutive Summit League championships, including a perfect 15-0 record a season ago. The Pioneers have qualified for the NCAA tournament each of the past five seasons and were picked to once again win the Summit League in the 2019 preseason coaches' poll.
The Pioneers are led by third-year head coach Tom Hogan, a two-time Summit League Coach of the Year.

SERIES VS. THE PIONEERS

Montana has lost the prior two meetings vs. the Pioneers, both in Denver. The Grizzlies were swept in 2005 and lost in four sets in 2015.

MOMENTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

While the overall start to the season has been rough, interspersed have been moments of optimism, displayed either by individuals or the team. The focus, as Lawrence noted, is being able to build off of those impressive moments and make them a consistent part of the team's game.

Back in late August, Montana looked dominant in a preseason exhibition match vs. North Dakota, winning the first four sets of a five-set scrimmage in front of Griz fans in Missoula. While both teams were tinkering with their lineups throughout the match, the athleticism displayed by the Griz shows potential for a young team, especially considering the North Dakota team that Montana beat is off to a 7-5 start.
Twice last weekend, against both CSU Bakersfield and UTEP, Montana had golden opportunities to secure set wins. In the third set vs. UTEP, Montana erased an early 6-1 hole and led on multiple occasions, including by a score of 16-14. Late in the set, Montana was right there, trailing 21-20, before the Miners scored the set's final four points. Montana's opportunity vs. CSU Bakersfield was even greater, with the team controlling the set and leading for 17 total points. Montana held a 23-20 lead, but being in unfamiliar territory couldn't close it out, dropping the next three points, and then after getting a point back and having a set-point opportunity, losing the next three. Montana has shown in several sets it can hang with its opponents; the next step is learning how to finish the sets.
Janna Grimsrud played sparingly through her first three seasons, appearing in 35 matches, including just nine last season. She developed herself into a vocal and on-court leader throughout the spring and summer and has been one of Montana's bright spots, starting all eight matches at middle blocker and leading the Griz for blocking (1.04 per set) and ranking first for hitting percentage (.183) and second for kills (1.96 per set). After recording 40 kills through her first three seasons with the Griz, she already has 47 in eight matches in 2019.
After redshirting in 2018, Elsa Godwin has begun to assert herself at the outside hitter position, being named to the Farmers State Bank all-tournament team last weekend. Montana is trying to find its best combination on the left side, with three different players earning starts, but Godwin has started each of the past three matches, including a performance vs. CSU Bakersfield that included seven kills on .312 hitting, eight digs and three blocks.
Just a true freshman, Amethyst Harper leads Montana with 50 kills (2.27 per set) and has started all eight matches at outside hitter. Her best performance came at the Gonzaga Invitational, when in back-to-back matches vs. Ball State and Grand Canyon she recorded 10 kills in both contests.
Montana has suited up both Sarina Moreno and Isabelle Garrido at libero, and both are capable of handling the load from the back row. Moreno has started five matches at libero and two as a second defensive specialist and is averaging 2.38 digs per set plus three service aces. Garrido has started three matches at libero and one at defensive specialist and is averaging 3.05 digs per set plus five service aces. Additionally, right-side hitter Missy Huddleston has a team-high 69 digs (2.88 per set), in addition to her 46 kills (1.92 per set).
Redshirt freshman Casey Stites was thrown into a hard position, finding out the week of Montana's first match that she would be starting at setter and replacing a player who ranks sixth in school history for career assists. In addition to setting, though, Stites leads Montana with six service aces and ranks second with 12 blocks (0.50 per set), despite standing just 5-6. She also had four kills on four attacks this past weekend vs. CSU Bakersfield and UTEP, finding the right times to keep the ball for herself instead of setting it to an attacker.
Montana has been out-blocked just three times in eight matches this season, recording a season-best eight stuffs vs. CSU Bakersfield.

AREAS OF NEEDED IMPROVEMENT

Opponents are way too terminal against the Griz defense, hitting a combined .340. Six of eight opponents have hit above .300 against the Grizzlies, including three over .380.
While opponents are hitting at a staggering rate, Montana's attacking hasn't been efficient enough. The Grizzlies have essentially taken the same number of swings as their opponents, 744 to 751, but have 125 fewer kills (217 to 342). The Grizzlies are averaging just 9.0 kills per set.
Montana has half as many service aces as its opponents (25 to 51), although the Grizzlies are making fewer errors from the service line (47 to 58).
In order to put themselves in position to win, the Grizzlies need to get off to better starts. In 12 of 24 sets this season, Montana has trailed by at least five points by the time its opponent reached 10 points in a set, forcing Montana to have to play catch-up, and often times taking the Grizzlies out of their game plan. Because of this, the Grizzlies have only led past the 10-point marker in three sets this season.

LOOKING AHEAD

Montana will open Big Sky Conference play in a big way, hosting Montana State for the annual Brawl of the Wild (Tuesday, 7 p.m.). A year ago, the Grizzlies knocked off the Bobcats in five sets in front of more than 1,000 fans. The match will be broadcast statewide on SWX Montana.

Complete match notes in PDF format, including charts, tables, player pages and more

Gallery: (9/14/2019) VB: vs. UTEP (9.14.19)

One week!#GrizVB #GoGriz #UpWithMontana pic.twitter.com/q4AX3osGTn
— Montana Griz VB (@MontanaGrizVB) September 18, 2019

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Players Mentioned

Isabelle Garrido

Elsa Godwin

Janna Grimsrud

Amethyst Harper

Missy Huddleston

Sarina Moreno

Casey Stites

University of Montana Athletics