Challenging slate awaits Griz in Spokane

Montana vs. Ball State / Friday / 5 p.m. (MT) / Spokane, Wash.

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Montana vs. Grand Canyon / Saturday / 2 p.m. (MT) / Spokane, Wash.

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Montana at Gonzaga / Saturday / 7 p.m. (MT) / Spokane, Wash.

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It was a rough start to the season for the Montana volleyball team, and unfortunately for the Griz, the road doesn't get any easier. Montana will travel to Spokane, Wash., this weekend for the Gonzaga Invitational. The field includes opponents with a combined record of 7-2, including two teams – Gonzaga and Grand Canyon – who are a spotless 3-0 on the young season.

Montana opens the weekend against a Ball State team that earlier this week lost at No. 17 Purdue. On Saturday, the Grizzlies will play a doubleheader against Grand Canyon and host Gonzaga.

"This weekend will be another really tough challenge, but for a young, inexperienced team, that's what's going to grow us the quickest," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "We want to dig a lot more balls than we did last weekend and just finish plays. We're putting ourselves in good positions to execute – whether it's a block, a dig or an out-of-system swing – but we're a few inches away. I like the team's response, and now we have to take the next step and continue to fight to be resilient."

WEEK 1 HIGHLIGHTS
While last week wasn't the opener Montana was hoping for, there were a few positive takeaways:

In the third set at UC Davis, Montana hit .560, recording 14 kills without an error (14-0-25). It marked the team's highest single-set hitting percentage since Sept. 24, 2016 vs. Idaho, and was the first time the Grizzlies recorded zero attack errors in a set since Sept. 19, 2015 vs. Illinois-Chicago.
As a team vs. the Aggies, Montana hit .282, the sixth time in the past five seasons that the Grizzlies have surpassed .280. It was the team's highest hitting percentage in a loss since Montana hit .323 at Virginia on Aug. 31, 2013.
In the season opener at UC Davis, Janna Grimsrud had 10 kills on .500 hitting. Her previous high for kills was five. Grimsrud would earn all-tournament recognition after averaging 2.22 kills and 0.89 blocks per set.
Kelly Horning had five kills with zero attack errors in two of the three matches, hitting .556 vs. UC Davis and .417 vs. San José State. She also had a service ace in all three matches.
After trailing the third set vs. San José State, 10-3, Montana worked back to take the lead at 18-17.
Libero Sarina Moreno had a dozen digs in the final two matches.
Montana had eight players make their collegiate debuts, including six earn starts.

YOUTH ON DISPLAY
With nine freshmen on its roster, Montana will heavily rely on underclassmen this fall. The opening weekend was a perfect display of that, with eight of the 11 players who took the court making their collegiate debuts. Only Janna Grimsrud, Missy Huddleston and Sarina Moreno had played in a college match prior to last weekend.

Not only did the freshmen play, but they played key roles. Six of the eight freshmen earned at least one start, with 12 of the 18 starts overall coming from a newcomer. True freshmen Amethyst Harper and Kelly Horning and redshirt freshman Casey Stites started all three matches, while Isabelle Garrido (twice), Elsa Godwin (once) and Catie Semadeni (once) also started.

The newcomers accounted for 94.0 percent of the team's assists, 70.0 percent of its service aces, 53.4 percent of its kills, 51.7 percent of its digs and 43.8 percent of its blocks.

GRIMSRUD EARNS ACCOLADES
In her first three seasons with the Griz, middle blocker Janna Grimsrud played sporadically, appearing in 35 matches while recording 28 kills and 57 blocks. During the spring, the senior emerged as not only a vocal team leader, but one on the court as well. She started all three matches of the Aggie Invitational and led the Griz with 2.22 kills and 0.89 blocks per set.

For comparison, her 20 kills across three matches were nearly as many as Grimsrud had posted in her first three seasons (28). For her efforts, the Canadian was named to the Aggie Invitational all-tournament team.

SCOUTING BALL STATE

Ball State opened the season with a sweep over UAB, before falling in five sets to USF and in straight sets at No. 17 Purdue.
Seniors Amber Seaman and Sydnee VanBeek were named to the All-MAC preseason team. Seaman was the 2018 MAC Setter of the Year while VanBeek was a first-team middle blocker.
Ball State was picked to win the MAC West Division for the third consecutive season.
Four Cardinals are averaging at least 2.00 kills per set, led by freshman OH Natalie Mitchem (3.64 per set).
Ball State ranked 38th nationally for blocking a year ago, and through three matches has five different players with at least four blocks.
Ball State went 22-10 in 2018, qualifying for the NIVC postseason tournament. The Cardinals returned eight letterwinners and four starters.
Kelli Miller-Phillips is in her fourth season leading the Cardinals, winning back-to-back MAC division titles.

SERIES VS. THE CARDINALS
Montana and Ball State have met twice before, with the Cardinals winning both contests. The first meeting came in 1997 in Fayetteville, Ark. (3-0 BSU), with the most-recent occurring in 2014 in Laramie, Wyo. (3-2 BSU). In that match, Montana won the first two sets before losing Set 4, 25-22, and Set 5, 15-12.

SCOUTING GRAND CANYON

GCU is 3-0 on the young season, winning Northern Colorado's tournament with victories over New Mexico, Rutgers and UNC.
Two of GCU's matches have gone a full five sets and seven sets have been decided by the minimum two points.
GCU returns all seven starters from last year's team, including MB Kaira Moss, who last fall was named to the WAC All-Freshman Team.
Senior OH Melody Horton (3.56 kills per set) and junior OH Yeny Murillo (3.36) paced GCU on offense during the opening weekend.
The Lopes have four returners who averaged at least 2.00 kills per set in 2018. OH Kayla Matthews had a team-best 2.56 kills per set, MB Annabelle Kubinski hit a team-best .305 and Moss averaged 0.90 blocks per set, in addition to her 2.29 kills per set.
Former USC associate head coach Tom Nollan is in his fourth season leading GCU. The Lopes went 11-17 (4-12 WAC) in 2018.

SERIES VS. THE LOPES
Montana and Grand Canyon have never met before in volleyball.

SCOUTING GONZAGA

Gonzaga opened the 2019 season with wins over UConn, Navy and Army, dropping just one total set while playing away from home.
Gonzaga returned three starters from last year's squad, led by OH Sarah Penner, who is averaging 4.40 kills per set on .311 hitting through three matches. The junior was named to the preseason All-WCC team.
In addition to Penner, junior MB Katelyn Oppio (4.00) and junior OH Chapin Gray (3.56) have also been dominant offensively. All three attackers are hitting above .300.
Sophomore OH Kennedy Croft already has 11 service aces on the season (1.57 per set).
Gonzaga was picked to finish eighth in the preseason WCC coaches' poll.
Diane Nelson is in her fourth season leading Gonzaga, going 45-45.

SERIES VS. THE BULLDOGS
Montana's rivalry with Gonzaga dates back to 1979. The two teams played each other at least once every season from 1983 through 2010, and overall, the Grizzlies are 29-16, including a victory last fall. The series has featured some of the program's top individual and team performances, including two of the top-three individual single-match kills totals and the second-most team service aces, digs and blocks in a match.

LAST TIME VS. GONZAGA...
One of the highlights from Montana's 2018 season was its thrilling victory over Gonzaga, the Grizzlies' first win of the season. After winning the first two sets, Montana dropped the next two and fell behind in the fifth, 14-13. Missy Huddleston took over from there, recording a kill and service ace to fend off match point, and several points later, Montana had sealed the win, 17-15.

Huddleston had a career-high 24 kills in the match, doing so at a .333 clip. Sarina Moreno had 20 digs while Janna Grimsrud tallied six blocks. For the Zags, Chapin Gray had 17 kills on .400 hitting while Sarah Penner had 13 kills at a .323 clip. Katelyn Oppio had four service aces.

REPLACING PRODUCTION
After returning 100 percent of their starts and more than 95 percent of their kills, assists, blocks and total points from 2017 to 2018, the Grizzlies lost far more in 2019, including their top four attackers and three blockers. Overall, Montana returns just 54 percent of its digs from a season ago, 43 percent of its aces, 35 percent of its blocks and 16 percent of its kills.

WELCOME BACK
The majority of Montana's roster is new, but the Grizzlies did return a few key pieces from last year's squad. Returning are seniors Ashley Watkins (ranks sixth in school history with more than 2,500 career assists), Missy Huddleston (top returning attacker, second for digs) and Janna Grimsrud (0.90 blocks-per-set average in limited time a year ago). Sarina Moreno started at libero for the final 27 matches of 2018, totaling 429 digs (4.25 per set), which ranks 11th in school history and most ever by a freshman.

TRENDING UP
Montana ranked last or second-to-last in the Big Sky Conference in every statistical category before Allison Lawrence took over as head coach prior to the 2017 season. In two seasons since, the Grizzlies have risen by at least three spots in each category, and have increased their assists, kills, blocks and digs by roughly 100 spots apiece in the national rankings.

BUILDING MOMENTUM
Montana had a banner season in 2018, posting 10 victories, its highest win total since 2013. The Grizzlies won seven Big Sky matches and qualified for the Big Sky tournament for the first time since 2014. For comparison, Montana won just five conference matches in 2016 and 2017 combined.

HOME SWEET HOME
Despite playing two top-30 teams, Montana went 5-7 at home in 2018, winning five consecutive home matches from Sept. 1-Oct. 11. The Grizzlies averaged nearly 600 fans per home match, its largest figure in 23 seasons.

LOOKING AHEAD
After back-to-back weekends on the road, Montana will stay in Missoula next week to host the Farmers State Bank Invitational (Sept. 13-14). The field includes CSU Bakersfield, Montana State and UTEP, with the Grizzlies playing CSU Bakersfield on Sept. 13 and UTEP on Sept. 14. The Griz and Cats will delay their matchup until Sept. 24, when conference play begins.

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

We open our home season next week, and it'll come on a brand new court!#GrizVB #GoGriz #UpWithMontana pic.twitter.com/dEfV7mmaFT
— Montana Griz VB (@MontanaGrizVB) September 5, 2019

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Players Mentioned

Isabelle Garrido

Elsa Godwin

Janna Grimsrud

Amethyst Harper

Kelly Horning

Missy Huddleston

Sarina Moreno

Catie Semadeni

Casey Stites

Ashley Watkins

University of Montana Athletics