Charleston defeats Montana on home floor

Sunday, August 29

Charleston, S.C.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

1-2, 0-0Big Sky

College of Charleston

3-1, 0-0CAA

Montana

Col. of Charleston

Photo by: Derek Johnson

8/29/2021 2:34:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Montana Sports Information

CHARLESTON, South Carolina – Montana concluded the CofC Invitational on Sunday morning with a four-set loss to host College of Charleston (25-18, 23-25, 25-21, 25-16). With a 3-1 record on the weekend, the host Cougars won their home tournament. Montana fell to 1-2, with its victory coming Saturday morning vs. perennial ASUN contender Kennesaw State.

Offensively, Montana was productive through the first two sets, hitting .312 as a team with its top-three attackers getting kills at an extremely high rate. The Grizzlies hit just .111 in Set 3, however, and .127 over the final two sets combined.

Meanwhile, Charleston was able to hit above .300 in three of the four sets and finished the day at a .315 clip.

The Cougars posted 15 more kills than Montana while also out-digging (60 to 50) and out-blocking (9 to 5) the Grizzlies.

"It's really hard to beat a team when they're hitting over .300," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "We weren't blocking enough balls, or even touching enough, to slow them down and create dig opportunities, and then when we did, we weren't digging them."

Montana had four players reach double figures for kills, with seniors Elsa Godwin and Peyten Boutwell leading the way with 11 apiece, followed by junior Elise Jolly (10) and sophomore Ellie Scherffius (10).

Similar to the hitting percentage, though, Montana wasn't able to get enough production from its pin attackers over the final two sets.

Godwin, for example, had nine kills less than halfway into the second set, but was held to just two more for the remainder of the match. Jolly had seven kills through two sets, but was able to convert just three of her final 14 swings into kills.

"Our offense was in and out, but Charleston made just adjustments that made us hit into a double block more," Lawrence said. "Ultimately, we had some passing breakdowns that put us out of system and didn't allow us to be as terminal because we were playing off the net a lot."

Montana held leads in all four sets, but breakdowns midway through several sets allowed Charleston to string points together, which proved to be the biggest difference. In the first set, Montana jumped out to a 5-2 advantage and held leads throughout the beginning of the frame. A 5-0 run for Charleston, though, and another 3-0 mini-spurt, proved to be the difference.

In Set 3, Montana and Charleston were playing point for point early, but after Montana took a 12-11 lead, Charleston scored the next five points and the Grizzlies never recovered. Montana scored the first three points of the fourth set, and held leads of 7-4 and 8-6, but Charleston used runs of 6-0 and 7-1 to put the Grizzlies away.

In Montana's Set-2 victory, it was the Grizzlies who took advantage of Charleston getting stuck in a bad rotation. After falling behind 7-3, Montana scored the next eight points to open up an 11-7 advantage. The remainder of the set was tight, including a tie at 17-17, but Montana never trailed from that point forward, hitting .364 in the set. During the 8-0 run, Godwin scored four consecutive points for the Grizzlies, with three kills and a block.

On defense, the Grizzlies were led on Sunday by 15 digs from senior libero Sarina Moreno and 10 from sophomore defensive specialist Sarah Ashley. Moreno (one) and Ashley (two) also contributed toward Montana's eight service aces.

"I thought we served, really, really well, but I didn't think our defense gave us enough chances to capitalize on our serving," Lawrence said. "What I'm looking forward to working on is how we can block and defend in tandem that allows us to take advantage of our serving."

Despite Sunday's result, the Grizzlies showed some things to be excited about moving into the second week of the season. Godwin's 11 kills on Sunday – in addition to three service aces – came after she recorded a career-high 14 Saturday night vs. Eastern Michigan.

In total, Montana's top five attackers each put together two double-digit kills performances over the weekend, and as a team the Grizzlies hit .226 – a small sample size – but significantly higher than the .147 they hit during the spring season.

"I feel confident from this tournament that we can score in serve-receive and side out, and that we have arms that can score points," Lawrence said. "We have pieces to build on, and now the next step is to continue doing that."

The Grizzlies will now have a jam-packed week, returning home Sunday before facing Seattle on Wednesday (5 p.m.) in the team's home opener. The Grizzlies will then travel the following day to Brookings, South Dakota, for three matches on Friday and Saturday.

Wednesday will mark the first time fans can attend a Griz volleyball match since November 2019. Season tickets and single-match tickets are currently on sale.