Grizzlies dominate Bengals in convincing sweep

Saturday, October 22

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

12-9, 5-4Big Sky

Idaho State

10-12, 2-7Big Sky

Idaho State

Montana

Photo by: Shanna Madison/UM Athletics

10/22/2022 5:16:00 PM | Volleyball

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By: Montana Sports Information

Montana set a goal before the season to start well in conference play. After having two or fewer wins at the midway point in the Big Sky schedule every year since 2018, they dedicated themselves to starting league play with wins to get themselves towards the top of the conference standings. Mission accomplished.

The Grizzlies looked the part of a top-tier Big Sky team Saturday, winning in dominant fashion against Idaho State to improve to 5-4 in Big Sky play and reach 12 overall wins for the first time since 2013. It also moved them into sole possession of 5^th place and one step closer to qualifying for the postseason.

Idaho State took four of the first five points on the afternoon, but outside of that run it never looked in doubt for Montana. The Grizzlies responded early with a 4-0 scoring run. After a single Bengal point, Montana rattled off four more that was capped with a strong attack from Catie Semadeni to give Montana an 11-6 lead.

They would string together a couple more three-plus point scoring runs down the stretch, including the final four points of the set, to close out the set winning 25-11. It matched the largest set victory of the year for Montana, and came from a balanced effort.

HUGE kill from Ellie Scherffius!!!#MontanaVB pic.twitter.com/lDyyXlOQWS
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 22, 2022

The offense shined, with Ellie Scherffius and Semadeni each recording four kills on over .500 hitting. Montana hit .387 as a team, committing just three errors. That offense was able to get going thanks to key defensive and passing performances from Sarina Moreno and Jackie Howell. The duo were great on the ground, and Montana held Idaho State to just four kills. They also committed five errors for a negative hitting percentage in the opening set.

"It was crucial and part of our gameplan. I think from Thursday, we had so many areas we wanted to respond in but one was serve-receive," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "Against Weber State, our offense couldn't really be varied because our serve-receive was putting us in positions where we could only set one person. The serve-pass game needed to show up in big ways and that was our major focus, so I'm really proud of Jackie and Sarina."

In the second set, Idaho State again jumped out to an early 4-1 lead. Montana slowly battled back, and took the lead at 11-10 thanks to a 4-0 scoring run. Carly Anderson placed a serve beautifully for an ace later that closed out an 8-1 scoring run for Montana that brought them into the media timeout.

✨ Picture-perfect dump from Anderson ✨ #MontanaVB pic.twitter.com/idmRoEFQaQ
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 22, 2022

After Idaho State opened the set with five kills and no errors, the Grizzly defense stepped up forcing them into five errors while adding just three more kills. The dominance going in and coming out of the media timeout was part of the game plan for Montana.

"Middle of sets is something we focused on in practice because in a lot of moments in conference we've been leading at the media timeout or neck and neck, and then we will have a significant breakdown in that middle part of the set," Lawrence said. "I was proud of them for that today."

Montana got a boost from Paige Clark to begin the third set, as she had four of Montana's first five points. Semadeni took over from there, recording six of her team high 10 kills in the final set. She hit .429, marking the third match this season she has recorded double-digit kills and at least a .400 hitting percentage.

She kept the Grizzlies in it through the early set, and really took over in that crucial middle set period. Montana gave up the lead after three straight ISU points at 12-11, but went into the media timeout ahead 15-12 after a 4-0 run.

Clark picked up her fourth ace of the match – setting a new career high – later in the set to make it 17-13. Idaho State went on a late run to make it interesting, but Clark delivered the final points of the night with a kill then block to seal the 25-21 set win.

Clark ends it with the block!! #MontanaVB pic.twitter.com/wfmmO81aks
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 22, 2022

It might not have been the perfect night attacking for Clark, but she did add the four aces. Anderson, Howell, and Elise Jolly had two aces each, bringing the Grizzly total to 10 for the match. It was the second time Montana finished with double digit aces this season. While they did commit nine errors, the aggressive service game had Idaho State off balance all day.

"Errors in themselves aren't a bad thing. I think for volleyball a lot of people will just throw up their hands with any service error, but if you're serving tough your ace to error ratio should be about one," Lawrence said. "We knew we were going to go after them.

"It's also a tone-setting thing that any ball that is going to come over will be hard to pass. You might give up a few more errors in that, but you hope that it rattles them in a way where, even when we're maybe taking a little off our serve it is still getting them out of system. I thought we did that so well."

The Grizzlies had six players finish with at least five kills. Clark and Semadeni led the way with 10, followed by Scherffius (7 on .286 hitting) and Howell (6 on .333 hitting). Elise Jolly also had five, while adding five blocks.

Anderson recorded at least five kills for the second straight match, hitting .714 while also providing 32 assists. She also had a double-double with 10 digs. Moreno led defensively with 22 total digs.

Gallery: (10-22-2022) VB: vs. Idaho State (10.22.22)

The win snaps a losing streak for Montana and puts them at 5-4 in conference play. The goal to start fast was achieved, as the Grizzlies started the season 3-0. They had a difficult chunk of the schedule in recent matches, but are sitting well within the postseason picture at the moment.

The four losses have all come to the top four teams in the Big Sky standings, while they remained undefeated against teams below them with the Idaho State win. They now take to the road for matches against Eastern Washington (8-11, 3-4 BSC) and Idaho (4-16, 1-7 BSC).

"Through January and the beginning of this season, our team set goals and was so deliberate about wanting to have a really good start to conference," Lawrence said. "If you look at the last couple of years, we'd have a slow start and be 1-7 or 2-6, then in the back half of conference we'd surge and skid into the conference tournament that way. They set that goal, and our athletes did it."