1st-place Portland State sweeps Montana

Saturday, October 8

Portland, Ore.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

10-7, 3-2Big Sky

Portland State

10-7, 5-1Big Sky

Montana

Portland State

Sarina Moreno vs. North Dakota - 8/26/22

Photo by: Derek Johnson

10/8/2022 10:04:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

PORTLAND, Ore. – Montana head volleyball coach Allison Lawrence knew that this week would be the Grizzlies' toughest road trip of the season, playing in two tough environments and facing two teams tied for first place in the Big Sky standings.

After a four-set loss at Sacramento State on Thursday night, the Grizzlies came up empty handed on Saturday, falling in straight sets to Portland State (25-21, 25-15, 25-11). The Hornets and Vikings are tied atop the Big Sky standings at 5-1, while Montana fell to 3-2.

"We want to take on the conference's best and match them with our own resilience and physicality," Lawrence said. "They, as players, want to do that and can do that, but this match exposed what can happen when we don't assert ourselves in a match."

Montana and Portland State battled through most of the first set. After Portland State scored the match's first five points, Montana answered with the next five, including two aces from senior libero Sarina Moreno. From that point forward, the two teams were tied at 12 consecutive points, from 5-5 through 16-16, with the Grizzlies taking their first lead at 11-10 on a Paige Clark ace.

The Vikings finally broke the stalemate with three straight points to jump in front 19-16. Montana twice worked back to within a point, including at 21-20, but could never recapture the lead.

"We extended rallies and scrapped in ways that pushed Portland State," Lawrence said of the opening set. "Good things were happening, and I felt, going into the second set, if we could get a few more kills that we would be right there."

While Montana early on looked like it could play point for point with Portland State – a team that earned a first-place vote in the league's preseason poll – the Grizzlies had no answer in the second or third sets.

Montana held a brief 3-2 Set-2 lead and was tied at 5-5 before the Vikings scored 11 of the next 14 points to double up the Grizzlies, 16-8. Montana never got closer than six points, as Portland State out-hit Montana .406 (16-3-32) to .100 (8-5-30).

Portland State jumped out to a 7-2 lead to begin Set 3, and following a 6-0 run held a strong, 16-5 advantage. The Grizzlies were again badly out-hit, .520 (15-2-25) to .150 (6-3-20).

"They were digging so many balls, and the quality of their first contact set up their offense," Lawrence said of Portland State. "They were in transition in system, they were in transition in serve-receive… We couldn't slow them down or score.

"It was frustrating and we played tight and disjointed and scared. We couldn't find ourselves in that match at all."

As a team, Montana had just 23 kills, with Clark recording eight of them. Elise Jolly and Catie Semadeni were next on the team, with four kills apiece. Moreno had a team-high 10 digs.

Portland State had twice as many kills as Montana, with three players reaching double figures and all three hitting above .320. The Vikings hit .381 as a team and were able to side out at a 74-percent rate.

The road trip finally ended a stretch that saw the Grizzlies play 13 of 14 matches on the road. Montana will return home for its next four contests – and seven of the next nine – beginning Thursday vs. Northern Arizona. The Grizzlies upset the Lumberjacks two weeks ago for their first win in Flagstaff in 12 years, but NAU is coming off of a win over preseason favorite Northern Colorado.

"The way this league is shaking up, there are a lot of teams who can take on the top of the league, and we are one of them," Lawrence said. "We have work to do, but I have confidence in what we can still accomplish this fall."