Griz fall to league leaders on the road

Thursday, October 19

Sacramento, Calif.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

8-12,4-4Big Sky

Sacramento State

14-8,7-1Big Sky

Montana

Sacramento St.

10/19/2023 10:21:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana volleyball had a dream start on the road against Sacramento State with a big win in the opening set on Thursday night, but the top defense in the Big Sky slowed the Griz down the rest of the way in a 3-1 win for the Hornets.

The Grizzlies fall to 8-12 on the year and 4-4 in Big Sky play with the loss. Sacramento State takes over sole possession of first place in the Big Sky with a 7-1 league record.

It couldn't have started much better for Montana as the Grizzlies hit .424 in a 25-18 opening set win and had an early lead in the second set. But a nine-point Sacramento State run during that set completely changed the entire flow of the match, and the Hornets would hold on to win the final three 25-16, 25-16, 25-20.

"Our ability to hold our aggression through the natural ups and downs in momentum when you're playing as the away team and playing against a team like Sacramento State that is so defensively resilient, that's the big lesson," head coach Allison Lawrence said of her takeaway from the match. "When we are doing that it feels really good and builds a lot of confidence, and I think it's definitely a piece we can take away from this."

Ellie Scherffius had 10 kills on .643 hitting for Montana and was involved in the only two blocks of the night for the Grizzly defense. The area ended up providing Sacramento State with a significant advantage, as the top blocking team in the Big Sky finished with 12 on the night.

The Grizzlies were aggressive from the service line all night and the risk/reward strategy came out about even. Montana finished with 10 service aces, reaching double-figures in the category for just the fourth time all season. But they also recorded 13 errors, which matched a season high.

Sarah Ashley had a great night at the service line and matched a career high with five aces. It's also tied for the most by a Grizzly this season, sharing that honor with Carly Anderson who did it in the win over Green Bay in early September.

"We definitely wanted to serve tough. In that first set we were just high error, not by design, but as the match went on our ace numbers grew and I think we settled into a better serving rhythm," Lawrence said. "Sarah served aggressively, went for it and set a tone from the service line that we needed and it gave us a lot of confidence."

Sarah Ashley with back-to-back service aces to extend the Griz lead to 15-9 on Sacramento State!#GrizVB | #BigSkyVB | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/DqXqhPiPK5
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 20, 2023

Early on, the service errors were about the only thing going wrong for Montana. The Grizzly offense was clicking early and they reeled off a 4-0 run to take a significant early lead. They went up 12-9 at one point and nearly half of Sacramento State's points had come off Grizzly service errors.

Ashley had one of her best runs of the match a moment later, capping off a 3-0 Grizzly run that put them ahead 15-9. They continued to stretch the lead and it ballooned up to 19-10 after a 4-0 run that saw Scherffius and Maddie Kremer each contribute two points. Montana were hitting nearly .500 at that point in the match and holding the Hornets to .150.

Sacramento State made a late run just to get to 18 points, but the Grizzlies closed it out. Scherffius had a fantastic opening set with five kills on seven swings, and the Griz hit .424 as a team.

"I think we wanted to have a strong start and just be the aggressors from point one and I think we were just so eager to be playmakers and be physical. We weren't executing perfectly, we had a slew of missed serves in that set and I think our passing was still finding its rhythm. We didn't play perfect, but we played physical in the ways that we can and took control early and it felt really good."

Madi Chuhlantseff's kill ends the set for Montana!#GrizVB | #BigSkyVB | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/tNgNHChYV9
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 20, 2023

Another good service run from Ashley early in the second set led to five straight Montana points and put them ahead 6-4. The teams traded points until a Madi Chuhlantseff kill made it 11-10 Montana. Then, the match turned on its head.

Sacramento State scored nine straight points and only gave up the serve on an error from the line. They scored in all sorts of ways, keeping Montana off balanced on the way to a 25-16 set win. The Griz were held under .100 hitting in the set, and the Sacramento State defense repeated the performance in a 25-16 third set.

Montana would regain some of the momentum early on in the fourth set, holding a lead for much of the early stages. They had another 4-0 service run from Ashley and scored six out of seven points overall to take an 11-9 lead.

A Paige Clark kill followed by a Sacramento State error a few points later made it 14-12 Montana and it looked like the Griz may have a chance to force a fifth set. But another Hornet run would make things incredibly difficult for Montana.

The 14-12 lead turned into an 18-14 deficit quickly. To Montana's credit they responded with three straight points of their own, but Sacramento State would retake the lead and not allow Montana within two points the rest of the way in a 25-20 victory.

Paige Clark shared the team lead with Scherffius with 10 kills of her own on .161 hitting and she nearly reached a double-double with seven digs. Carly Anderson had four kills and five digs to go along with her 32 assists.

The two team blocks were the fewest of the season for Montana as the Hornets hit .304 for the match.

"I think there are things we are executing and doing at a higher level than we have done all season," Lawrence said. "I think now it's just about maintaining that consistency."

Montana will have another chance at a road win on Saturday as they take on Portland State at 8:00 p.m. (MT) in Viking Pavilion. The Grizzlies won the last meeting against the Vikings in Dahlberg Arena last season, but are looking for their first win in Portland since 2015.