Cats beat Griz

Friday, October 25

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

6-14,1-8Big Sky

Montana State

7-13,5-4Big Sky

Montana St.

Montana

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

10/25/2024 10:19:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana State maintained control of the Main Line Trophy on Friday night, defeating Montana 3-0 in Dahlberg Arena in the first meeting of the season between the two rivals.

The Griz struggled to get their offense going against one of the top blocks in the Big Sky as Montana State finished the night with 12 blocks. The Bobcats won 25-19, 25-16, 25-23 to improve to 5-4 in Big Sky play.

"There's stretches of execution and consistency, and then there are stretches of pretty colossal breakdowns," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "I think when you have a team with as many weapons as MSU has and they are playing that consistently, it feels very stressful."

Montana (6-14, 1-8 Big Sky) was led by Maddie Pyles (10 kills, 12 digs) and Maddie Kremer (10 kills, 11 digs) as both Maddies finished with double-doubles on the night.

The Griz made some adjustments to the starting lineup as Gracie Cagle picked up her first career start at setter. The sophomore had 22 assists and four kills on .364 hitting.

Brenley Hansen also returned from injury to start the match. The middle blocker had missed the previous four matches, but came back to have three kills on five attacks and a team-high three blocks.

Freshman Delaney Russell proved to a be a spark-plug off the bench, entering in the third set and giving the Griz new energy. She had five kills with zero errors on .455 hitting in the third set. It's a new career high for the rookie.

New career high for the freshman Delaney Russell with her fifth kill of the match! pic.twitter.com/sMOvi6OC0L
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 26, 2024

Her play helped Montana to its closest set of the night as they rallied from a deficit and were tied several times in the closing moments only to fall by the slimmest of margins.

"I was proud our run in the third. I think a lot of that had to do with how Delaney and Maddie Pyles played. I think once Delaney came in it provided a huge spark that just changed the feel in the gym once again, she's done that before. I thought Pyles had a great match blocking and attacking."

Montana State started out with the first three points, negating the energy of a crowd of nearly 2,000 fans inside Dahlberg Arena. The final attendance was 1,974, the fourth-best attendance in program history, trailing only the previous two versions of the rivalry and a 1991 Big Sky Tournament match against Idaho.

It was a strong start for both offenses. The Bobcats held a 10-6 lead early. The Griz didn't have a single attack error through the first 16 points, but they also had a difficult time finding the floor as they had just four kills on the first 15 attacks.

Kremer had an impressive first set, recording five kills on .400 hitting to help Montana to a .103 mark as a team, its best set percentage of the night.

Maddie Kremer is on 🔥🔥🔥

She's got four kills already as we're cutting into the Cat lead. pic.twitter.com/HlBosinOFP
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) October 26, 2024

The Bobcats looked in control, leading 15-10 at the media timeout, but the Griz scored four straight out of that break, keyed along by Kremer, to get back within a point. They tied it up for the first time at 17-all, and were back tied at 18, but MSU scored seven of the final eight points to win the first 25-19.

In the second, Montana had a run of five out of six points early to take a 6-4 lead. Cagle was operating the offense well and put the team up 9-6 with her fourth kill of the night, but the block from Montana State got hot and it led to a 11-3 run from the visitors to retake control.

They closed it out strong, winning 25-16.

"It felt like in parts of that match there were different ways of breaking down. I thought MSU put pressure on our system and players in order to facilitate that," Lawrence said. "It felt like in the first two sets that we were reacting and behind plays and trying to catch up to their system in a way.

"I think one layer of that in the second set was that we were just being outworked," she continued. "They had some hustle players where we thought balls were down and we kind of stopped playing. Then we're not in structure and free balls are coming back and maybe we win a few of those points, but also the general feel is that they're doing everything they can to extend rallies and we are hoping that rallies end rather than ensuring it."

The Bobcats started well in the third, jumping out to an early 7-2 lead to force a Grizzly timeout. Montana went on a 3-0 run out of the timeout, and played a bit of a yo-yo game the rest of the way in the set as the Cats would pull ahead and Montana would reel them back in.

Russell played the key role in that offensively for Montana, while Ginny Pace also entered the match to give them a new energy. Kremer got hot again down the stretch, and had two kills during a 3-0 Griz run that tied it up at 19-all.

The Cats pulled back ahead 23-20, but a pair of kills from Paige Clark and one from Russell gave Montana another 3-0 run to tie it up at 23-all. An error from Montana and a final kill from the Bobcats ended it in excruciating fashion for the hosts.

Montana has now dropped four straight matches. They will look to right the ship next week with two more home matches. They start with a Halloween matchup against Idaho State (15-5, 6-2 Big Sky) and then face off on Saturday, Nov. 2 against Weber State (8-11, 5-3 Big Sky).