Griz win twice in Kansas City to get back to .500

Friday, September 20

Kansas City, Mo.

9:00 AM (MT)

Montana

4-5,0-0Big Sky

Bradley

3-7,0-0MVC

Montana

Bradley

9/20/2024 10:46:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

Victory tasted twice as sweet for the Montana volleyball team on Friday as they picked up a pair of wins at the Kangaroo Klassic in Kansas City. The Griz opened the day with a sweep of Bradley and returned to the floor Friday night to knock off the host Kansas City Roos in four sets.

The Grizzlies improved to 5-5 on the season with the two wins, and will have a chance to not only win the tournament Saturday morning but also finish the non-conference schedule above .500. It would be the second time in three years they accomplished that feat, but just the fourth overall in the rally scoring era.

It took a big effort on Friday with two matches in one day for the first time this season, including a true road match to end the day.

"I think it was an exceptional effort by our entire roster," head coach Allison Lawrence said of the day. "I don't love playing two matched in one day, I don't think it's great for our sport, but we have to do it sometimes. I think one positive that really came out of it for me was that it added unity for our team. We were already unified and cohesive, but I think it brought out another level."

Absolutely INSANE save by Alexis Batezel leads to the match-winning point! #GrizVB | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/FHyWlYtQVo
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) September 21, 2024

Montana 3, Bradley 0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-19)

It took Montana some time to get things going with an early morning start, but once they did they left no doubt against the Bradley Braves. Montana held its opponent under .100 hitting for the third time this season to pick up its second sweep of the year.

The Grizzlies didn't take a lead until 18-17 in the opening set, but they were able to come from behind to win a tight first set, opened it up in the second, and then ran away with the match in the third.

"We started a little bit frazzled, but not from lack of effort. We were almost just overplaying in moments where we need to relax," Lawrence said. "I think you get that with an early match. We were prepped to not have a slow start in that way, it was one of our main goals, but I was proud of us for finding our rhythm and trusting that if we kept hitting our details we could relax into our game. I think as the match went on you saw that in the stats and the spread of points."

The win came behind a balanced effort as Montana played well in every facet of the game. Montana's defense helped it win the first set with four team blocks. They held the Braves to just .085 hitting during the first set.

As the match went on, the offense started to catch fire. They closed the match out by hitting .303 in the third, just the third time this season that the Grizzlies were above .300 in a set.

The moments in between saw a strong ground defense, led by Alexis Batezel's 18 digs, and strong team serving.

"It was nice to have all parts of our game show up on the stat sheet. I think that was a win where we executed every area well," Lawrence said. "There were parts of sets where we would have a breakdown in one of those areas but we got back on track."

Bradley opened the match up on a 3-0 run and held the lead for most of the first set. The Grizzlies used a 4-0 run, highlighted by a pair of blocks and a kill from Brenley Hansen, to tie it up for the first time at 15-all.

The Grizzlies had trailed by four points on five different occasions in the opening set, but took the lead for the first time at 18-17. They were tied again at 20, 21, and 22, but pulled away in the closing moments.

Montana entered the day 1-5 in sets decided by two points. They have been working hard on finishing out sets, and did just that as Clark and Pyles both delivered a pair of kills in the closing stretch to seal the win.

Lawrence said that the key to closing it out this time was the serve.

"We had a really consistent, aggressive effort from all of our servers. I think that has been something in the close sets that we've lost that hasn't showed up," Lawrence said. "We're a very good serving team and when it shows up past 20 we are getting swing opportunities to get set point. We kind of completed that piece of it and then executed when the serve set up what we wanted it to set up."

The second set started similarly to the first with the Braves going ahead 5-1 early. Montana brought it back to an 8-8 tie, and then really started to separate a moment later with a 5-0 run. It helped them to a 15-10 advantage at the media timeout, but that was quickly erased out of the break by a 5-0 Braves run.

Pyles was clutch in the first set and had a big impact in the second as well. After Montana fell behind 20-19, Pyles got a side out with a kill and then added an ace at the service line as part of a 3-0 Griz run to make it 22-20.

The Griz scored six of the final eight points for a 25-22 win in the second. Kremer had four kills on .667 hitting in the set, while Batezel had eight of her 18 digs in the second. Montana again held BU in check with just .049 hitting.

"I thought the effort by Lexi to hold defensive structure allowed us to be balanced through our floor defense. We knew going in that Bradley is a team that really extends rallies," Lawrence said. "They tip and off-speed a lot and make really smart plays to keep the ball in play, so we were prepared for really long rallies and I think that was part of how we were able to hold structure, be patient, and then be physical when we got the opportunities to do so."

After two tightly contested sets, Montana opened things up in the third. They fell behind 3-1 early, but a 4-0 run at that point gave them the lead for good.

Bradley battled back to tie things up at 11-all, but Clark delivered a statement at that point to all but end the match. Three straight kills from the senior made it 14-11. After a Bradley error, she ripped another ball to the floor for her fourth kill during a 5-0 Montana run.

The Braves wouldn't get back within four points as the Montana offense overpowered them on the way to a 25-19 win to close out the sweep.

Clark and Kremer shared the team lead with 13 kills each, and they were set up all match long by Casi Newman. The transfer had 37 assists, her second-most as a Grizzly. It's the seventh straight match in double-figure kills for Clark, who also recorded her second straight double-double (13K/10D). Kremer had 10-plus kills for the second straight time.

Montana 3, Kansas City 1 (24-26, 25-22, 25-19, 25-20)

The Grizzlies came out on fire in the second match of the day, but weren't able to hold on to a big lead in the opening set. They wiped away any doubt in their ability to get the win moving forward as they took the next three sets for a win.

There may have been a long break after the final set of the first match, but Montana's offense picked up right where it left off. The Grizzlies hit .278 for the match, their highest percentage this season.

They never let up, hitting over .235 in all four sets as they finished the match with 54 kills to just 14 errors. Casi Newman set up the offense with a season-high 40 assists, and the ball was spread around to plenty of Grizzlies.

Paige Clark led the way with a season-high 19 kills, Maddie Kremer had a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs, and Maddie Pyles had a standout performance with 12 kills on .526 hitting. The 12 kills match a career-high for Pyles, and she was also one dig away from a double-double.

Pyles also had a pair of service aces, doing a bit of everything to help the Grizzlies to the win.

"I think Maddie Pyles was on and so fiery, good, and efficient. She served really well and dug really well. We had a lot of standout performances like that," Lawrence said.

Many of those performances came on the defensive side as the Grizzlies had a season-high 67 digs. Alexis Batezel was key to that as she reached 20 digs for the first time this season and had an impressive save on match point that allowed the Grizzlies to put it away.

Lawrence and her staff knew that Kansas City were going to make things difficult by extending points. They handled it, and persevered in the clutch moments down the stretch to get the four set win.

Maddie Kremer rips a kill and we're closing in on a set three win in Kansas City!#GrizVB | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/owbsTWMFvP
— Montana Griz Volleyball (@MontanaGrizVB) September 21, 2024

"I think everybody dug well and were committed to a huge defensive effort. UMKC dug really well and extended points, so there were a lot of long rallies in an already long day, in an already tight match," Lawrence said. "What I loved, through all that, was we would get to 20, and it would be very close point-for-point, but we executed at our best past 20 points."

The Grizzlies led by seven in the first set but got cold down the stretch at the Roos came from behind to win it. They would not suffer the same fate in the second set. The teams were tied at 18-all before Montana scored seven of the final 11 points to even the match at one set apiece.

Montana fell behind 6-1 early in the third set, but outscored Kansas City 17-6 through the middle portion of the set to jump ahead 18-12. Clark had five kills during the run to help Montana take control.

Similar to the second, the Griz were able to close the set out strong. They scored five of the final seven points to take the 2-1 lead in the match.

It was another familiar pattern in the final set as Montana ended the match on a 7-1 run to close things out in four sets. The Grizzlies had nine aces in the match. Freshman Delaney Russell led with three, and she and her teammates were able to keep the Roos off balance in the most crucial times of the sets.

"Service pressure was consistent, and our ability to reset after an error, remain patient, and get back to our rhythm was really exceptional, especially with the added fatigue," Lawrence said. "There were a lot of elements we don't normally play in, it was a long day, there was a lot of humidity, and I'm sure fatigue was part of it for both teams. I loved our attitudes and how deeply we dug through that."

UP NEXT

Montana will close out the Kangaroo Klassic on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. against Lindenwood. The Lions won in three sets over Kansas City, but lost 3-1 to Bradley later in the day.

"It's a quick turnaround," Lawrence said. "I think tomorrow will be a big test of our resiliency again because I think this turnaround might be even harder than the one we just went through."

The Grizzlies will clinch the tournament title with a win on Saturday morning. The match will not be streamed, but live stats can be found HERE.