Eagles come back to beat Griz

Thursday, October 1

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

4-10,0-3Big Sky

Eastern Washington

8-7,2-1Big Sky

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Eastern Wash.	17	25	25	25	3
Montana	25	19	17	20	1

Photo by: Kassidy Gerono/University of Montana

10/1/2026 10:27:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana jumped out to an early lead on Thursday night inside Dahlberg Arena but it was Eastern Washington who would win the night, coming from behind to win in four sets. The Griz won the first 25-17, but Eastern Washington won the final three sets 25-19, 25-17, 25-20.

The win improves the Eagles to 8-7 overall and 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play. Montana falls to 4-10 and 0-3 in league play with the loss.

Montana hit .345 in the first set with 13 kills and just three errors, dominating the Eagles in an impressive opener that also saw five service aces. From there, Montana was held to just .030 hitting against an Eagle defense that entered the night in the top 20 nationally in blocks.

"I'm really frustrated, along with our athletes, with how hot and cold we are offensively," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "We held Eastern Washington to some manageable attack percentages. There were certain weapons of theirs that felt like trouble spots that we needed to neutralize a little more, but going from hitting .345 to negative .088 in the second set is jarring and we never really climbed out of that."

The match started off with an ace from Gracie Cagle, a trend that would continue throughout the night. The Griz followed that up with a kill from Kaylee Paulson, starting her first career match in place of the injured Isa Taylor.

The hot start extended all the way to a 5-1 Grizzly lead as Montana rode the home momentum early. Eastern Washington pulled it back to a tie at 9-all, but Montana used a big run with Cagle at the service line to take control of the opening set.

The Grizzlies went on a 7-0 run, with four of the points coming off of Cagle aces, to go up 18-10. Cagle had five service aces in the opening set and finished the night with seven, a new career high and a top 10 mark for a single match in program history.

It's the first time since Taryn Wright in 2008 that a Grizzly has recorded 7-or-more aces in a match.

The serving had Eastern Washington out of sorts on the other side of the night, and Montana had things rolling on their side with 13 kills. Paulson and Sydney Pierce led Montana with three each in the first set while three other Grizzlies had two in a balanced effort.

"Our serving caused some poor passing by them and when that happens you're getting a lot of easier balls in transition and then we were able to score," Lawrence said. "They made some changes and ball-handled better in the second set."

There were zero lead changes in the first set and the second followed the same story, although it was Eastern Washington that jumped ahead early this time with the first three points.

Montana worked it back to a tie at 11-all, but once again a mid-set run gave the winning side all the momentum they needed. Eastern Washington scored six straight to go up 17-11 and held on for the 25-19 win.

After hitting .345 in the first, the Griz were held to just five kills and eight errors in the second set for a -.088 percentage. They held Eastern Washington in check for the most part with the Eagles hitting just .091, but couldn't muster the offense to complete a comeback.

Lawrence switched things up in the third set, starting Mylee Blake and giving the sophomore six attacks. Blake had three kills in the set on .333 hitting and Montana battled with the lead changing hands multiple times, but a 6-2 run in the middle of the set by EWU gave them a 17-12 advantage.

Montana was able to get within two points with a run of their own, but Eastern held on for the 25-17 win.

The momentum that Eastern Washington picked up in the third carried over to the fourth set when they opened with seven of the first nine points to force Lawrence into an early timeout.

The Griz responded from there, thanks in part to a spark off the bench from Alex Stone. Stone had a kill and Blake added two kills and a block during a 6-1 Grizzly run to tie it up at 8-all.

Paulson had two more of her season high 11 kills to give Montana a 13-11 lead and end an 11-4 run for the Griz. Montana stayed ahead for a stretch, leading 17-15 after another kill from Blake.

Eastern Washington then rattled off seven straight points to go up 22-17. They would hold on for the 25-20 win to take the match in four sets.

"We made adjustments and tried to find some rhythm, but I feel like Eastern did a great job of keeping us out of rhythm in the match," Lawrence said. I feel like that's been the story of the matches that we've been in during league play where we have sets where offensively we are rolling and then some sets we're going cold. That up-and-down stress is just really hard for us to maintain any kind of consistent pressure on an opponent."

Montana hit .088 on the match while Eastern Washington hit .168. Paulson led the Grizzlies with 12 kills and also added 10 digs for her first career double-double. Blake had eight kills on .333 hitting while Sidney Pierce had five on .333 hitting.

Madeline Sanderson set a new career high in digs for the second straight match, recording 28 on Thursday.

Eastern Washington's Kalista Lukovich, who entered the night leading the country in total attacks, had 62 swings that she converted into 22 kills for a .226 percentage. Aspyn Reed added 16 kills for the Eagles.

Montana returns to action on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. against Idaho. The Vandals were swept by Montana State on Thursday night and are 0-3 in league play.

"We have to figure ourselves out. The keys are all on our side of the net," Lawrence said. "We've shown we can put together some impressive sets, but we need to find a way to stabilize. We will be working hard on that and will keep committing to growing and getting better."