Washington State tops Montana in four

Saturday, August 29

Pullman, Wash.

6:00 PM (MT)

Montana

1-1,0-0Big Sky

Washington State

2-0,0-0Pac-12

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Montana	25	16	16	19	1
Washington St.	23	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Ashley Davis

8/29/2026 8:41:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana pulled off an impressive comeback in the opening set on Saturday night in Pullman, Washington, but the host Washington State Cougars were able to pull away in the final three sets for a 3-1 victory.

The Grizzlies went ahead 1-0 after coming back from nine points down, but the Cougar offense found its rhythm over the final three sets in the win. Montana ends the opening weekend at 1-1 after sweeping Central Michigan of the MAC on Friday afternoon.

"I think there were lots of really positive things from that match," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "It felt like we gave them a push that wasn't indicated in the score. I think they needed multiple possessions to score throughout all the sets and I loved our comeback in set one."

Gracie Cagle recorded a double-double with an impressive stat line of 22 assists and a match-high 17 digs. Delaney Russell had a team-high 12 kills, Sydney Pierce had nine kills on .276 hitting, and Madeline Sanderson matched Cagle with 17 digs.

The Grizzlies held Washington State in check for the first set, but the Cougar's Pac-12 offense overpowered Montana down the stretch, hitting over .300 in the final three sets.

The energy in the gym tipped things in favor of Washington State early on as the adrenaline out of the gate allowed the Cougars to take a 6-1 lead. Montana used an early timeout to try to stabilize things. It would take a while as WSU went up 11-2, forcing yet another Grizzly timeout.

Montana faced zero adversity on Friday afternoon as they never trailed and were tied with Central Michigan for just a single point in a 3-0 sweep. Backed up against the wall in the first set on Saturday, the Griz responded.

Montana ripped off a 9-0 run with Madeline Sanderson serving up a couple of aces during the stretch. Gracie Cagle tied things up at 11-all with a dump and Montana took the lead on an error from the Cougars.

"Our ability to go on long serving runs is a strength of our group, and (Sanderson) completely flipped the match," Lawrence said. "She served really aggressively and then we held pressure. We relied on our service game to generate runs of points, which is good, but that's kind of the only way we were able to do that."

The Grizzlies put together a 6-0 run moments later, taking a 19-13 after an extended run that saw Montana win 17 out of 19 possible points.

An opening set full of surprising momentum shifts wasn't done yet as Washington State didn't go away. They scored seven straight points to retake the lead at 20-19.

In a tough environment, with momentum going against them, the Grizzlies responded yet again.

Annika Wright forced a 21-21 tie with a setter's dump and Russell put Montana back in front with a kill. They went to Josie Blazina down the stretch and the junior middle blocker delivered with two kills, including the set winner to the back corner of the court.

Montana, after trailing 11-2 early, took the first set 25-23. The two defenses caused problems for the attacks as Wazzu hit just .111 with Montana slightly better at .143. The Grizzlies did have three service aces while the Cougars had just one ace with three service errors to help separate the two sides.

After a chaotic first set, Washington State was able to settle things down in the second. They went ahead 6-5 early and held the lead the rest of the way over Montana. The Griz battled to get it to a one-point game at 14-13, but Washington State scored nine of the next 10 points and coasted for a 25-16 win.

Sydney Pierce led Montana to an early lead in the third set, recording four kills early as Montana was up 6-5. The Griz continued to lead in a back-and-forth set, going up 11-10 after a kill from Isa Taylor.

Washington State scored seven straight points, shifting the set in their favor and not looking back. They would win by the same 25-16 score in the third set, using another big offensive set. The Cougars hit .316 in the second and .457 in the third, committing zero errors in set three.

The Cougars jumped ahead 6-0 in the fourth set. The Grizzlies were able to get back within two points at 12-10, but Wazzu pulled away from that point and held on for a 25-19 win in the fourth.

"We talked before the match that this would reveal things about our accountability and honesty with ourselves and how tough we think we are," Lawrence said. "We've been saying all preseason that we want to be known for our fight and grit, and we knew because of the physicality of WSU and all of their weapons that it was going to expose that for us, but I loved our responses."

Washington State is now 2-0 after sweeping Omaha on Friday night and defeating the Grizzlies in four sets on Saturday.

Montana will be back in action on Thursday, Sept. 3 when they face off with Seattle U in the opener of the Golden Grizzly Invitational. The tournament, hosted by Oakland University, will be played in Rochester, Michigan.

"I loved this weekend. I loved that in our first match we had to play from ahead every set and we had to execute and hold our structure in that environment," Lawrence said. "I loved that we went into this match as underdogs and physically outmatched in terms of just size, and we found new layers to our game today and throughout the weekend that we will be able to use."