Griz finish up non-conference play with a loss

Saturday, September 19

Spokane, Wash.

3:00 PM (MT)

Montana

4-7,0-0Big Sky

Gonzaga

5-7,0-0Pac-12

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Montana	25	19	20	0
Gonzaga	27	25	25	3

Montana goes up against Lewis-Clark State in an Exhibition match on Tuesday August 18, 2026, on Robin Selvig Court in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Casandra Evans/University of Montana

9/19/2026 5:51:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The non-conference portion of the schedule came to an end for Montana on Saturday afternoon in Spokane, Wash. as the Grizzlies fell in straight sets (27-25, 25-19, 25-20) to Gonzaga in the final match of the Zag Volleyball Classic.

Montana (4-7) opens Big Sky Conference play this coming Tuesday, Sept. 22 by hosting rival Montana State inside Dahlberg Arena.

The Grizzlies put together their second-best hitting percentage of the previous seven matches on Saturday, but Gonzaga matched it by hitting .351, a season-high for a Montana opponent.

Gracie Cagle had 33 assists leading the Montana offense with Delaney Russell recording a team-high 10 kills on .300 hitting. It's the seventh time this season Russell has reached double-digit kills and the first time she has done it while hitting over .300.

Josie Blazina had eight kills, Sophia Vella had six, and Sydney Pierce also had six on .418 hitting.

"It felt like offensively we distributed pretty well, we had some stretches of ball handling stress but got through that," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "Any time we set up advantages in a rally, we weren't able to capitalize and were losing rallies if we didn't score on a first-ball kill. I thought we did a nice job of getting them out of system, we served really tough. There was good effort there, but they just tee'd off."

Montana had a set-point opportunity in the first that could have drastically shifted the momentum of the match as the two teams played an incredibly tight opening set. Montana nearly came from behind to take it, but three straight Gonzaga points shifted things and the Griz couldn't recover.

"In the locker room we talked about how small the margin is even in a match like this," Lawrence said. "The difference between a win and loss in any match that we are in is actually small and we have the capability to win these matches."

Both sides started the match off well with plenty of energy in the gym as fans from both sides were entertained with a back-and-forth start. The first big rally for either side came from the hosts as Gonzaga, while hitting over .330, scored five straight points to go ahead 13-10.

Montana pulled back level in the set and forced a timeout after a 3-0 run that featured kills from Blazina and Pierce as the middles provided a large presence in the opening set for the Grizzlies.

The two sides were tied at 20-all before Gonzaga scored three straight to get ahead 23-20 and take full control. The Griz bounced back with two points, but Gonzaga set up double-set point with a kill to make it 24-22.

Backed against the wall, Montana responded, extending a couple of points and forcing two Gonzaga errors to tie it up at 24-all. Russell then hit a strong serve towards the corner of the court that fooled the Bulldog receiver and fell for an ace to give Montana set point at 25-24.

Gonzaga's Claire Wagstaff stepped up in the clutch, recording a kill on the following point and then serving back-to-back aces to win the set 27-25 for the hosts.

It was an incredibly close first set with Gonzaga recording 16 kills on .238 hitting to Montana's 15 on .220 hitting. The lead changed hands five times with 12 tied scores, but the Grizzlies fell agonizingly short.

Montana's two middles combined for seven kills on .333 hitting for the Grizzlies, matching the percentage of Russell who finished the set with five kills and a service ace.

The first set swung the momentum in favor of the Zags and they never looked back. The hosts had multiple runs of at least four points early in the second set to jump ahead 12-4. They would go on to lead by as many as nine points in the set and, despite a late 5-1 run by the Griz, win the second 25-19.

The Griz hit .385 as a team in the second set with 11 kills and just a single error, but they couldn't keep up with the hot-handed Zags. The Bulldogs hit nearly .500 as a team with 19 kills in the set.

"I don't know if it loosened them up enough offensively and then put us under a ton of stress in the hangover after the first set loss, that part is hard to say," Lawrence said. "But we got tighter and tighter, they got looser and looser, and we have a tough team but we're getting in our own way in a lot of ways."

Gonzaga would again take an early lead in the third set, jumping out to a 6-3 advantage. Montana showed fight, and tied the set up on multiple occasions after some nice scoring runs.

Sophia Vella had a kill that Annika Wright followed up with an ace in the middle stages of the set. Mylee Blake had one of her three kills of the match on the following point to tie it up at 12-all.

The sides were tied again at 14-all after an ace from Isa Taylor, but a 5-1 Gonzaga run gave them the lead for good.

The Griz didn't go away easily, and the final score of the third set was more lopsided than it felt in the gym with Montana getting back within one at 20-19. The Zags scored five of the final six points to end it in the third.

"I think our team has a lot of fight that I don't think the score necessarily reflected," Lawrence said. "It's just when you have fight without certain tactical or technical execution you are just fighting an uphill battle. We can't shove a boulder up a cliff that long and expect to have it work against a time like that with their size and physicality."

Montana finished the non-conference schedule at 4-7 and now gets set for Big Sky Conference play. They won't have much time to rest as they play their first league match in just three days.

Not only will the Griz be playing on short rest on a Tuesday, they will also be hosting their biggest rival as Montana State comes to town. The Bobcats are 7-4 this season and are coming off a 2-1 weekend at the Mercer Invitational.

While Montana will have a short drive home on Saturday, the Bobcats are traveling back from Macon, Georgia where they played two five-set matches over the weekend.

For the Griz, the focus will be all on themselves as they look to take lessons from the non-conference and turn those into a successful Big Sky season.

"I think we have to turn the page quick and get ready for one of the biggest home games of the year," Lawrence said. "I think we bounced back from last weekend and found more of our own game and who we are this weekend. We're a team that I think is a great learning team so we need to keep adding pieces to our game to provide layers and depth to what we're doing."