Box score/play-by-play

The Montana volleyball team won its third straight match with a 3-1 victory over Northern Colorado Saturday night at the West Auxiliary Gym in Missoula, 25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 25-20. The Bears entered the match as the last unbeaten Big Sky Conference team in league play.

The Grizzlies improved to 8-10 overall and upped their Big Sky mark to 4-3.

UNC fell to 11-8, 5-1 in league.

Montana, which hit .302 in the victory, the team’s third match this season over .300, has hit .277 during its three-match winning streak.

Though junior middle blocker Jaimie Thibeault had 15 kills on .385 hitting against the Bears, sophomore middle blocker Brittany Quick was Montana’s most effective offensive weapon, finishing with a career-best 12 kills on .579 hitting.

Senior outside hitter Whitney Hobbs balanced the Montana offensive attack, totaling 12 kills on .333 hitting.

Senior setter Taryn Wright had 51 assists, 11 digs and two service aces and matched a career high with six blocks. She also had four timely kills, with no errors on seven attacks to hit .571.

Redshirt freshman outside hitter Paige Branstiter had nine kills and junior outside hitter Stephanie Turner added eight while totaling a dozen digs.

Northern Colorado entered the match hitting a Big Sky-best .262 in league play. The Bears hit .222 Saturday.

“The whole match was going to come down to whether we could disrupt the Big Sky’s best offensive team and whether we could continue to show we’re a strong offensive team, and we accomplished both of those goals,” UM coach Jerry Wagner said. “We were consistent offensively all night, and ultimately that’s what won out.”

The match was the season debut of freshman Mie Lindgren, who missed the team’s first 17 matches while the NCAA looked into her past club experience in her native Denmark. Lindgren, who played in a ball-handling and serving role, had four digs and two of the team’s seven service aces.

“Mie was a shot in the arm for our ball-handling, which we thought her return would be,” Wagner said. “That led to our outside hitters having a productive night.”

The Grizzlies had their way in the opening set, jumping out to a 7-1 lead and hitting .387 in the seven-point victory.

As it would do in the fourth set, Montana made the key plays down the stretch to take a tight second set.

Northern Colorado built leads of 22-21 and 23-22, but a kill by Hobbs, a service ace from Lindgren and another kill from Hobbs allowed Montana to take a 2-0 lead to the break.

Montana was two points away from completing a sweep after back-to-back kills from Thibeault and Branstiter put the Grizzlies up 23-22 in the third set.

Following a timeout, Northern Colorado scored the final three points, assisted heavily by a pair of unforced Montana attack errors.

The Bears appeared to be on the verge of forcing a fifth set when they went up 20-18 on three straight kills in set number four, but after a timeout Montana scored the match’s final seven points, with Wright and Thibeault supplying the big plays.

After a Turner kill and a UNC attack error knotted the score at 20, Northern Colorado went to freshman outside hitter Kelley Arnold. Wright and Thibeault were there for the block to put the Griz up 21-20.

A kill from Wright and a service ace by Turner made it 23-20.

The Bears went back to Arnold the next two points, and Wright and Thibeault were there for the consecutive blocks to close out the match.

Thibeault finished with eight blocks, helping Montana to a 10-6 team blocking advantage.

Junior Brittney Brown had 12 digs.

Ashley Lichtenberg had 13 kills for UNC, with Allison Raguse and Arnold each adding 12.

“I’ve said it since the beginning of the year that I like how this team bonds together and plays hard,” Wagner said. “We’re at the top of our game right now, and they only want to get better.”

Montana will be on the road next week for a single match at Sacramento State Saturday night. The Hornets (11-9, 3-3 BSC) completed a road sweep Saturday with a 3-1 victory at Weber State. Sac State downed Idaho State in straight sets Friday.