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The Montana volleyball team will wrap up the first half of its Big Sky Conference schedule this week when the Grizzlies face Sacramento State Saturday at 8 p.m. (MT) in Sacramento, Calif. The match is the only one of the week for Montana.

The Hornets, who open the weekend with a home match against Montana State Friday night, improved to 12-9 on the season with a non-conference, five-set win at winless San Jose State Tuesday night. Sacramento State is currently sitting fifth in the Big Sky standings at 3-3, just behind the 4-3 Grizzlies. Montana is 8-10 overall.

The Grizzlies and Hornets are both riding three-match winning streaks, with Montana downing three Big Sky Conference foes at home the last two weekends and the Hornets adding Tuesday’s win to last weekend’s road sweep of Idaho State and Weber State.

“This weekend is very much about maintaining the level of play and the consistency we’ve established over the last couple of weekends,” UM coach Jerry Wagner said. “We’ve been playing together and competing at a high level that’s become very evident to all of us.

“We’re fine with having an occasional one-match week because we’re a bit low in player numbers. These weeks allow us to get in all the preparation time that we need for one opponent. (To continue our current winning trend) it’s more that we stay in a groove team-wise throughout this week and manage our time the right way.

“Sacramento State went from being a young team last year to being a real solid team again. They are back to digging the ball and being so much sounder defensively. Their offense is coming around, with two strong left-side hitters and a lot of other players that can hurt you when they are controlling the ball well.”

Most recently: Montana is coming off a weekend sweep of Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado that’s given the Grizzlies their longest winning streak of the season at three. Last Friday Montana whipped NAU in three sets, limiting the Lumberjacks to .009 hitting. On Saturday the Grizzlies handed UNC its first Big Sky loss of the season, hitting .302 in the four-set win.

“I’m still beaming over our play last weekend, as the entire team should be,” Wagner said. “We’ve continued to shore up some areas that we needed to address in Amy (Roberts’) absence. Those areas have returned to a real nice level, and now we’re back to playing at the level we were early in the season. It’s taken every single person on the team to make that happen.

“What I want to take away from last weekend is the effort we put forth, especially Saturday night. I think Northern Colorado played really, really well. Their effort would have won most matches, but we were just a little bit better. That says a lot about how consistently we’re competing.”

The Hornets opened their Big Sky schedule 1-3, with losses to the top three teams in the conference: 3-0 at home to Northern Colorado and 3-1 on the road at both Eastern Washington and Portland State. Sac got back to .500 in league play last weekend with a 3-0 sweep at Idaho State and a 3-1 win at Weber State.

In Tuesday night’s win over the Spartans, the Hornets fell behind 2-0, then rallied back for the five-set victory to keep San Jose State winless at 0-15.

Lindgren makes long-awaited debut: Freshman Mie Lindgren made her season debut for Montana Saturday night in the Grizzlies’ 3-1 victory over Northern Colorado. Lindgren, who started against the Bears, had been held out of competition until the NCAA could resolve some issues dating back to Lindgren’s club team experience in her native Denmark.

Lindgren finished Saturday’s match with four digs and two service aces.

“Mie’s been practicing every day, so she’s been earning her way,” Wagner said. “There was quite a bit of thought that went into the decision to start her in her first match back, but it was an easy decision to make.

“She’s established herself as somebody who can pick up the tempo and cover her area at a high level with energy, quickness, excitement and maturity. Mie did Saturday what we knew she could do.”

Montana No. 159 in first season ranking: In the season’s first NCAA volleyball RPI, the Grizzlies rank 159th out of 330 teams. Texas tops the nation at No. 1. The Longhorns are followed in the top five by Florida State, Penn State, Illinois and Michigan.

Portland State, at No. 101, leads the Big Sky Conference. The Vikings are followed by Eastern Washington (102), Northern Colorado (122), Montana (159), Sacramento State (172), Idaho State (193), Weber State (268), Northern Arizona (271) and Montana State (298).

The nation’s bottom five are St. Francis (N.Y.), Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alcorn State, Coppin State and Alabama State.

Thibeault among nation’s best: Junior middle blocker Jaimie Thibeault has hit .469 in Big Sky Conference play to raise her season hitting percentage to .407. That hitting percentage ranks 12th nationally and makes Thibeault one of only 14 players in the country with a hitting percentage of .400 or better.

Penn State’s Arielle Wilson leads the nation at .576. Wilson is one of three players hitting better than .500, along with Brianna Barry of Florida State (.517) and Bianca Rowland of Washington (.514).

Thibeault leads the Big Sky Conference in both overall hitting percentage and conference-only hitting percentage.

Thibeault’s blocks average of 1.36 per set ranks 20th nationally and second in the Big Sky. Portland State’s Erica Jepsen averages 1.44 to lead the league. South Florida’s Alli Arbogast averages 1.69 to lead the nation.

Around the Big Sky Conference: All nine Big Sky teams will have played eight matches by Saturday night and concluded the opening half of their league schedules. Important matches will be played in Greeley, Colo., both Thursday and Saturday with Portland State and Eastern Washington meeting Northern Colorado. The three teams are tied atop the Big Sky standings at 5-1.

Wednesday: Idaho State at Weber State
Thursday: Portland State at Northern Colorado, Eastern Washington at Northern Arizona
Friday: Montana State at Sacramento State
Saturday: Montana at Sacramento State, Eastern Washington at Northern Colorado, Portland State at Northern Arizona

Historically speaking: Senior setter Taryn Wright broke into the Montana all-time top five with her 133rd and 134th service aces of her career Saturday against Northern Colorado. Jean Cavanaugh (1978-81) owns the program record of 252. She is trailed by Pat Benson (1979-82) with 168, Mary Klueber (1980-83) with 156 and Mari Brown (1986-89) with 147.

Junior middle blocker Jaimie Thibeault’s current career hitting percentage of .308 would be the best in Montana history. Karen Goff (1991-94) owns the current record of .294.

Following last weekend’s block-fest, with 17 in just seven sets, Thibeault moved up to No. 8 on the Montana career total blocks list with 338.

Hornet notes: Sacramento State leads the Big Sky Conference in both service aces (1.58/s) and digs (17.09/s) ... Senior outside hitter Desiree Hoyum is No. 2 in the Big Sky in kills (3.66/s) ... The Hornets are the league’s top defensive team and have three players in the top nine in the Big Sky in digs: sophomore Breanne Menees ranks first (4.59/s), Hoyum ranks fifth (3.83/s) and freshman Janelle Currey ranks ninth (3.20/s) ... Sacramento State had won six straight Big Sky Conference tournament titles before losing to Northern Colorado in last year’s quarterfinals as the No. 6 seed ... Last season marked the first time the Hornets did not make the NCAA tournament since 2001, and at 10-23 it was the team’s first non-20-win season since 1994 ... Coach Ruben Volta is 22-32 in his second season ... Last year’s 3-0 victory over Sac State in Missoula snapped the Grizzlies’ 18-match losing streak to the Hornets ... Montana hasn’t beaten the Hornets at Sacramento since 1999 ... Sacramento State leads the all-time series 24-5, with an 11-2 advantage at home.