Box score/play-by-play
The University of Montana volleyball team broke its two-match Big Sky Conference losing streak with an important 3-1 victory over Eastern Washington Saturday night at the West Auxiliary Gym, 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 25-23. The Grizzlies, who improved to 10-12 overall and 6-5 in Big Sky matches, play four of their final five regular season matches on the road.
Montana grabbed a half-game lead over idle Sacramento State (15-11, 5-5 BSC) for fourth place in the league standings. The top four teams at regular season’s end will advance to the Big Sky Conference tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27-28, in Cheney, Wash.
Eastern Washington (15-8, 9-3 BSC) dropped out of a tie for first to third with the loss. Portland State (16-7, 10-2 BSC), a 3-0 winner at Montana State Saturday night, holds the top spot alone, a half game ahead of Northern Colorado (16-9, 9-2 BSC), which won its second straight five-set decision with a 3-2 victory at Weber State Saturday.
After hitting .092 in back-to-back home losses to Montana State and Portland State, Montana hit .286 Saturday against the Eagles.
Junior middle blocker Jaimie Thibeault had 12 kills on .375 hitting, redshirt freshman outside hitter Paige Branstiter had 11 kills on .240 hitting, senior outside hitter Whitney Hobbs had 10 kills on .471 hitting and sophomore middle blocker Brittany Quick had nine kills on .368 hitting and added a match-high five blocks.
Senior setter Taryn Wright was superb, totaling 44 assists, six kills, four blocks and a pair of service aces.
Junior Brittney Brown had a match-high 12 digs.
“Even though we split, I thought we played well all weekend,” UM coach Jerry Wagner said. “We wanted to come out tonight and respond with even more desire and dedication, whether we won the point on our first hit or our 15th.
“Last night Portland State won the long rallies. Tonight we won those, and that was the difference. We just played through points better with an even more determined effort.”
Eastern Washington hit .458 in the opening set, but Montana was even better, finishing at .500 with 18 kills and just three errors in 30 attacks.
The Eagles took a 16-14 lead on an Alysha Cook kill, but the Grizzlies responded with a decisive 5-0 run that decided the set.
EWU started the run with a service error. A Branstiter kill evened the score at 16, and back-to-back kills by Quick, followed by a Wright service ace made it 19-16.
Montana appeared to be on its way to a comfortable win in the second set when Thibeault and junior Stephanie Turner blocked Eastern’s Chenoa Coviare to make it 21-17, but the Eagles responded with a 5-1 run that evened the set at 22.
Following a Wagner timeout, the emerging Branstiter had a kill, then teamed up with Quick on a block of Cook.
The set ended on an Eagle attack error.
Eastern Washington broke free of a 12-12 tie in the third set, hitting .316 in their only win of the night.
Montana closed out the match in the fourth set but not before ensuring fans wore out the edge of their seats.
Branstiter and Quick teamed up for a block of EWU’s Shelby Puckett to put Montana up 19-13.
Following an Eastern Washington timeout, the Eagles scored five straight points to pull within one, 19-18. The hard-serving Hayley Hills served the final four points of the run.
A critical Branstiter kill put the Grizzlies up two, 20-18, stopped Eastern’s run and got the serve out of Hills’ hands.
Montana kept its lead, but a Hills kill followed by a Cora Kellerman service ace brought the Eagles back within one, 23-22, and forced Wagner to use a timeout.
With a chance to tie, Hills sent an attack wide. Following a Montana attack error that made it 24-23, Wright ended it with a sneaky kill at the net directly off Brown’s serve reception.
Montana will attempt to hold on to fourth place next week when the Grizzlies face second-place Northern Colorado and sixth-place Northern Arizona (7-13, 4-7 BSC). Montana will face the Bears Thursday in Greeley, Colo., and the Lumberjacks Saturday in Flagstaff, Ariz.