Box score/play-by-play

The University of Montana volleyball team hit a season-best .366 in an important 25-14, 25-18, 25-23 victory over Northern Arizona Saturday night in Flagstaff, Ariz. The 3-0 victory moves the Grizzlies back above .500 in Big Sky Conference play at 7-6 (11-13 overall) and keeps them alone in fourth place in the league standings with two weekends of regular-season matches remaining.

Montana has a game-and-a-half lead over fifth-place Sacramento State (15-13, 5-7 BSC) and a two-game lead over sixth-place Idaho State (11-14, 5-8 BSC) and Northern Arizona (8-14, 5-8 BSC).

The top four teams in the final regular-season standings will advance to the Big Sky Conference tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27-28, in Cheney, Wash.

Portland State (17-7, 11-2 BSC) and Northern Colorado (18-9, 11-2 BSC), which play in Portland next Saturday night, are tied atop the standings. They are followed by third-place Eastern Washington (15-9, 9-4 BSC).

Coming 48 hours after its dispiriting 3-1 loss at Northern Colorado Thursday night, Montana came out strong from the start against the Lumberjacks. The Grizzlies jumped out to an 8-1 lead and hit .480 in a quick 25-14 victory in the first set, then got out to a 4-1 lead in the second and never trailed in the 25-18 win.

Northern Arizona held its first lead of the match early in the third set, but a kill by senior Whitney Hobbs made it 11-10, and freshman Mie Lindgren served the next five points to put the Grizzlies up 16-10.

The Lumberjacks would rally back to tie the set at 21.

Hobbs and junior Stephanie Turner answered with back-to-back kills to make it 23-21, and Hobbs closed the match out with her match-high 13th kill, 25-23.

“After our match Thursday, it was pretty easy to get the team focused,” UM coach Jerry Wagner said. “They weren’t at all happy with how we showed up. From the moment we left the locker room Thursday night, I knew I’d get the team’s best effort tonight.

“We played with a lot of effort against Northern Colorado, but we didn’t have the right attitude. We need to have both the effort and the attitude. If we’re missing one, we’re not as good. If we bring them both, we’re tough to beat.

“We talked about this match as being must-win, and we played like it was. We had good focus and patience against a team that prides itself on not making a lot of errors. I just loved our blocking effort tonight.”

Hobbs was the only player on either team to finish with double-figure kills, doing so on just 21 attacks to hit .524.

After an uncharacteristic off night Thursday, junior Jaimie Thibeault had nine kills and just one error to hit .471. She also had six blocks.

Sophomore Brittany Quick matched Thibeault with six blocks. The pair helped Montana to a 12-3 team blocking advantage.

Senior setter Taryn Wright had 33 assists, finished with six kills on seven swings to hit .857 and added three blocks.

Junior libero Brittney Brown concluded her stellar week with 22 more digs, nearly matching NAU’s team digs total of 23. Brown averaged 7.0 digs per set over the week’s two matches.

Lauren Campbell led Northern Arizona, which hit .108, with seven kills.

Montana, which swept the Lumberjacks in three sets last month in Missoula, limited NAU to .055 hitting in the teams’ two matches.

The Grizzlies will host Sacramento State Friday at 7 p.m. at the West Auxiliary Gym in Montana’s only match of the week.