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The University of Montana volleyball team will host a single match this week on the penultimate weekend of the 2009 Big Sky Conference regular season. The fourth-place Grizzlies (11-13, 7-6 BSC) will host fifth-place Sacramento State (15-13, 5-7 BSC) Friday at 7 p.m. at the West Auxiliary Gym.

The match will serve as Senior Night for Taryn Wright and Whitney Hobbs, who will be playing the final home match of their careers and honored before the match begins.

Montana won at Sacramento State in straight sets, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20, when the teams met in Sacramento, Calif., on Oct. 17.

What’s at stake: Montana can’t clinch a spot for the Big Sky Conference tournament with a victory over the Hornets, but the Grizzlies can move one big step closer. Montana currently has a game-and-a-half lead over Sacramento State in the race for the fourth and final tournament spot and a two-game lead over Idaho State (11-14, 5-8 BSC) and Northern Arizona (8-14, 5-8 BSC).

The Hornets, who play at Montana State Saturday, have four matches remaining, while the Grizzlies, Bengals and Lumberjacks all have three.

Only ninth-place Montana State (3-20, 1-12 BSC) has been eliminated from postseason contention at this point.

The four-team Big Sky Conference tournament will be played at Cheney, Wash., Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27-28. Portland State (17-7, 11-2 BSC) and Northern Colorado (18-9, 11-2 BSC) have clinched two of the four tournament spots. Third-place Eastern Washington (15-9, 9-4 BSC) has a magic number of one.

Most recently: Montana split the Northern Colorado-Northern Arizona road trip last weekend. After losing in four sets at UNC last Thursday, 17-25, 25-18, 23-25, 21-25, the Grizzlies came back with a dominating 25-14, 25-18, 25-23 victory at NAU Saturday, hitting a season-best .366.

With an opportunity to take over sole possession of fourth place with a pair of home matches against two teams below it in the standings, Sacramento State was swept at home by Weber State and Idaho State last Friday and Saturday.

The weekend appeared to be opening favorably when the Hornets took a 2-0 lead on the Wildcats, 25-23, 25-15, but WSU stormed back to take the final three sets, 25-23, 25-16, 15-10.

Sac State was also unable to close out Idaho State in its 3-0 loss the next night, losing big leads in all three sets. The Hornets had a 19-11 lead in the opening set (which they would lose 26-24), a 24-22 edge in the second set (26-24) and a 17-12 lead in the third set (25-21).

Home and away: Montana is 5-5 at home this season, 4-3 during Big Sky Conference play.

Sacramento State is 5-4 on the road this season, 3-3 during league matches.

What coach Jerry Wagner thinks about all this: “We’ve approached this entire season one match at a time, so it’s going to be easy to prepare and get the right mindset this week because that’s what we always do. By having that attitude, this team has created a situation where they are in control of how things play out.

“Right now we are in fourth place. We know that if we continue to play well and play hard, we will remain in the tournament picture, and anything anybody else is doing outside of our matches won’t have any effect on us. We’re able to focus on how hard we’re playing and what we’re doing, not on what other teams are doing. That is going to allow us to be in the right frame of mind.

“That’s why we’re going to be focused in on what we have control over, and right now we have complete control over whether we make the tournament or not.

“As a credit to this team, they’ve bounced back time and time again to hang on to that control. We’ve learned a number of lessons over the course of the season. In some cases we haven’t let the positive outcomes go to our head, and in other cases we haven’t let any negative outcomes beat us twice.

“Because of all that, I feel good that we’re going to bring a strong effort Friday.”

Seniors to be recognized: Montana seniors Taryn Wright, of Fair Oaks, Calif., and Whitney Hobbs of Placerville, Calif., will be playing in their final home matches Friday night.

Though recruited by the previous Montana coaching staff, Wright has played her entire career under fourth-year coach Jerry Wagner. She took over the starting setter duties the third match of her sophomore season and has started every match since.

Wright earned honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference honors as a sophomore and was a second team All-Big Sky selection as a junior. She will finish her career fourth on the UM career assists list and is currently tied for fourth in service aces, a category she has led the Grizzlies in the last four years.

This season she is averaging 10.35 assists, 2.15 digs, 1.11 kills and 0.41 blocks per set and was named to the all-tournament team at the Montana Invitational.

“In Taryn’s case, I got somebody who could step in early in her career and, with the right mental and physical makeup, be able to take over and run a team and make all the necessary plays,” Wagner said. “With the right people around her, Taryn had the ability to make those players better. That’s a credit to her and the experience she had coming into the program.

“Being in that position, she’s been able to make all the people we brought into the program develop and play at a higher level. She’s a big reason we’ve had the success we’ve been able to have.”

Hobbs is in her third season at Montana after opening her collegiate career with one season at Auburn. She played in a reserve role as a sophomore and has started 50 of 51 matches the last two seasons.

Hobbs is a two-time Academic All-Big Sky Conference selection and has career totals of 352 kills (2.10/s) and 272 digs (1.62/s).

This season she ranks second on the team in kills (3.04/s) on career-best .187 hitting and is adding a career-high 0.48 blocks per set. She was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week on Oct. 19.

“Every year Whitney has become a more and more integral part of the style of offensive play that I’ve envisioned playing,” Wagner said. “Between Taryn’s ability to run an up-tempo offense and Whitney’s ability to flourish in that type of environment and be a strong overall player, the two of them have had exceptional careers.

“They’ve set the program in the direction we want to take it, and they’ve helped us attract people who like the way we want to play. I feel like our system is in place because of those two players’ abilities.”

Around the Big Sky Conference: With two weekends remaining, Sacramento State has four matches remaining, the rest of the teams in the Big Sky Conference have three.

Northern Colorado, which is tied for first with Portland State, has the week’s toughest challenge and biggest opportunity. The Bears play at third-place Eastern Washington Friday, then take on the co-leader Vikings Saturday.

Another match to keep an eye on is Weber State at Idaho State on Saturday night. A victory by Montana Friday and a win by the Wildcats on the road Saturday would clinch a tournament spot for the Grizzlies.

Portland State (17-7, 11-2 BSC): NAU (11.13), UNC (11.14), at SAC (11.20)
Northern Colorado (18-9, 11-2 BSC): at EWU (11.13), at PSU (11.14), NAU (11.21)
Eastern Washington (15-9, 9-4 BSC): UNC (11.13), NAU (11.14), at SAC (11.21)
Montana (11-13, 7-6 BSC): SAC (11.13), at WSU (11.20), at ISU (11.21)
Sacramento State (15-13, 5-7 BSC): at UM (11.13), at MSU (11.14), PSU (11.20), EWU (11.21)
Northern Arizona (8-14, 5-8 BSC): at PSU (11.13), at EWU (11.14), at UNC (11.21)
Idaho State (11-14, 5-8 BSC): WSU (11.14), MSU (11.20), UM (11.21)
Weber State (6-19, 4-9 BSC): at ISU (11.14), UM (11.20), MSU (11.21)
Montana State (3-20, 1-12 BSC): SAC (11.14), at ISU (11.20), at WSU (11.21)

The ups and downs of a road trip: Montana experienced both last Thursday and Saturday, with a disappointing loss at Northern Colorado, followed 48 hours later by a commanding victory at Northern Arizona.

At Greeley last Thursday, the Grizzlies had more kills, more assists, more digs and more blocks than the Bears, but lost a four-set decision. Montana had four players with double-figure kills in one of the team’s most balanced attacks of the season, but the Grizzlies also had 25 attack errors, six receiving errors and four service errors.

Montana played well defensively, limiting the Bears to .191 hitting, which was nearly 70 points below their Big Sky Conference hitting percentage entering the match. Junior Brittney Brown had a season-high 27 digs to lead both teams.

Offensively, redshirt freshman Paige Branstiter had a career-high 13 kills on a team-high 43 swings. She also matched a career high with four blocks.

The Grizzlies rebounded with a throttling of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff Saturday. Montana never trailed in taking 25-14 and 25-18 wins in the opening two sets, then scored four of the match’s final six points to break free from a 21-21 tie in a 25-23 victory in the third set.

Montana, which had just 12 attack errors, hit a season-best .366 in the win while holding NAU to .108 hitting. The Grizzlies forced the Lumberjacks into .055 hitting in UM’s 3-0 sweep at Missoula last month.

Montana needed only one player to reach double-figure kills for the victory. Senior Whitney Hobbs had 13 kills on .524 hitting.

Brown added 22 more digs, giving her an average of 7.00 per set for the road trip, and junior Jaimie Thibeault and sophomore Brittany Quick each had six blocks to help Montana to a 12 to 3 team blocks advantage.

Familiar faces among Big Sky leaders: During Big Sky Conference matches, Montana leads the league in blocking (2.72/s). Individually, senior Taryn Wright leads the Big Sky in service aces (0.47/s), junior Jaimie Thibeault ranks first in both hitting percentage (.383) and blocking (1.53/s) and junior Brittney Brown ranks first in digs (4.77/s).