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The University of Montana volleyball team will compete at the Big Sky Conference tournament this weekend in Cheney, Wash. The Grizzlies (14-13, 10-6 BSC), who closed the regular season with four straight wins, are the tournament’s No. 4 seed and will face top seed Portland State (20-7, 14-2 BSC) Friday at 6 p.m. (MT) in the opening semifinal match.

In the second semifinal match Friday, No. 2 Eastern Washington (18-10, 12-4 BSC) will meet No. 3 Northern Colorado (19-11, 12-4 BSC).

The semifinal winners will square off Saturday at 8 p.m. (MT) in the championship match. The winner will receive the Big Sky Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which opens Thursday, Dec. 3, at 16 different first- and second-round locations.

Media: Video of all three tournament matches will be streamed on B2TV.com. Eastern Washington’s website (goeags.com) will feature live stats for all three matches.

Openers: Montana and Portland State both enter the tournament on winning streaks. The Grizzlies closed the regular season with four straight wins to hold off all challengers bidding for the tournament’s fourth and final spot. Montana’s current winning streak includes three road matches, with a sweep of the Weber State-Idaho State road trip last weekend.

Portland State enters the tournament having won nine straight and 13 of 14 to pull away for a two-match cushion atop the Big Sky Conference regular-season standings. The Vikings’ only losses during league play came at Weber State in five sets and at Northern Colorado in four.

Portland State defeated Montana in the teams’ two regular-season meetings, winning 25-20, 25-15, 25-21 on Sept. 19 in Portland and 25-20, 25-23, 25-22 on Oct. 30 in Missoula. The Vikings hit .312 in the two matches.

The 3-0 losses to Portland State were the only two 3-0 losses Montana has suffered this season.

Eastern Washington won its final three Big Sky Conference matches to finish in a second-place tie with Northern Colorado, which dropped two of three to close out the regular season, including back-to-back 3-0 losses to both the Eagles and Vikings on the EWU-PSU road trip two weekends ago.

Eastern Washington earned the No. 2 seed over UNC due to the Eagles’ season sweep of the Bears. EWU won the first matchup in Greeley, Colo., on Oct. 17, 23-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-18, then swept the rematch in Cheney on Nov. 13, 27-25, 25-21, 25-19.

Montana went 1-1 against both Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado this season, with 3-1 victories at home and 3-1 losses on the road.

“A quick summary of our season is that we stuck to the plan that we thought would make this team its most successful and carried that all the way through the season despite some in-season setbacks,” fourth-year coach Jerry Wagner said. “We developed a style of play that fits us in a way that we can be successful.

“We’re a hot team right now, and we’ve been tested well recently on the road. On a weekend (last Friday and Saturday) that was a must to control our own tournament destiny, we were able to come away with two road wins (over Weber State and Idaho State).

“Friday we’re going to face a team that’s veteran across the board and winners of nine straight, so we’ll have our hands full. I felt like the last time we played them we played well, but they played great.”

Tournament appearances becoming customary under Wagner: After missing the six-team Big Sky Conference tournament for five straight seasons between 2001 and 2005, Montana has made three of the last four tournaments, all under Wagner.

The Grizzlies earned the No. 4 seed in Wagner’s first season in 2006 and also entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed last season. Both of those tournaments were six-team playoffs.

Montana lost a five-set decision to No. 5 Northern Colorado in 2006 in Sacramento, Calif., and a five-set match to No. 5 Weber State last November in Portland, Ore.

Tournament resumes: Montana has made 13 of the Big Sky Conference’s 21 postseason volleyball tournaments, with an all-time tournament record of 7-12. The Grizzlies lost in the quarterfinal round in their last five appearances in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2008, the last three coming in five-set losses.

Montana’s last tournament victory came in 1996, when the No. 5 Grizzlies topped No. 4 Montana State in five sets in the quarterfinal round.

Portland State is making its eighth straight Big Sky Conference tournament appearance and also eighth overall. The previous four seasons the Vikings entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed.

PSU won last year’s tournament championship at home as the No. 2 seed with a 3-0 victory over No. 3 Northern Colorado in a semifinal match and a 3-1 win over No. 1 Eastern Washington in the title match.

It was Portland State’s first tournament championship.

Eastern Washington enters the tournament with the most impressive recent history of the four teams competing. The Eagles are making their 14th straight appearance and have been a top-three seed at all 14. This is EWU’s 16th overall appearance at the tournament and fifth time hosting (1989, 2002, 2003, 2004).

Eastern Washington won tournament championships in 1989 and 2001.

A Big Sky Conference newcomer, Northern Colorado is making its fourth tournament appearance in its fourth year in the league. The Bears have a 2-3 tournament record, with quarterfinal wins in both 2006 and 2008.

Notes: In Big Sky Conference matches, Montana finished No. 1 in blocking (2.74/s) and No. 3 in opponent hitting percentage (.189) ... Over the Grizzlies’ last four matches, all wins, senior setter Taryn Wright has 20 kills and just two errors in 39 attacks to hit .462 ... Wright finished first in the Big Sky in league play in service aces (0.36/s), junior Brittney Brown was first in digs (4.87/s) and junior Jaimie Thibeault was second in hitting percentage (.369), blocking (1.46/s) and points (4.39/s) ... Wright ranks fourth in Montana history in assists (3,849) and is tied for fourth in service aces (147) ... Brown is 78 digs from 1,000 for her career ... Thibeault has a .308 career hitting percentage, which would be the best in program history. Karen Goff (1991-94) is the career leader at .294 ... Thibeault ranks eighth in career blocks with 383 (1.30/s) ... Montana recorded a pair of four-match winning streaks during Big Sky play ... In league matches, the Grizzlies out-blocked their opponents by nearly one team block per set (2.74 to 1.79) ... Brown’s 29 digs at Idaho State was her 10th match of the season of at least 20 digs ... During Montana’s current four-match winning streak, the Grizzlies are hitting .243 to their opponents’ .170 and have 51 team blocks to their opponents’ 18.