Idaho Volleyball state swept by Montana
Prior to the season, Montana aimed to get out to a strong start in conference play. They committed themselves to starting league play with wins to move themselves towards the top of the conference standings after having two or fewer victories at the halfway stage in the Big Sky schedule every year since 2018.
The goal was achieved.
In a convincing victory over Idaho State on Saturday in Missoula, the Grizzlies, who are now 5-4 in Big Sky play and have now amassed 12 victories overall for the first time since 2013, played like a top-tier Big Sky squad. They also gained sole ownership of fifth position and one spot as a result.
Four of the first five points of the game were scored by Idaho State, but aside from that burst, Montana's lead never appeared in doubt. Early on, the Grizzlies answered with a 4-0 scoring run. After a single Bengal point, Montana scored four straight, with Catie Semadeni capping the run with a hard attack to give Montana an 11-6 advantage.
They would eventually put together a few more runs of three or more points down the stretch, including the final four points of the set, to win the set 25-11. It was a balanced effort that gave Montana its biggest set victory of the year.
Ellie Scherffius and Semadeni each had four kills on over 500 hitting, and the attack was excellent.
Idaho State pulled out to an early 4-1 lead in the second set as well. After making a difficult comeback, Montana eventually took the lead at 11-10 after a 4-0 scoring run. Later, when Montana went on an 8-1 scoring spree, Carly Anderson served superbly for an ace to end the game and signal the media timeout.
The Grizzly defence stepped up after Idaho State started the set with five kills and no errors, causing them volleyball commit five errors while only managing three more kills. The domination entering and exiting the media timeout was an element of Montana's strategy.
"Middle of sets is something we worked on in practise because we've been leading at that point in the conference a number of times," Lawrence said.
Although Clark's night of assault may not have been ideal, she did add the four aces. The Grizzly total for the match increased to 10 with to the two aces apiece from Anderson, Howell, and Elise Jolly. It was the second time this season that Montana completed with double digit aces. Idaho State was always off balance because to the aggressive service game, despite making nine faults.
Six Grizzlies players had at least five kills when the game was over. The top two scorers were Clark and Semadeni with ten, followed by Scherffius (7 on.286 hitting) and Howell (6 on .333 hitting). Elise Jolly contributed five blocks in addition to her own five.
For the second consecutive game, Anderson had at least five kills while hitting.714 and dishing out 32 assists. With 10 digs, she added a double-double. With a total of 22 digs, Moreno took the defensive lead.
With the Idaho State victory, they continued to be undefeated against teams below them, while the four losses have all come against the top four teams in the Big Sky standings. For games versus Eastern Washington, they currently travel.
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