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OGDEN, Utah (November 3, 2016) – The battle for some of the top seeds in the Big Sky Volleyball tournament continues to intensify as two more teams reached double-digit league wins Thursday and one more team clinched a spot in the tournament.
Portland State is back in the Big Sky tournament after a one-year hiatus, after sweeping Montana and benefiting off of an Idaho loss to Northern Colorado. The Vikings became the sixth team to nab a tourney bid, and have now missed just two tournaments since 2006. PSU owns a tiebreaker over both Idaho and Eastern Washington in the standings.
North Dakota and Northern Arizona continue to stand firm atop the league and their divisions, with both teams earning sweeps against Eastern Washington and Weber State. UNC and Sacramento State each reached 10 league victories after 3-1 decisions over Idaho and Montana State. Idaho State move to 9-4 after a home victory in four sets against Southern Utah.
If UND and NAU each win their matches Saturday, the teams will meet in Flagstaff a week from today with the Big Sky overall lead on the line.
With just three matches left in league play, the hunt continues for the remaining two spots in the conference tournament as well as hosting rights and seeding.
North Dakota 3, Eastern Washington 0: Faith Dooley had 12 kills, Tamara Merseli added nine with 14 digs and North Dakota rallied in the third set to complete a sweep over Eastern Washington.
The Fighting Hawks (20-9, 11-2 Big Sky) hit .218, hitting over .350 in the first two sets before overcoming a negative percentage in the third. Chelsea Moser added six kills with five blocks and two service aces, Sydney Griffin distributed 36 assists with four blocks and Alivia Fraase tied with Merseli for the team-high in digs.
UND hit .353 in the opening set, building an early five-point cushion on the way to a 25-19 win. The Fighting Hawks broke a 19-all tie in the second set, with two kills from Dooley and one from both Merseli and Julia Kaczorowska sparking a 6-2 run to win 25-21.
EWU jumped out to leads of 7-0 and 17-10 before UND rallied. UND reeled off five straight points only to see EWU answer with four of their own going up 22-16. The Fighting Hawks crawled back with vengeance ending on an 8-1 run with Moser having a hand in three late blocks to prevail 25-23.
The Eagles (11-11, 6-7) were even with UND in the blocking department, but hit just .123 with 20 attack errors. Leading the way for EWU was Chloe Weber (seven kills, four blocks), Ka’iulani Ahuna (seven kills, 13 digs) and Sophie Miller (26 assists, two aces, 11 digs).
Northern Arizona 3, Weber State 0: Addy Lofstedt earned nine kills on 14 swings, Jensen Barton had 34 assists and combined with Brittni Dorsey for 13 kills, six service aces and six blocks to help Northern Arizona to a road sweep over Weber State.
The Lumberjacks (21-5, 11-2) hit .250 with 43 kills and nine aces. Kaylie Jorgenson chipped in eight kills and Lauren Jacobsen had six with seven digs, becoming the sixth NAU player to reach the 1,000-kill/1,000-dig mark in school history. Barton toted a .545 hitting percentage with just one error while Hannah Cherry grabbed 16 digs in her recently-anointed libero role.
NAU erased an early 0-5 deficit and staved off multiple WSU surges with two late kills from Lofstedt setting up set point and Brooke Donnelly providing an ace to take the set 27-25. The ‘Jacks pushed away from a narrow 19-18 lead in the second set, scoring six of the last eight points with the latter two coming on kills from Barton to win 25-20. NAU jumped to a 9-2 lead in the third frame and built that lead to a comfortable 10 points on the way to winning the set 25-15 and the match.
The Wildcats (13-10, 4-9) had a 9-6 block advantage, but hit just .152 in dropping their sixth straight league match and seventh overall. Megan Thompson paced WSU with 10 kills and five blocks.
Portland State 3, Montana 0: Caitlin Bettenay (10 kills, 12 digs) and Erin Clark (28 assists, 13 digs, five kills, three blocks) each notched double-doubles and Portland State swept Montana to clinch a spot in the Big Sky tournament.
The Vikings (15-10, 7-6) had a .174 hitting percentage along with out-blocking Montana 10-6. Katy Wilson finished with seven kills and five blocks and Pati Anae tallied six kills with two aces and four blocks while libero Tasha Bojanic added a match-high 18 digs.
PSU broke an 8-8 tie with a quick 4-0 spurt and scored three of the last four points to take the opening set 25-21. MIkaelyn Sych had two blocks to cap a 6-0 run that put the Vikings up 18-16 and Bettenay had two late kills as PSU grabbed the last five points to win 25-19. PSU hit .241 and worked towards 8-4, 13-7 and 18-10 leads on the way to taking the match 25-18.
Montana (4-19, 1-12) was held to just .017 hitting with just two more kills than attack errors. Alexis Urbach led the Grizzlies with 10 kills and eight digs.
Idaho State 3, Southern Utah 1: Chloe Hirst killed 21 balls at a .302 hitting clip, Hayley Farrer dished 49 assists with 11 digs and five kills as Idaho State topped Southern Utah in four sets.
The Bengals (14-12, 9-4) shook off a first-set loss and hit over .300 in the final two frames. Haylie Keck dug 20 balls for a match high while Abby Jensen (11 kills, 16 digs) and Brooke Pehrson (10 kills, six blocks) nabbed double-digit kills.
SUU (4-21, 2-11) grabbed the early momentum in the match, rolling to an 11-2 lead early and winning the set 25-18. Trailing 2-4, ISU outscored SUU 17-5 over a stretch to build a 10-point lead and fended off a late SUU rally to win 25-20.
The Bengals hit .343 and used a late 4-0 spurt before trading points with SUU and winning 25-20 in the third set. ISU hit .306, opened with a 5-0 run and stretched its lead to nine late before taking the set and the match 25-19.
The Thunderbirds were even in the blocking category, but were out-hit .217 to .168. Chennin Benson paced SUU with 18 kills and nine digs while Ann Clappier and MaCail Evans contributed nine kills each.
Northern Colorado 3, Idaho 1: Kim Weissmann and Alex Kloehn combined for 30 kills and Ashley Guthrie dished 52 assists to push Northern Colorado past Idaho 3-1.
The Bears (16-9, 10-3) hit .231 for the match with 58 kills. Timarie Nymeyer tallied 10 kills, Kortney Lockey grabbed nine with 17 digs and Makenna Meier earned 21 digs with a pair of service aces.
Idaho (9-16, 4-9) worked to a five-point lead in the opening set, and held on to take the set 25-23 with a kill from Haylee Mathis after UNC had fought back to fend off one set point. UNC stormed back hitting .303 and holding Idaho to negative hitting, scoring the last seven points with two kills from Weissmann taking the set 25-14.
In a tight third set, Idaho went up 22-20 late before the Bears closed the set on a 5-1 run to get its own 25-23 decision in the match. A 6-1 surge gave UNC a 19-11 lead in the fourth set on the way to taking the match 25-16.
The Vandals had an 8-6 block advantage, but mustered just 40 kills with 22 attack errors and a .128 hitting clip. Kaela Straw put together 12 kills and Mathis had seven kills, 16 assists and six digs.
Sacramento State 3, Montana State 1: Brie Gathright totaled nine kills on 14 attempts with five blocks, Shannon Boyle chipped in 14 kills and 14 digs and Sacramento State defeated Montana State 3-1.
The Hornets (16-11, 10-3) wrapped up its road Big Sky schedule winning its fifth straight and hitting .236 for the match. Kennedy Kurtz handed out 45 assists with 10 digs, Mikaela Nocetti killed 12 balls with eight digs and libero Lexie Skalbeck grabbed a match-high 26 digs.
It was the home team grinding out an opening-set win, as the Bobcats (5-17, 3-10) erased a late five-point deficit ending the set on an 8-1 run. Sac State answered back pulling away with a 9-0 run to close the second set, winning 25-11. An 8-1 surge put the Hornets up 20-16 in the third set, and Nocetti turned in three late kills to win 25-21. Sac State muscled a .500 hitting clip in the final frame, used a 7-0 run to set up match point, and won 25-17 after MSU fought off five match points.
MSU was held to .135 hitting with 29 attack errors and seven more serving in dropping its third straight match. Natalie Passeck led the Bobcats with a match-high 15 kills while Chase Doughty turned in a career-high 13.