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BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings volleyball team hit a season-high .208 as it downed visiting Simon Fraser University, 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-23) Thursday evening at Alterowitz Gymnasium. The Yellowjackets improved to 5-20 overall and 5-11 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, while SFU fell to 4-16 and 4-12 in conference play.
“I am happy with the win tonight and pretty happy with our performance,” MSUB head coach Staeve Smith said. “We are starting to see a lot more structure on our serve, receive, pass and defense, too. I was really happy with our backcourt tonight and I thought our blockers did an okay job, but were able to come up with some critical ones at important times. Most importantly, we had a good offense tonight as we had over 10 kills in each game is where we want to be.”
The Yellowjackets were led by senior Jennifer Boe who tallied a match-high 18 kills. Junior setter, Brooke Tolman tallied 38 assists. Boe hit a season-best .378 with 18 kills, four errors in 37 attempts. Sophomore Jody Lutz tallied eight kills, while freshman Adrienne Kelso had a team-high 14 digs.
As a team the Jackets had 40 kills and 19 errors in 101 attempts. They tallied 40 assists with 37 digs and six total blocks.
SFU hit .194 on the night with 37 kills and 18 errors in 98 attempts. Jennifer Neilson led the team with 11 kills, while Jordan Drezet had a team-high 19 assists. Meghan Carver added 12 assists, while Brianna Kellough tallied 13 digs and Marina Liarsky added 11 digs.
In the first set, neither team garnered more than a two-point lead throughout the set as the teams traded the lead multiple times. Off a SFU miscue, the Jackets tied the set at 20, but the Clan scored the next two points for a 22-20 lead.
A thundering kill and service ace by Boe followed to tie it at 22, forcing SFU to take a timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Clan regained the lead, but the Jackets weren't done with their late-set heroics as sophomore Hannah Johnson recorded a kill, followed by a miscue by SFU for a 24-23 lead. The Clan committed another miscue out of a timeout as MSUB took the first set 25-23.
“Game one was a really good performance for us,” Smith added. “Jen (Boe) had a really good night offensively and Jody (Lutz) was really good early on in the match and Melissa (Porter) struggled a bit tonight, but came up with some big blocks to close out the match.”
SFU came out in the second sent and took control early on. The Clan raced out to an early 4-0. The Yellowjackets kept fighting and tied the match at eight on a service ace by Johnson. MSUB then scored nine of the next 14 points to build a 17-13 lead on a kill by Lutz.
The Jackets held a 20-16 lead, but the Clan came fighting back as it tied the set at 22 with a 6-2 run. Errors came back to bite the Clan again as MSUB scored two of the final three points on SFU miscues for a 25-23 win.
The third set saw the Clan jump out to an 14-9 lead as it looked as if they were in control. The Jackets had other ideas as they erased the deficit with five consecutive serves from Boe capped by three errors and two aces.
MSUB took just its second lead of the set at 15-14 out of a SFU timeout on another miscue by the Clan. The Jackets used an 11-3 run to take control of the set at 20-17. The Yellowjackets got to match point at 24-19, but the Clan made things interesting staving off four match points and was down 24-23. That's when Boe put her 18th kill down the line for the winner, 25-23, and the sweep.
“Overall, I am really excited in the direction we are going,” Smith added. “We are seeing progress day-in- and-day-out and it's showing up on the court, and helping us win some matches.”
MSUB concludes the weekend against 15th-ranked Western Washington Saturday at 7 p.m. at Alterowitz Gymnasium. The Jackets then make the return trip to Rocky Mountain College, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Fortin Center. The regular season concludes a week from Saturday (Nov. 13) at 7 p.m. versus nationally ranked Seattle Pacific in Alterowitz Gymnasium on Senior Night.
