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BILLINGS, Mont. – The momentum swung like a giant pendulum in Thursday night's Great Northwest Athletic Conference match, favoring neither side until the final whistle as the Montana State University Billings volleyball team started off strong, then fell behind but made a valiant come-back effort that fell just short of a victory in a thrilling 2-3 loss to the visiting Wildcats of Central Washington University inside Alterowitz Gymnasium.
 
“I was pleased with our effort in the first and fourth sets,” stated head coach Steve Smith. “We came out ready to play, but still made too many mistakes, and it showed down the stretch. It caused us to fall behind, but the girls made a run at it and gave it their best shot there at the end. We just came up short.”
 
MSUB now finds itself at an even 9-9 overall and is now 3-6 in league play while CMU improves to 11-7 and an even 5-5 in the conference.
 
The Yellowjackets flew out to an early lead in the first set 25-20, hitting a respectable .205 while holding the Wildcats to just a .056 hitting percentage before coming out flat in the second and third sets. The result saw MSUB fall behind 2-1 after the 14-25 and 17-25 sets.
 
Not wanting to give up, MSUB stormed back with another dominating performance in the fourth, holding the Wildcats to another sub-.100 hitting percentage (.081) while hitting a solid .276 as a team to claim the set 25-14 and send the match into a deciding fifth set.
 
With the match on the line, the home crowd came to its feet, cheering on the Yellowjackets throughout the fifth set. The Yellowjackets fell behind once more, rallying back to even the score briefly at 14-14. But it would not be enough as the Wildcats were able to claim the fifth set 16-14 to claim victory.
 
Three Yellowjackets finished the match in double-digits for kills with a pair of freshmen leading the way as Monica Grimsrud concluded her efforts with a match-high-tying 14 terminations while fellow freshman Krista Norris tallied 12 kills. Senior Melissa Porter collected 10 terminations en route to hitting .273 over the five sets.
 
Senior Brooke Tolman continued to add up the assists as she collected 47 for the night to go along with three block-assists, tying freshman Chelsey Walter for most block assists in the match. Walter also added a solo block of her own while Jody Lutz had a team-high two solo blocks.
 
Central Washington also had three players register double-digit kills as Jordan Offutt, Meg Ryan and Erin Smith collected 14, 13 and 12 kills respectively. Ryan's 13 kills were part of a double-double performance as she also corralled in 17 digs.
 
The Yellowjacket' serving found the weaknesses of the Wildcats multiple times as MSUB registered eight service aces with Morgan Moss and Sydney Oberstein both recording two each.
 
MSUB has one more home match before hitting the road once more. The Yellowjackets will host their annual “Dig Pink Night” on Saturday, Oct. 15 and encourage all MSUB supporters to come out wearing pink to support the fight to find a cure for breast cancer. MSUB will host the Crusaders of Northwest Nazarene for a 7 p.m. GNAC match for the special event.
 
The MSUB volleyball team has been selling raffle tickets for “Dig Pink Night” at all home events with the proceeds going to the St. Vincent Healthcare's Eva Project.
 
Raffle tickets can be purchased at the rate of $5 for one and $20 for five. Raffle items include $25 to Bues BBQ, $75 to Geyser Park, two rounds of golf at Pryor Creek Golf Course, a Felicia Sanchez Breast Health Awareness Cake, and a one-night stay at the Hilton Garden Inn with $25 to Old Chicago.