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BILLINGS, Mont. – In front of a loud and rowdy home crowd of student supporters, the Montana State University Billings volleyball team enjoyed home-court advantage for the first time this season to defeat the Saints of Saint Martin's University 3-2 Thursday night inside Alterowitz Gymnasium.

 

The Saints claimed an early 1-0 lead after securing a 25-20 first set, but the Yellowjackets stung back by rattling off a pair of wins in the second and third sets (25-22, 25-21) to go up 2-1. SMU was able to knot the match at two-all with a 25-22 win in the fourth set, pushing the match to a deciding fifth-set which MSUB easily won 15-8 to claim their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference win of the season.

 

MSUB is now 7-5 (1-2 GNAC) for 2011 while SMU falls to 3-7 (2-3 GNAC).

 

Senior Brooke Tolman continued her streak of double-doubles, now at seven matches, by dishing out 57 assists and recording 10 digs in the home opener while sophomore outside-hitter Nicole Davey also registered a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs in the win over the Saints.

 

Monica Grimsrud led all players in the match with 17 terminations with Melissa Porter not too far behind with 14 of her own. Defensive specialist Morgan Moss corralled in a match-high 40 digs.

 

For SMU, Kristyn Ross led the march with 16 kills and 27 digs while Cymbree Decosta served up 46 assists and tallied 11 digs in SMU's effort.

 

The Yellowjackets were able to hold the Saints to a .110 hitting percentage and recorded 12 total blocks to SMU's six.

 

MSUB will remain at home this weekend with another GNAC event, this time against the Wolves of Western Oregon University on Saturday, Sept. 24. The match is slated to commence at 7 p.m.