BILLINGS, Mont. –The Montana State University Billings Volleyball team will play their final two home games of the year as they host Northwest Nazarene University and Central Washington University this week.
 
Yellowjackets are currently ninth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (7-17, 4-10 GNAC) while NNU (10-12, 6-9 GNAC) is eighth and CWU is fourth (15-8, 10-5 GNAC).
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Montana State University Billings volleyball team fell twice at the hands of Simon Fraser University and No. 5 Western Washington University. Both matches saw MSUB swept 3-0.
 
Against SFU, Joelle Mahowald lead MSUB with a .263 hitting percentage and seven kills. Maddi Vigil and Bayli Monck tied for the team lead with 10 digs as MSUB's defense struggle to keep pace with the SFU attack. Hannah Hashbarger finished with 22 assists and seven digs.

Facing the juggernaut that is WWU, Vigil had a team high eight kills while fellow junior Monck had seven. Mahowald finished with a team high .250 hitting percentage. Defensively, Marissa Logozzo and Hashbager each had nine digs. Freshman setter Hashbarger also held a team high 29 assists. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS: Monck continues to lead MSUB in kills with 248 (3.72/set) and is second on the team in digs, closing in on 300 with 280 (3.08/set). Vigil is second on the team with 233 kills (2.56/set) and Skylar Reed is third with 216 (2.37/set). 
 
Junior middle blocker Mahowald is fourth on the team with 186 kills (2.07/set) and leads the team with a .298 hitting percentage. That mark is currently sixth in the GNAC as Mahowald has been one of the most consistent hitters in the league.
 
Hashbarger is leading the team with 711 assists (9.36 /set) and has proven to be one of the best setters in the GNAC, currently ranked 6^th in assists.
 
Defensively for the 'Jackets, Logozzo leads MSUB with 312 (3.71/set). Vigil is third on the team with 253 digs (2.78/set) and Makayla Baca is fourth with 175 (2.15/set).
 
Scouting Northwest Nazarene University
Game Day: Thursday, November 7 – 1 p.m.
2019 Record: 10-12, 6-9 GNAC, 3-5 home, 4-5 away, 3-2 neutral
2018 Record: 6-21, 6-14 GNAC, 3-10 home, 3-7 away, 0-4 neutral
Head Coach: Doug English (7^th season)
 
The Nighthawks volleyball team comes to town fresh off a 3-0 (25-23, 25-21,25-13) defeat at the hands of CWU on Tuesday. Last week, NNU was swept by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks on Saturday, Nov. 2 and fell 3-1 to the University of Alaska, Anchorage on Thursday Oct. 31.
 
As a team, NNU holds a .183 hitting percentage while allowing opponents a percentage of .225. MSUB is barley behind the Nighthawks in terms of hitting percentage, at .181 while allowing opponents to hit .231. 
 
MSUB will have to contend with Brooke Foster who heads up the NNU attack, leading with 301 kills (3.50/set) which is the third best mark in the GNAC. Foster is also currently second on the team in digs with 268 (3.12/set). Megan Nelson is currently fourth in the GNAC with 803 assists (9.45/set).
 
Kayla Sale is seventh in the GNAC with 344 digs (4.14/set). NNU is one of the better defensive teams in the conference, currently number four in digs with 1506 (17.51/set).
 
MSUB defeated NNU earlier in the year in a thrilling five set match. Coming back from a 2-1 deficit, Montana State University Billings volleyball rallied 3-2 (25-25, 25-23, 26-28, 25-23, 17-15).
 
Monck had a double-double of 19 kills and a career high 26 digs. Monck also posted five of MSUB's 22 total blocks and hit .298. Right side hitter Reed took in 18 kills with one service ace, a pair of block assists, and hit .324. Vigil had 16 kills and hit .240 with 14 digs and two block assists.
 
Eavan Taylor played well at middle blocker with a season high six block assists and two solo blocks. Mahowald pitched in 13 kills and a .290 hitting percentage to go with one solo block and five block assists.
 
"Last time we played NNU it was a great match that went back and forth," said head coach Casey Williams. "We match up really well with NNU but need to do a better job this time around of stopping their outside attack." 
 
Scouting Central Washington University
Game Day Saturday, November 9 – 1 p.m.
2019 Record: 15-8, 10-4 GNAC, 7-1 home, 4-5 away, 4-2 neutral
2018 Record: 23-6, 16-4 GNAC, 11-2 home, 8- away, 4-1 neutral
Head Coach: Mario Andaya (24^th Season)
 
The Wildcats come to Billings winner of seven of their last eight matches including a weekend sweep of the Alaska schools. They defeated Fairbanks 3-1 on Oct. 31 and followed that up with a 3-2 defeat of Anchorage.
 
On Tuesday, CWU defeated NNU 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-13). Makala Smart paced the Wildcats with 12 kills and a .320 hitting percentage.
 
CWU is a playing very well down the home stretch and is very balanced. They currently rank fourth in the GNAC as a team with a .196 hitting percentage and limit opponents to a .163. CWU is also third in the conference in kills with 1159 (13.02/set), third in assists at 1082 (12.16/set) and third in digs with 1572 (17.66/set).
 
Three different Wildcats have over 200 kills on the year. Smart leads the three pronged attack with 242 kills (3.27/set), Ashely Kaufman has 213 (2.39/set) and Bridgette have 201 (2.26/set).
 
Gaby Aihara has 770 assists (8.65/set) and Kyla Morgan lads the team with 464 digs (5.52/set).
 
In the first match-up against CWU, MSUB was swept on the road 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-18). MSUB struggled to find consistent offense on the night, ending with a team hitting percentage of .096 to CWU's .226. CWU finished with 39 kills and 13 errors, while MSUB put away 35 kills and 23 errors.
 
The 'Jackets were led by Monck who notched her seventh double-double of the season with 11 kills and 13 digs. Reed had 11 kills while hitting a team leading .207. Hashbarger finished with a double-double of 28 assists and 10 digs.
 
"CWU got the best of us last time we saw them", commented Williams. They limited our offense and didn't allow us to get in rhythm. We are eager to get another shot at them."
 
Live stats and video for the two matches can be found at msubsports.com.