POCATELLO, Idaho – Playing with its season on the line, Montana (10-20, 7-11 BSC) topped Idaho State (18-13, 12-6 BSC) in Reed Gym Saturday night. The Bengals were unable to overcome a loss in the first as they fell in four sets (25-21, 21-25, 26-24, 25-20) in the final game of the regular season.
"We got outplayed, out-efforted a little bit tonight," said Head Coach Rick Reynolds. "I thought we had a great game plan and I thought we did some really good stuff in preparation, and Montana outplayed us."
Abby Garrity led the Bengals in her final match in Reed Gym with 19 kills on 43 attempts for a .395 hitting percentage. She also posted 10 digs and three blocks in her 10th double-double of the season.
Brooke Pehrson tallied 12 kills and six blocks and Nicole Lee was the final ISU player in double figures with 10 kills.
Taylor Meeks recorded nine kills and tied Pehrson for the team lead with six blocks. Raegan Steiner also had an effective night at the net with five blocks. Chelsea Johnson collected 45 assists and Haylie Keck gathered 16 digs.
Idaho State hit at a higher percentage than Montana (.188 - .170), with both teams collecting 52 kills in the match. It was the first time this season ISU lost a match after hitting at a higher percentage than its opponent.
Idaho State had a slight edge in blocks (12-11), but the real difference came at the service line. Montana recorded 11 service aces to Idaho State's four and had three fewer service errors.
"Every night in the Big Sky, I think our football coaches, soccer coaches, basketball coaches will tell you, every night in the Big Sky you can't take your foot off the pedal," Reynolds said.
Idaho State used two four-point runs to take an 11-7 lead in the first set. The Bengals extended the lead to five at 17-12 and forced Montana to use its second timeout.
The Grizzlies cut the lead to one coming out of the huddle and then scored four unanswered points to regain the lead at 20-19. Idaho State tied the game at 21-all, but Montana scored the final four points to take the set 25-21.
The second set was tightly contested early on with the teams deadlocked at 10-10. A kill from Garrity gave ISU the edge and they maintained it for the duration of the game. She proceeded to record a pair of kills and partnered with Meeks on the block to extend the lead to 22-16 and force a UM timeout.
Consecutive attacking errors by Montana gave Idaho State set point with a 24-18 advantage. The Grizzlies threatened a comeback by taking the next three points, but Garrity closed the set at 25-21 to even the match at 1-1.
Idaho State trailed by four with Montana holding a 14-10 lead in the third set and took a timeout to reset. They cut the lead to one, but two errors set them back three. The Bengals won five of the next six points to gain a 19-18 lead.
Montana tied the game three times following that, but Idaho State was able to reclaim the lead each time, and Garrity gave the team set point with a 24-23 lead. UM's Mykaela Hammer responded with two kills as the Griz took the final three points for a 26-24 comeback win.
With Johnson at the service line, the Bengals surged to a 6-2 lead to begin the fourth. The Grizzlies took the next five points and the lead at 7-6 and used another run to open a four-point gap. Senior Alexis Simmons served an ace and Mahala Bradburn served two of her own one rotation later to tie the game at 14-all. Montana responded by scoring five-consecutive points and maintained that buffer as they rolled to a 25-20 win to advance to the Big Sky Conference Tournament.
Montana's Alexis Urbach and Hammer led the team with 15 and 14 kills respectively. Hammer also had 14 digs for a double-double. Baily Permann was another big factor for UM with eight blocks.
Despite the loss, Idaho State had plenty to celebrate. Before the game, the team awarded Keck and Garrity with commemorative game balls to mark their milestones during the season. Keck's was for reaching 1,500 career digs and Garrity's was for eclipsing 1,000 career kills as a Bengal.
Idaho State also recognized three players during its senior night presentation. Simmons and Garrity were honored along with redshirt junior, Lee. All three will graduate from Idaho State this fall. Johnson also gave ISU reason to be thankful as she broke into the top-10 single season records with her 1,286th assist of 2018.
Idaho State's focus is now on Greely, Colo. where the 2018 Big Sky Volleyball Conference Championship will take place Nov. 22-24. The Bengals will have the fifth seed in the conference tournament.
"I want to tell our fans great job," Reynolds said. "I'm proud of you and love the support we get. I still think we've got the best cheering fans in the Big Sky. This is a great place to play. They tried to will us through this and we appreciate them. Go Bengals and we'll come back with hopefully some hardware next week."
