Turning the Page: Bobcat Spikers Rally for Win

Thursday, September 20

Bozeman

7 p.m.

Montana State University

Eastern Washington

Photo by: Kelly Gorham

9/20/2012 10:41:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Tom Schulz

Every time the Montana State volleyball team needed a point senior Macy Page answered the call. The outside hitter from Orem, Utah, recorded a career-high 27 kills as the Bobcats rallied for a 25-23, 21-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-11 win in its home-opener over Eastern Washington, Thursday night in Shroyer Gym.

“Over the course of the match Macy was the only one getting it done,” said MSU head coach Kyle Weindel. “We leaned on her to get us kills and she did a nice job.”

Montana State (8-3, 2-1) controlled most of the opening set taking a 20-14 advantage following an Eastern Washington (0-14, 0-3) attack error. However, EWU went on a 9-4 run to close the margin to 24-23 before a Sarah Horton and Taylar Barney block gave the Bobcats the win.

MSU came out flat in sets two and three, combining to hit just .088 from the floor as EWU grabbed the momentum and a 2-1 match lead behind a .233 attack mark.

“Our lack of emotional consistency had an effect on our execution, and that's what we saw in sets two and three,” Weindel said. “That's something we need to get better at, and fortunately, we were able to turn things around.”

Page paced the Bobcats in the fourth stanza with seven kills, while junior Sarah Horton came on late in the set with five kills to lift MSU to a 25-22 win and force a fifth and deciding game.

“I thinking switching up Nicole (Baker) and Kasey (Schlatter), defensively, gave us a little lift,” Weindel added. “Nicole came back in and really did a nice job in the middle back in set five.”

In the fifth set, Eastern Washington got out to a quick 4-0 advantage, but following a MSU timeout, the Bobcats went on 12-2 run, winning the match on a Barney kill.

“We wanted to flip the rotation and get some match-ups that we could benefit from,” Weindel said. “We got off to a slow start, but we kept ourselves together and really made a nice run.”

Also in double-figure kills for Montana State was Horton with 17 winners. She also posted the only double-double of the match chipping in 16 digs.

Aside from Horton, also notching double-digit digs were Baker 23, Schlatter 16, and Svisco 15. Jennifer Lundquist dished out 55 assists and eight digs, while Barney, Horton and Natalee Godfrey added a team-best four blocks, each.

EWU was paced by Shelby Puckett with 12 kills and seven digs.

MSU will host league-leading Portland State on Saturday night in Shroyer Gym at 7 p.m.