Bobcat Front Line Solid in Sweep over Weber State

Saturday, September 29

Bozeman

7 p.m.

Montana State University

Weber State

The Bobcat block was solid in its win over Weber State on Saturday night.

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

9/29/2012 9:39:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Unlike Friday night, in which the Bobcats squandered its lead to Idaho State, only to come back to win in five sets, the MSU volleyball team stepped-up its play to notch a 25-23, 25-11, 25-19 win over the Wildcats, Saturday night in Shroyer Gym.

By: Tom Schulz

Montana State head coach Kyle Weindel found himself in familiar territory heading into intermission with a 2-0 advantage over Weber State.

But unlike Friday night, in which the Bobcats squandered its lead to Idaho State, only to come back to win in five sets, the MSU volleyball team stepped-up its play to notch a 25-23, 25-11, 25-19 win over the Wildcats, Saturday night in Shroyer Gym.

“I challenged them at intermission to be better,” Weindel said. “That if we wanted to make a statement this early in conference play that it would take consistency. Weber State didn't make it easy, but I thought we did a nice job controlling the match.”

Weber State (7-10, 1-5) stormed out of the gates in the first set taking a sizeable 17-10 advantage following an Audrey Gee kill. However, Montana State (10-4, 4-2) regrouped and rattled off a 9-1 run fueled by Taylar Barney's three kills and two blocks. The set was tied four times down the stretch before back-to-back kills via Macy Page and Sarah Horton gave the Bobcats the win.

“We got our block established early, and it was off-the-chart good,” Weindel said. “I thought it was Taylar's best blocking match of the season, and Natalee (Godfrey) was equally as good.”

Set two belonged to the Bobcats as MSU out-hit WSU .360 to -.129. Montana State won the game on a Jennifer Lundquist ace.

In the final set, MSU pulled away from a 12-all tie with a 6-1 run, winning the match on a Barney solo block.

The Bobcats ended the match out-hitting the Wildcats .265 to .042. MSU also held a 15-8 advantage in blocks and posted more kills, assists and digs, as well.

“I really like the way we played this weekend,” Weindel said. “We are starting to become more consistent with our play over a longer period of time.”

Page paced the Bobcats with a match-high 12 kills, while hitting .391 from the field. Aside from eight blocks, Barney finished with six kills and a .308 attack mark. Lundquist ended the match with 32 assists, six blocks and five digs.

Defensively, Nicole Baker posted a match-high 14 saves, while Sarah Horton also hit double-digits with 12 saves.

MSU will travel to Northern Arizona and Southern Utah next weekend.