Montana State University
1-7
Brigham Young
5-3
BYU Sweeps past ‘Cats
9/10/2013 8:43:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Playing its fourth match in five days, the Montana State volleyball squad couldn’t match the power of West Coast Conference favorite Brigham Young, as the Cougars cruised to a 25-15, 25-19, 25-10 win, Tuesday night in Smith Fieldhouse.
Playing its fourth match in five days, the Montana State volleyball squad couldn't match the power of West Coast Conference favorite Brigham Young, as the Cougars cruised to a 25-15, 25-19, 25-10 win, Tuesday night in Smith Fieldhouse.
Montana State got off to a good start in the opening set taking a 7-6 advantage via a block by Loni Kreun. BYU answered quickly, scoring off MSU's passing errors and miscommunication to reel off an 8-1 run to go ahead 14-8. The Cougars built the lead to 19-10 on a Bobcat hitting miscue, before MSU went on a brief 4-2 run pulling to within 21-14 after an Anna Sykora joust at the net. BYU closed out the set on a 4-1 run, securing the win off an ace.
The Bobcats opened the second stanza on a 5-2 run and built the margin to 9-6 on a Megan Spofford solo block. The two teams played even ball at the midway point, which featured nine ties, before the Cougars posted back-to-back blocks for a 19-17 lead. BYU closed out the set on a 6-2 run as old Big Sky nemesis Tambre Haddock recorded back-to-back kills. Haddock transferred to BYU from Northern Colorado in the offseason.
"Going into intermission I thought we made some great strides in finding our identity," said MSU second-year head coach Kyle Weindel. "As a team, we forced them to change some things on defense, and the match was going the way I had hoped to- we had two good starts."
The third set was all BYU as the Cougars cruised to the win out-hitting the Bobcats .429 to -.071.
"Heading in to the upcoming weekend, we just need to continue to get better and better," Weindel said. "If we can replicate what we did in sets one and two, we'll be okay come Big Sky Conference time. I'm excited for what the future holds."
Freshman Kennadie Clute paced the Bobcats with her eighth straight double-digit kill match with a team-high 10 kills. Sophomore Natalee Godfrey also had a notable performance with seven kills, a .267 attack mark and two kills.
Libero Nicole Baker led MSU with nine digs, while Kasey Schlatter added seven saves. Sykora finished the match with 25 assists.
Haddock led BYU with a match-high 17 kills, while Alexa Gray added 12 kills and eight digs.
MSU will host the 15th annual Bobcat Classic this weekend in Shroyer Gym, beginning with Gonzaga at 7 p.m. on Friday night.
