Montana State Spikers Drop Two at DISH Lady Vol Classic

Saturday, September 20

Knoxville, TN

10 am

Montana State University

3-8

University of Memphis

9-4

Memphis

Montana State

Junior Natalee Godfrey returned to the Bobcat lineup against Tennessee on Saturday night.

Photo by: Randy Sartin

9/20/2014 10:13:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

“I’m impressed with how we battled all weekend,” Weindel added. “We have a short week ahead of us as we embark on the Big Sky Conference season. I think our non-conference schedule has prepared us well, and we’re excited to begin this part of the year.”

By: Tom Schulz

In its final day at the DISH Lady Vol Classic, the Montana State volleyball team dropped identical 3-0 decisions to Memphis and Tennessee, Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Montana State (3-9) opened the day with a 25-16, 25-22, 25-18 loss to Memphis. MSU was led by Loni Kreun and Eli Svisco with nine and eight kills, respectively. Senior libero Kasey Schlatter guided the Bobcats defensively with a team-high eight digs.

"I am and have been incredibly proud of how low error we have been all season," MSU Head Coach Kyle Weindel said. "We are still plagued with not being able to score enough points via kills and that showed against Memphis."

For the match, the Tigers out-hit the Bobcats .265 to 0.97, while more than doubling up MSU in kills 52-24.
In the nightcap, the Lady Vols posted a 25-17, 25-15, 25-23 win over MSU. The Bobcats were paced by Kennadie Clute with 15 kills, while Kreun and Schlatter added ten digs, apiece. Sophomore Katie Harrington dished out 33 assists, while adding two aces and five digs.

Montana State improved from the field, hitting .213 for the match and was out-killed by just two winners. Junior Natalee Godfrey returned to the Bobcat line-up after missing 30 sets in the non-conference season. It was the first time this fall that Montana State had its top two players from last season in the starting rotation.

"We played well and got Natalee back on the court, which was nice," Weindel said. "We were able to score points from a lot of different positions. I thought we played as well as we possibly could've, but ultimately our demise was we weren't able to win the serve-pass battle and they sided-out a bit better.

"I'm impressed with how we battled all weekend," Weindel added. "We have a short week ahead of us as we embark on the Big Sky Conference season. I think our non-conference schedule has prepared us well, and we're excited to begin this part of the year."

For their efforts, Harrington and Clute were named to the all-tournament team.

The Bobcats will open Big Sky play at Idaho State on Thursday night, before hosting Montana in the Brawl of the Wild on Saturday night in Shroyer Gym.