Cats Fall in Five-Set Thriller

Saturday, September 23

Cheney, WA

3 p.m.

Montana State University

4-7 (0-2)

Eastern Washington

5-6 (2-0)

Montana State

Eastern Washington

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

9/23/2017 10:22:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Eastern Washington fought off four match points in the final two sets to notch a come-from-behind 25-20, 18-25, 21-25, 26-24, 16-14 win over Montana State, Saturday afternoon at Reese Court.

By: Tom Schulz

Eastern Washington fought off four match points in the final two sets to notch a come-from-behind 25-20, 18-25, 21-25, 26-24, 16-14 win over Montana State, Saturday afternoon at Reese Court.

After dropping the opening set, Montana State (4-7, 0-2) battled back capturing the next two frames behind a solid hitting performance. MSU out-hit Eastern Washington (5-6, 2-0) .257 to .086 in the second set.

"I thought we did a nice job applying some pressure to them," said MSU head coach Daniel Jones. "They pushed back hard and we were not able to withstand it."

Following a Chase Doughty kill the Bobcats held a 24-21 advantage in the fourth game. However, the Eagles rallied, fighting off three match points with a 5-0 run to force a fifth and deciding set.

The final frame featured nine ties and a Hannah Scott kill gave MSU a 14-13 advantage. Again, EWU fought off match point and scored the final three points on a Bobcat service error and two kills by Eastern Washington's Taylor Larsen to record the victory.

"It's hard to create that kind of pressure in the practice gym," Jones said. "If there is a silver-lining it's that we got ourselves into the situation to be serving match points on the road in our opponents' gym. We'll learn from the experience and get better."

Scott, a freshman from Hawthorne, Calif., finished with her first career double-double recording a team-best 16 kills, while adding 15 digs. Also in double-digit kills for MSU were Doughty 12, Savannah Laws 10 and Kiana Black 10. Senior Katie Rutecki made her first start of the season and dished out 46 assists.

Defensively, three Bobcats reached double-figure digs led by Allyssa Rizzo with 22 saves. Libby Christensen added 10 digs.

"It was exciting to be in that moment," Jones said. "It was a much better effort than our match at Idaho on Thursday night. We need to get tougher. I thought we executed the game plan to a T, but we needed to be tougher at the crucial parts of the match."

MSU will open its Big Sky season at home hosting Portland State on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Shroyer Gym.