Bobcat Rally Falls Short to Northwestern State

Friday, August 30

Fayetteville, AR

4 p.m.

Montana State University

1-1

Northwestern State

1-1

Montana State

Northwestern St

Freshman Emma Pence with a kill earlier in the day against Little Rock.

Photo by: Jack Murrey

8/30/2019 9:21:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Montana State had its chances with two match points in the fourth set but were unable to close the door as Northwestern State held off a late Bobcat charge to post a 25-22, 16-25, 16-25, 28-26, 15-13 victory over MSU, Friday night at the Arkansas Classic in Barnhill Arena.

By: Tom Schulz

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Montana State had its chances with two match points in the fourth set but were unable to close the door as Northwestern State held off a late Bobcat charge to post a 25-22, 16-25, 16-25, 28-26, 15-13 victory over MSU, Friday night at the Arkansas Classic in Barnhill Arena.

Montana State (1-1) stormed back from a 17-12 deficit in set four with a 10-2 run taking a 22-19 lead. The Bobcats were up 2-1, after bouncing back from a first set defeat with two convincing victories in games two and three. An Evi Wilson kill gave MSU a 24-22 advantage, but the Demons held off two match points and eventually had three set points of their own before tying the match at two-all on a Hannah Brister kill.

In the deciding set, Northwestern State (1-1) jumped out to an early 7-4 lead, before the Bobcats rattled off a 7-2 run taking an 11-9 margin on a tap down by freshman Emma Pence. The Demons responded with a 5-0 run. MSU fought off two match points on back-to-back kills by Hannah Scott and Kira Thomsen, but Brister ended the match with a kill off the block.

"It's a growth moment for us," said MSU head coach Daniel Jones. "We're making mistakes in August that we can grow from and hopefully get better from. The challenge, though, is to step-up when the opportunity is there to learn."

Montana State was led by Wilson with 19 kills, while Thomsen added 14 winners. Senior libero Allyssa Rizzo came up one dig shy of matching the MSU school-record with 37 digs but became just the fourth Bobcat in history to surpass the 1,500-dig plateau.

Wilson, a senior from Vancouver, Wash., notched a double-double adding 13 digs. Also posting a double-double was setter Allie Lynch with 48 assists and 16 digs.

"Northwestern State played a high-tempo, high-passioned game, not to dissimilar from our own," Jones said. "They just had some players execute at critical moments and we fell down at some critical moments. The mark of any person is not whether you get knocked down, it's how you get back up. I'm proud of this group for getting back up a couple of times. We just came up short a few times of seeing it through."

Aside from the stellar play of seniors Wilson and Rizzo, the Bobcats received strong performances from freshmen Thomsen and Pence. Pence finished with eight kills and match-high six blocks.

"We have a new line up and whenever you put a new line up on the floor there's going be those moments where they're going to have to work through those challenges," Jones stated. "I'm glad we're learning these things now and we hope to grow from it. That was my message in the locker room. We're never as good as we think we are, and we're never as bad as we think we are. "

Northwestern State was paced by Brister with a match-best 24 digs.

MSU will face Arkansas on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. (MT) to conclude weekend play.