Lady Jackets and Bears Set to Tangle for the First Time Tuesday (Sept. 20, 2004)

BILLINGS, MT – The first match of this year’s home-and-home series between the MSU Billings and Rocky Mountain volleyball teams will take place Tuesday night at the Fortin Center in Billings.  The Yellowjackets (6-3) will be playing the first of five straight road matches while the Bears (6-8) will be playing at home for the third straight time.

The Yellowjackets will be trying to rebound from back to back five-game losses to Western New Mexico.  MSU Billings rallied from a 2-1 deficit on Friday and a 2-0 deficit on Saturday, only to lose 3-2 both nights.  All three of the Yellowjackets’ losses this season have been in five-game matches, while all six of their wins have been three-game sweeps.

The Bears are coming off a pair of 3-1 Frontier Conference victories.  They defeated Great Falls on Friday and MSU-Northern on Saturday.  Kelly Fox knocked down a dozen kills in the win over Northern.  Courtney Arthun had 10 kills and four blocks.  Complete season stats for the Bears are not available.

The Yellowjackets’ Olivia Munro (Sr., OH, Toronto, Ontario) has a realistic chance of breaking the school record for career kills on Tuesday.  She needs just 11 kills to catch Brandee Sayles atop the career list.  Sayles had 1,043 career kills in four seasons from 1994 to 1997.

Munro has recorded double-digit kills in every match this season, with a low of 10 in a quick sweep of Minot State two weeks ago.  Her season high was 21 kills at Alaska-Anchorage.  She currently ranks fifth in the PacWest Conference for kills per game at 4.21 and also leads the league in digs per game at 4.91.

After relying on Munro to provide the offensive punch over the past two seasons, the Yellowjackets have produced a more balanced attack this year.  Three Yellowjackets rank in the top ten in the conference for kills.  Jessica Bratton (So., OH, Casper, WY) ranks fourth in the PacWest for kills per game at 4.45, and Andrea Donahue (Sr., MB, Whitefish, MT) is ninth at 3.55.  Donahue also ranks second for hitting percentage at .437 and third for blocks per game at 0.97.

Donahue is new to the team this season after transferring from St. Olaf.  She is joined by two other newcomers who are making a difference for coach Pa’ulasi Matavao’s squad.  In the middle is freshman Alicia Cazemier (Vauxhall, Alberta), who is second in the conference at 1.16 blocks per game.  She is also adding 2.19 kills per game.  On the right side, Jessica Bachmann (Sr., Gillette, WY) is averaging 2.61 digs and 0.48 blocks per game.

The Yellowjacket offense has been running through setter Natalie Bills (So., Provo, UT), one of the team’s most effective setters in recent years.  Bills is averaging a league-leading 12.48 assists per game.  She also ranks fourth in the PacWest for service aces with 33.

Following Tuesday’s match at Rocky, the Yellowjackets embark on their annual trek to Hawaii for four conference matches.  They will play at #24 BYU-Hawaii on September 27, at #10 Hawaii Pacific on September 28, at Chaminade on October 1 and at Hawaii-Hilo on October 2.  MSU Billings returns to Alterowitz on October 8 and 9 to host BYU-Hawaii.