Lady
Jackets Host Rocky Wednesday (10/25/05)
BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings
volleyball team returns home to wrap up the regular season with
three home matches in the next two weeks. The Yellowjackets start
that home stand with a single match against Rocky Mountain College
at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night at Alterowitz Gymnasium. They’ll
finish with two matches against Incarnate Word on November 4 and
5.
The Yellowjackets (18-5 overall, 7-3
Heartland Conference) have won six of their last seven matches and
13 of their last 16. Last weekend they split a pair of conference
matches at St. Edward’s University to clinch a berth in the
Heartland Conference Championship Tournament that runs November
11-12 in Austin, TX.
MSU Billings defeated Rocky 3-1 on September
27 on Rocky’s home floor. The Yellowjackets out-hit the Bears
.231 to .183 and had four players register double-digit kills. Ali Watson (Jr., Calgary, Alberta) led all players with 17 kills. Jessica
Bratton (Jr., Casper, WY) had 16. Rocky was paced by 13 kills
from Heather MacArthur.
Watson leads the Yellowjackets in kills and
digs this season. She is averaging 4.06 kills and 3.85 digs per
game. Alicia Cazemier (So., Vauxhall, Alberta) is second on the team
for kills at 3.94 per game and leads the Heartland Conference for
blocks (1.23 per game). She also ranks second in the league and
is in the top 20 nationally for attack percentage at .399.
Bratton is third on the team with 2.96 kills
per game. She also has 41 total blocks (0.49 per game), her
highest season total of her career. Alexis
Sandru (Jr., Twin Bridges, MT) is adding 2.23 blocks and 3.37
digs per game. Setter Natalie
Bills (Jr., Provo, UT) leads the Heartland at 12.06 assists
per game. She has reached 1,000 assists for the second-straight
season.
Rocky is 12-12 overall after losing nine of
its last 11 matches. In their last outing the Bears were swept at
Montana-Western last weekend. Rocky is led by Megan Longenecker
who averages 3.23 kills per game. Courtney Arthun leads the team
with a .236 attack percentage.
Notes: Five Yellowjackets are making moves in
the school record books. Cazemier has moved to sixth for career
blocks (219) and twelfth for career kills (538). She is also
tenth for single season kills (331) and ninth for single season
blocks (103). Cazemier is one of only four Yellowjackets to have
two season with over 100 blocks. Bratton is fourth for career
kills (906) and could become just the third Yellowjacket to reach
1,000. Bills is second for career assists (2,212) and fourth for
career service aces (99). She is also currently eighth for single
season service aces (44) and sixth for single season assists
(1,013). She needs only 30 assists on Wednesday to move to fifth
for season assists. Watson is ninth for single season assists
(341). Nicole Kruse (So., Huntley, MT) is third for single season
service aces (52) and is just seven short of the school record of
59. |
