October 2, 2007          
                                                                  

Jackets Battle Past Bears, 3-1
Box Score
MSUB Season Stats
Click HERE to listen to the archived play-by-play of this match by Herm Elenbaas

BILLINGS, Mont. – It wasn’t always pretty, but the Montana State Billings volleyball team found a way to dispatch cross-town Rocky Mountain College 3-1 Tuesday night in non-conference volleyball.  The Yellowjackets won 30-28, 32-34, 30-23, 30-27 to improve to 13-4 on the season.

“It’s fun to keep the tradition of the inner city rivalry going,” said Yellowjacket head coach Sara Schaub after the match.  “It was a great crowd and a great atmosphere.  It’s good to walk away with a win in a tough match like that.”

The Yellowjackets opened the match on fire and appeared to be on cruise control halfway through game one.  They opened a 22-9 lead on the Bears before the momentum took a massive swing.

The Bears went on a furious 19-6 run to tie the game at 28 all.  They weren’t able to finish off the rally, however.  A Rock service error gave the Jackets a 29-28 edge, and Alicia Cazemier (Vauxhall, Alberta) finished off the game with one of her match-high 20 kills.

“I think we got complacent, and we let them back into the game” said Schaub.  “Every streak they made came when we were ahead by a lot.  They served tough, and we weren’t able to receive the serves well and get our offense going.”

The momentum gained by the Bears in the second half of the first game carried over into game two.  They played even with the Jackets through the first nine points.  MSUB responded with a 7-3 run capped by a Stefania Aladjova (Sofia, Bulgaria) service ace to take a 16-12 lead.

The Bears battled back again, and the game turned into a battle of wills.  Rocky tied the game at 19 apiece on a Kelly Fox kill.  From that point there were seven ties and eight lead changes.  MSUB had two shots at game point after the score reached 30-30, but they couldn’t close the deal.

Instead of reeling, the Yellowjackets responded with their best game of the night in the third game.  MSUB led wire to wire and posted a .344 hitting percentage.  Cazemier and Jessica Lechner (Pompeys Pillar) each posted five kills in the pivotal third game.

After Rocky jumped to a 5-2 lead to start the fourth game, the Yellowjackets took over to close the match.  They tied the game at 7-7 and used a 16-2 run to break out to a 23-9 lead.  A majority of the run came on Hillary Morrison’s (Evansville, Wyo.) service.  Morrison served up 10-straight Yellowjacket points.  The Bears were able to rally to within 28-27, but another service error and a Jennifer Boe (Casper, Wyo.) kill ended the match.

“Hillary did a good job of serving tough to throw off their offense,” Schaub said.  “We stayed disciplined with our blocking and defense so we could attack effectively.”

Cazemier’s 20 kills came on a blistering .452 attack percentage.  The senior middle blocker had just six errors on 31 attempts and moved to No. 2 on the Yellowjacket career kills list with 1,292.  She is now within 84 kills of tying the school record.  Cazemier also posted six block assists and three aces.

“Alicia had a good match,” said Schaub.  “We need to get the ball to her more.  She is our go-to player.  When she produces, it usually ends in a win.”

Devon Crotteau (Casper, Wyo.) knocked down 19 kills on a .255 hitting percentage.  She had a dozen digs and led all players with five service aces.  Boe finished with 16 kills, and Lechner drilled 13 kills, career highs for both players. 

Aladjova dished out a career-high 59 assists and dropped in four aces.  Nicole Kruse (Huntley) picked up a match-high 14 digs.  The Jackets had 12 aces in the match, but handed the Bears 20 points on service errors. 

Sarah Madinger, Shanda Veldhuisen, and Jessica Eliasson each posted nine kills to lead the Bears.  Veldhuisen and Ashley Corburn each had 10 digs.  The Jackets out-hit the Bears .276 to .173 for the match.

The Yellowjackets return to Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with an important match at Seattle University on Saturday.  MSU Billings is currently in third place in the GNAC with a 6-2 record.  Seattle is 6-10 overall and 3-5 in the league.

“It will be the last team we see in the GNAC for the first time,” Schaub said of Saturday’s match up.  “We need to come out and play every point and not have these lows that we had tonight.  We need to stay consistent and finish off opponents when we have the chance.”