Yellowjackets Sting the Battlin' Bears

Box Score

BILLINGS, Mont. – There’s no place like home.  Montana State University Billings snapped its five match losing streak with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-14) win over Rocky Mountain College, Tuesday night.  The victory made it nine straight wins over the Battlin’ Bears.  The Jackets are back in conference action, Saturday, Sept. 27, taking on Western Oregon.  The match is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m.

“This was a game we wanted and needed to win,” said head coach Dana Cordova.  “RMC is our rival and you always want to beat your rival.  Rocky is a very good team and they hung in there.  The girls really wanted this game and they showed it.  We weren’t waiting for things to happen, rather we were the aggressors and making things happen.  This is a good tune-up for our match against Western Oregon on Saturday.  We have to go into that contest with the same mindset we had tonight.  That is we have to control the tempo.”

The first two games resembled a heavyweight championship fight.  Both squads were throwing knockout punches and went back and forth.  The third game was much the same until it was 17-14.  Jessica Eliasson hit one in the net and Jill Trabing came up and served seven straight points to finish the match.

For Montana State Billings (3-13) Devon Crotteau had a monster night with 23 kills and sizzled the nets for a .572 hitting percentage.  She benefitted from outstanding setting from Hillary Morrison who had a career high 41 assists.  That gives Morrison 80 assists (13.33 per game) over the last two matches.  Jill Trabing had six digs, two aces and served up 12 points on the night.  Alohanui Pekipaki had 10 digs with four of them spectacular pancakes to keep several rallies alive.

For Rocky Mountain (8-4), Sarah Madlinger had 10 kills and Eliasson came away with four blocks.