Volleyball Drops Two on First Day of Invitational

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BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings volleyball squad dropped two tough games on the first day of the Montana State Billings Tournament, held at Alterowitz Gymnasium, Friday evening. The team first dropped its GNAC opener to Northwest Nazarene, 3-1 (25-18, 25-17, 19-25, 25-17), then fell in five games, during the night cap, to Northern State (17-25, 25-17, 19-25, 25-20, 15-9).

As a team, MSUB had 91 kills in the two matches, led by Devon Crotteau who had 22 kills against Northwest Nazarene and 15 against Northern State. Jen Boe racked up 20 total kills in the two matches, while Hillary Morrison had 40 assists in the first match and countered in the second with 36. Hannah Johnson also had a nice night, adding 17 kills in the two matches.

In the first match, Northwest Nazarene jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, outhitting the Yellowjackets .345 to .059 in the first. MSUB stayed competitive throughout the match, taking the third game and forcing the fourth, but the Crusaders were too much, taking the fourth 25-17 behind a .529 team hitting percentage.  

The second match of the evening proved to be very exciting to the end. MSUB got on the board early taking the first game 25-17 but fell by the same score in the second. The Yellowjackets outhit the Wolves .231 to .027 in the first but the tide turned in the second going .029 to .171.

The Yellowjackets were able to regain composure and took the third by hitting .320 with 11 kills. The fourth and fifth games stayed competitive throughout, but errors caught up to MSUB as they fell 25-20 and 15-9 respectively.

MSUB fell to 4-5 on the season and 0-1 in the GNAC with the losses. The Yellowjackets will return to action tomorrow afternoon on day two of the MSUB Invitational as they take on University of Mary at 11 a.m. and will wrap-up tournament play against Dickinson State University at 5 p.m.

The tournament will start again tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. featuring Northern State University and Northwest Nazarene. After the Yellowjackets game at 11 a.m., Dickinson State and Northwest Nazarene square off at 1 p.m., while University of Mary takes on Northern State at 3 p.m.