Jacket Volleyball Wins Third Straight (10/3/05)
Box Score

GOODWELL, OK – The Montana State-Billings volleyball team continued its four-game conference road swing with an easy sweep of Oklahoma Panhandle State Monday night.  The Yellowjackets won 30-13, 30-16, 30-24 to improve to 16-4 overall and 5-2 in the Heartland Conference.  They will wrap up the trip with one more match at winless Oklahoma Panhandle (0-21, 0-7) Tuesday night.

“I think our kids did a great job of not playing down tonight,” said Yellowjacket head coach Pa’ulasi Matavao.  “They came out really tough and stayed with it for most of the match.  Overall they played really well as a team, not letting the records determine how we played tonight.  It was a good win as a team.  Hopefully we’ll get one more and come home 4-0 on the road trip.”

MSU Billings dominated the match from the start.  In the first game the Jackets pounded out 15 kills on 30 attempts with just one error for a .467 attack percentage.  In the match the Yellowjackets hit .253 as a team to the Aggies’ .133.  MSU Billings had a 38-16 advantage in kills.

Middle blocker Alicia Cazemier (So., Vauxhall, Alberta) led all players with 13 kills on a .417 attack percentage.  She also had five blocks and three service aces.  Jessica Bratton (Jr., Casper, WY) continued her steady play with 11 kills on 27 attempts.  Setter Natalie Bills (Jr., Provo, UT) handed out 29 assists to go with seven digs.  Nicole Kruse (So., Huntley, MT) and Alexis Sandru (Jr., Twin Bridges, MT) had nine and eight digs respectively.

Oklahoma Panhandle was led by Katie Denning’s five kills on seven attempts without an error.  Lacy Jones and Val Armstrong each had four kills.  Kirbi Twilligear picked up 13 digs.

Following Tuesday’s match, the Yellowjackets will return to Billings and enjoy a bye week in the schedule.  They next play October 21 and 22 when they travel to Austin, TX, to take on defending Heartland Conference champion St. Edward’s.  Those matches will be the Jackets’ final two on the road.  They’ll wrap up the season at home with a non-conference match against Rocky Mountain on October 26 and a pair of conference counters against Incarnate Word on November 4 and 5.  The top four teams will then meet in the conference tournament November 11 and 12 in Austin.