Yellowjacket VB Opens Home, Conference Schedules Friday (9/15/05)

BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings volleyball team will be formally introduced to the Heartland Conference on Friday when the Yellowjackets host St. Mary’s University (TX) in their home opener at Alterowitz Gymnasium.  The Jackets and Rattlers will square off at 7:00 p.m. Friday evening and again at 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

MSU Billings currently sits atop the conference standings with a 10-2 overall mark after the Jackets’ early season non-conference matches, although no teams in the conference have played conference matches yet.  St. Mary’s is 6-5 after its non-conference schedule.  Six of the seven Heartland teams will open conference play this weekend.

The Yellowjackets are coming off an easy four-match tournament in Dillon in which they defeated Westminster College, University of Great Falls, Montana-Western, and Montana Tech.  MSU Billings won three of the matches in three-game sweeps and downed UM-Western 3-1.  Natalie Bills (Jr., Provo, UT) and Alicia Cazemier (So., Vauxhall, Alberta) were named to the all-tournament team.

St. Mary’s swept its four matches last week, defeating Texas A&M-Kingsville, Central Oklahoma, Texas A&M-Commerce, and Eastern New Mexico.  The Rattlers also swept the Heartland player of the week awards this week.  Maegan Lowry was the hitter of the week, Courtney Matula was the setter of the week, and Katy Migl was the defensive player of the week.  So far this season, every player of the week honor in the Heartland Conference has gone to either a St. Mary’s player or an MSU Billings player.

In the preseason Heartland Conference coaches’ poll, St. Mary’s was picked to finish third in the conference race, one spot ahead of the Yellowjackets.  The Heartland Conference has a short 12-match regular season schedule with teams playing half of their conference matches at home and half on the road.  The top four teams in the regular season advance to the conference tournament at the end of the season.  MSU Billings hosts St. Mary’s (Sept. 16-17), Western New Mexico (Sept. 23-24), and Incarnate Word (Nov. 4-5).  The Jackets travel to play Dallas Baptist (Sept. 30 and Oct. 1), Oklahoma Panhandle State (Oct. 3-4), and St. Edward’s (Oct. 21-22).