Lady Jackets Finish Road Trip with “W” (10/4/05)
Box Score

GOODWELL, OK – The Montana State-Billings volleyball team finished its first conference road trip with a bang Tuesday night, sweeping Oklahoma Panhandle State 30-11, 30-14, 30-24.  The match was the Lady Jackets’ fourth in five days; they won all four to improve to 17-4 overall and 6-2 in the Heartland Conference.

“It was another good effort by the girls tonight,” said Yellowjacket coach Pa’ulasi Matavao.  “We’re really tired, but we hung in there.  We’re really proud of the kids.  They did a good job on the road trip, staying focused and trying to sweep the road trip and stay in the hunt for the conference.  I think we accomplished a lot on this trip, and the girls did a nice job of staying with their goals of getting four wins.  We’re ready to get back home and get some rest and get ready for the next one.”

Despite playing on little rest, the Yellowjackets avoided any letdown Tuesday and controlled the match from beginning to end.  They held the Aggies to a negative hitting percentage for the match (-.018) with four of the nine OPSU players posting negative attack percentages.  MSU Billings hit .234 as a team and had a 44-16 overall advantage in kills.

Alicia Cazemier (So., Vauxhall, Alberta) led all players with 17 kills on just 26 attempts.  Jessica Bratton (Jr., Casper, WY) and Jessica Lechner (Fr., Huntley, MT) finished with seven and six kills respectively.  Setter Natalie Bills (Jr., Provo, UT) handed out 32 of the team’s 33 assists and also had seven digs and five kills without an error. 

Nicole Kruse (So., Huntley, MT), last week’s conference defensive player of the week, had a match-high 15 digs.  Alexis Sandru (Jr., Twin Bridges, MT) had seven digs and Ali Watson (Jr., Calgary, Alberta) added five.

Oklahoma Panhandle (0-22, 0-8) was led by Lacy Jones’s six kills.  Kirbi Twilligear had nine digs.

The Yellowjackets will return to Billings and enjoy a bye week in the schedule next week.  They next play October 21 and 22 when they travel to Austin, TX, to take on defending Heartland Conference champion St. Edward’s University.  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 two conference matches 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.