Lady Jackets Rally for Seventh-Straight Win (9/19/06)
Box Score
Senior Natalie Bills post game audio

BILLINGS, MT – It may not have been jetlag, but the Montana State-Billings volleyball team got off to a slow start Tuesday night.  Playing their first game of the season at a venue closer than two states away, the Yellowjackets rallied from a two-game deficit to defeat Rocky Mountain College 28-30, 25-30, 30-23, 30-21, 15-9.  The Jackets improved to 11-3 overall, dropping the Bears to 14-4.  The win stretched the Yellowjackets’ winning streak over the Bears to seven matches dating back to 2003.  The last time Rocky defeated MSUB was October 29, 2002.

“Rocky came out fighting,” said Yellowjacket senior Jessica Bratton (Casper, WY).  “I think we didn’t expect them to come out playing that hard.  They did awesome.  We hadn’t seen them this year, and they were ready to play.”

The Yellowjackets jumped to a quick 5-0 lead to start the first game, but the Bears hung on.  They trailed for most of the game before finally catching the Jackets at 27-27.  Rocky didn’t trail at a single point in the second game, pulling away from the only tie of the game at 1-1 to take what appeared to be a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

The Bears had a .298 attack percentage in the opening game and hit .333 in the second game.  The Yellowjacket offense didn’t play poorly in the first two games, hitting .282 and .209 respectively.  But MSUB wasn’t able to slow the Rocky attack.

The tide turned in the third game with the Yellowjackets holding the Bears to a .000 attack percentage: 10 kills and 10 errors on 34 attempts.  MSU Billings pulled away from a 10-10 tie and built its lead to as many as eight.  Following that tie a third of the way through game three, the Yellowjackets didn’t trail for the remainder of games three and four.

“Basically we said we just had to start playing,” said Bratton of the team’s discussions between games.  “Toward the end of the second game we kind of got on a run, and we just kept going in the third, fourth and fifth games.  I think we had to get mentally into the game and realize they weren’t backing down.”

Rocky answered the bell first to start the fifth and deciding game, taking a 5-2 lead.  The Yellowjackets battled back, and the game was tied at 5-5, 6-6, and 7-7.  After the teams changed sides of the net at 8-7, the Jackets outscored the Bears 7-2 to close the match.

Bratton posted a team-high 24 kills on a .315 attack percentage.  With the big night she continued to close in on the all-time school record for kills.  She entered the night 134 kills behind record holder Olivia Munro’s 1,288.  Bratton’s magic number to catch Munro now stands at 110 with about half the season remaining.

Ali Watson (Calgary, AB) added 16 kills and 13 digs for the Yellowjackets.  Middle blocker Alicia Cazemier (Vauxhall, AB) chipped in with a dozen kills and was in on five blocks.  The Yellowjackets out-blocked the Bears 12-8 in the match.  Jessica Lechner (Pompeys Pillar, MT) was in on six blocks for the Jackets, and Bratton added four.

Senior setter Natalie Bills (Provo, UT) handed out 52 assists to lead all players.  Last week Bills became the second player in school history to surpass 3,000 career assists.  Bills was also one of five Yellowjackets to record two service aces Tuesday.  Also drawing a pair of aces were Watson, Alexis Sandru (Twin Bridges, MT), Taylor Faught (Billings, MT) and Nicole Kruse (Huntley, MT).

The Bears were paced by a match-high 30 kills from Sara Schuepbach.  She also led all players with 26 digs.  Courtney Arthun added 11 kills, and Jessica Eliasson had 10.  Melissa St. John handed out 50 assists for Rocky.

The Yellowjackets will play their home opener on Friday when they host Dallas Baptist at 7:00 p.m. at Alterowitz Gym.  The match will be the Heartland Conference opener for both teams.  The Jackets and Patriots will meet again at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

“We’re excited we get to start conference this weekend,” said Bratton.  “That’s what we’ve been waiting for.  These other games were all good, but they’ve been practice.  Now is the time to step up and play for the future.”

The Yellowjackets host the Heartland Conference tournament on November 3 and 4.  The conference champion receives and automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, a place no Yellowjacket volleyball team has been before.