Lady Jackets Notch Road Sweep (10/27/06)
Box Score
Senior Ali Watson post game audio

SAN ANTONIO, TX – The Montana State-Billings volleyball team continued its hot play Friday evening, sweeping St. Mary’s University to remain unbeaten in Heartland Conference play.  The Jackets won 30-18, 30-22, 30-28 to win their eighth-straight match and improve to 22-4 overall and 9-0 in the conference.  MSUB has only lost once in its last 19 matches dating back to early September.

“It was a really great game for us tonight,” said Yellowjacket senior Ali Watson afterward.  “We started out really strong.  We had some good blocks.  They couldn’t get the ball down on our defense.  On offense, we mixed it up and they didn’t know where to block.  We worked well together tonight.”

The Yellowjackets trailed at only one point through the first two games of the match, holding the Rattlers to a team hitting percentage of .013 during that span.  The Jackets, meanwhile, hit a combined .296 in the first two games to take command of the match.  MSUB had only eight combined attack errors by the end of the second game and finished the night with a .227 team attack percentage.

Watson (Calgary, AB) led all players with 15 kills and also added 10 digs.  Jessica Bratton (Casper, WY) and Alicia Cazemier (Vauxhall, AB) each knocked down 10 kills for the Jackets.  Cazemier was in on six blocks, and Bratton had four.  Jessica Lechner (Pompeys Pillar, MT) added seven kills and three blocks.  Natalie Bills (Provo, UT) handed out 42 assists, and Nicole Kruse (Huntley, MT) picked up a team-high 12 digs.

The Rattlers (18-14, 5-4) were led by Samantha Weber’s 12 kills and six blocks.  The conference leader for attack percentage, Weber was held to a .138 percentage in the match.  Laura Sudano had nine kills.  Sarah Moreno and Emily Patlan each added six.

The Yellowjackets and Rattlers will face each other in the regular season finale for both squads on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 in San Antonio.  Both teams have already clinched spots in next week’s Heartland Conference Championship Tournament that will be held in Billings.  The Yellowjackets, ranked No. 7 in the NCAA Southwest Region, have wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the conference tourney.  The Rattlers are in a tight three-team race for the remaining three seeds.