MISSOULA, Mont. – The Northern Arizona volleyball team utilized their Big Sky leading block during conference play to stun Montana early, earning their second straight sweep and improving to 14-4 overall and 4-1 in the conference Thursday night. The 'Jacks picked up 11 blocks in the first two sets, and then had to rally against the Grizzlies in the third set to complete the 25-18, 25-20, 26-24 victory.

"I was really impressed with our energy from the very start," said head coach Ken Murphy. "We put a ton of pressure on them and we blocked as well as we have all year. We took them out of the things they like to do and it allowed us to get into a nice rhythm. Eleven blocks in two sets is such a big number and that a giant impact."

Senior Payton Bock, who entered the match 10 blocks from tying the school record, added to her career total immediately on the first three points, combining for two blocks with junior Jensen Barton and one with junior Lauren Jacobsen. The Bock blocking spree got NAU off to a 3-0 lead and the 'Jacks never trailed in the opening set. Senior Janae Vander Ploeg aced the Grizzlies on back-to-back points to push NAU's lead to 10-5, but Montana was able to claw back to 15-13. Vander Ploeg, the Big Sky's kills leader, got her first kill on the ensuing point, and then put down kills on three of the next four points to extend NAU's lead back out to 20-15. She finished the first set with four kills, while Bock tallied four blocks alone as the Lumberjacks took the opener.

Like the set before, the Lumberjacks led wire-to-wire in the second set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead courtesy of three Griz attack errors. The blocking flurry continued with junior Addy Lofstedt and redshirt freshman Brittni Dorsey combining on consecutive blocks, making the NAU advantage 8-2. Although it appeared that NAU was in control, Montana failed to make anything easy for the visitors hanging around as late as 19-18 to force a Lumberjack timeout. Bock and Barton teamed yet again, for their third tandem block of the set, to answer Montana's call as NAU reeled off six of the final eight points heading into the intermission.

After not holding a lead and much less seeing a tie score through two sets, Montana refused to go quietly in the night. The Grizzlies snagged an early lead and maintained it until Vander Ploeg put down a kill to put NAU in front, 14-13. After Montana tied the score at 14-all, the teams exchanged points all the way to 20-20 where Vander Ploeg knocked down two more kills to force a Griz timeout.

Facing a sweep right in their face, the Grizzlies roared back with four straight points to not force an NAU timeout, but also get within set point. Lofstedt's kill held off one set point and a Montana error put the ball back in NAU's court. Vander Ploeg then stepped to the service line and rolled a shot off the Montana block from the back row, her ninth kill of the set, and finished the match with her third service ace.

"We took the pressure off a little and Montana responded in the third set," Murphy said. "We put ourselves in a hole at the end, and it was a great effort to come back and win. Janae was great, but we made a ton of little plays. Addy had a really good kill and Stacia (Williams) made a great dig during that run that created a point. The whole team kept competing."

Barton distributed the ball to the tune of 35 assists as NAU hit .280. Vander Ploeg was the lone Lumberjack in double-figure kills with 15. Jacobsen had eight kills, but NAU also received big contributions from its middles with Bock and Dorsey combining for 12 kills without a single error. The pair combined to hit .522 in the match.

"The middles were really good on offense and they were reliable," Murphy said. "They scored when we needed points and of course their blocking was outstanding. That's a piece of our game that is getting better and it makes us harder to defend. It's definitely one of the better offensive outputs from our two middles this year."

The team finished with 13.0 blocks, while Montana did not get in the block column once, as NAU limited UM to .154 hitting. Bock finished with nine blocks, her fourth match this season with as many blocks, and enters Saturday's match at Montana State one block shy of tying Lisa Wylie's school record 473 total blocks.

Barton wound up with six blocks while Lofstedt and Dorsey finished with four each. Redshirt senior Stacia Williams posted 19 digs in the winning effort and Jacobsen added a dozen.

NAU takes on Montana State in a Saturday morning matinee at 11 a.m. Arizona time in Bozeman, Mont. It will be the Lumberjacks' final road match in an opening stretch to conference play with five of six matches away from home.