FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Oct. 17, 2024) - The Northern Arizona women's volleyball team took on their alternate identity in their match against Montana tonight. The Astrojacks swept the Griz in three sets, 25-20, 25-22, 25-23. It would be Northern Arizona's first conference win of the 2024 season, putting their overall record at 8-9, 1-5. Montana moves to 6-12 overall and 1-6 in Big Sky Conference play.
"Tonight, I think we were really solid. Montana is a good team, we had to play consistently tonight to hang with them and I thought we did a good job of that," head coach Ken Murphy said. "We went through a stretch where we were missing serves and had some opportunities to score that we didn't take advantage of. So we talked about letting that go and just focusing on ourselves, and playing the way we are capable of."
The first set began with a 6-2 run to the Astrojacks, including kills by Hanah Stoddard and Gigi Greenlee. Another run of 4-0 took them to a 12-5 lead with two kills from Sophia Wadsworth and Taylor Jacobsen. The Griz fought back with a 7-1 run to trail by one point at 13-12. Montana made another strong attack with a 5-0 run, gaining the lead for the first time and putting the score at 19-16. Northern Arizona scored six of the final seven points to take the first set 25-20. They hit .293 in the first and Montana hit .182.
Set two was highly competitive and did not see a huge gap between the two teams. The Astrojacks were able to take the lead from the first point thanks to a service ace by Jacobsen. From there, the 'Jacks in their new uniform continued to hold the edge. Millie O'Ketter carried out a service ace to lead 7-5. Greenlee, in her third ever appearance on the court, would carry out four kills in the second set. By the time the score was 22-18 in the Atrojacks favor, the Griz struck with a 4-0 run to tie it up at 22-22. A kill by Greenlee and two by Jacobsen, all of which were assisted by Karya Suvarioglu, would finish off the second set 25-22 to the Astrojacks.
Montana took the early lead at 5-3 in the third. Northern Arizona would take back the advantage with a 4-1 run to get to 7-6. The two teams would tie up the score five times at seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11 a piece. The Astrojacks completed a 5-0 run to get ahead to 15-11. In answer to that, the Griz made their own 8-1 run to put the score at 19-16 in their favor. A kill by Kendall Robertson and Stoddard would be part of three straight points to bring the Astrojacks to within one at 21-20. Montana secured two more points before Northern Arizona finished off the third set with five straight. This included kills by Wadsworth and Stoddard and a service ace by Melia Barlow. The final point of the sweep was thanks to a block assist by Greenlee and Wadsworth.Â
"I thought the team did a good job of relaxing and not overthinking it too much and making a good run," Murphy said. "It was great to see Gigi out there on the court and allow her to show us what she is capable of offensively and defensively."
Overall, Northern Arizona had a hitting percentage of .241 compared to Montana's .129. Jacobsen and Stoddard led the Astrojacks in kills with 13 each. Wadsworth followed with nine. Jacobsen, O'Ketter, Stoddard and Barlow each had one service ace. The Astrojacks dominated defensively, with six blocks by Wadsworth, five from Robertson and three by Greenlee. Keira Hall and Suvarioglu both had 21 assists each. O'Ketter added 17 digs to her career, putting her at 282 for this season. Jacobsen and Hall both had 12 digs each.
"It feels great. We worked so hard this week in practice, just building our confidence and getting into a flow with each other and I think that's exactly what we showed tonight," Jacobsen said. "We keep saying in our gym that it is the start of something great and even though we have had a rough start, there's still a lot of season left to play and we are only going up from here."
Northern Arizona will return to the home court this Saturday, Oct. 19 to compete against Montana State. Live coverage will be available on ESPN+ along with live stats to follow.
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