FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Oct.19, 2024) - The Northern Arizona women's volleyball team took on the Montana State Bobcats for the second time this season, winning in four sets 3-1 (26-28, 27-25, 25-19, 25-19). This win would move the Lumberjacks record to 9-9, and 2-5 in Big Sky Conference play. The Bobcats move to 6-13 and 4-4 in Big Sky play. The match featured 41 ties and 18 lead changes over two hours and 28-minutes of play.
"We've been really grinding it out for the last three or four weeks and this group likes to work," head coach Ken Murphy said. "It is always fun to play on homecoming weekend with the high energy of the crowd. One thing about our team, is that they love to be Lumberjacks. Today we continued to focus on one point at a time knowing we had the confidence to go into that fourth set and take the opportunities in front of us."
Northern Arizona took the early lead in the first set going up 5-2 with kills by Sophia Wadsworth, Hanah Stoddard, and Gigi Greenlee. The Bobcats made a 3-0 run to tie at 5-5. A 4-2 run with kills by Taylor Jacobsen would put the 'Jacks ahead by two at 9-7. Montana State put up a fight with a 9-3 run to take the lead 16-12. Later in the set, with service aces by Stoddard and Millie O'Ketter, the score was tied at 22-22. The 'Jacks and 'Cats continued to flip-flop and tie the set three more times. By 26-26, NAU would produce two errors to give Montana State the first set 28-26.
A 3-0 run by Montana State would get the second set started. Stoddard, Greenlee, and Savannah Bloom all carried out kills to bring the Lumberjacks to within one at 5-4. Northern Arizona made a 6-2 run to gain the lead at 10-8. The middle of the set was closely matched between the two teams, and the score was tied 19-19. From here, the Bobcats made a 6-1 run to have their first set-point advantage at 24-20. Northern Arizona made a 7-1 run, including a service ace by Stoddard and Greenlee's ninth kill of the night to win the second set 27-25.
Set three saw another close match-up, with the score being tied four times by 6-6. A 5-2 run by Northern Arizona included kills by Jacobsen and Kendall Robertson to give the Lumberjacks the lead at 11-8. The score has been tied five times leading to a score of 16-16. At this point, Northern Arizona made an 8-1 run with kills by Robertson, Stoddard, Wadsworth, and another service ace by O'Ketter to have the set advantage at 24-17. Montana State made two more points in a final push, but it fell short as Greenlee would make the final kill for the 'Jacks to win the set 25-19.
The fourth set began similarly to the previous, with the score being tied five times by 6-6. A 5-2 run saw Keira Hall make two service aces back-to-back putting the 'Jacks ahead at 11-8. The Bobcats retaliated with a 7-2 run, taking the lead at 15-13. The teams would score alternatively for the next four plays, bringing the score to 17-15 in the Bobcats favor. Three kills from Jacobsen and another from Bloom would be part of a 5-1 run making the score 20-18. Montana State secured one more kill before Northern Arizona completed the fourth set with five straight points, including a kill by Stoddard and O'Ketter's third service ace. The Lumberjacks would win the fourth set 25-19, taking the victory on the match 3-1.
Overall, Northern Arizona had a team-hitting percentage of .219 compared to Montana State's .138. Greenlee, making her fourth-ever appearance on the court, led the 'Jacks in kills with 16 total.Â
"Having Gigi out on the court has been great, she is a physical player who can get a lot of kills. She's a great competitor and it's been a year and a half in which we haven't been able to see her play because of her injury," Murphy said. "Gigi is very humble and has a very team-first mindset and she is also very confident in her game. We feel comfortable giving her the ball in a lot of situations."
Stoddard was one behind her with 15 kills and Jacobsen with 12. Northern Arizona had eight service aces, three from O'Ketter and Hall each and two by Stoddard. Robertson led in blocks with five total, followed by Jacobsen and Wadsworth with two each. Hall had her second-highest number of assists this season with 28. Melia Barlow had 23 assists in total. For digs, O'Ketter tallied 24, putting her at 306 for this season. She has 1,736 in her career which puts her 155 digs away from overtaking Anna Gott's (1,891) top spot in the NAU record book. Barlow had 19 digs and Stoddard had 17.
"It's been an amazing experience so far, our team has brought such a fight to both games this week and the energy is so high, I'm excited to see where we can go moving forward," said Greenlee. "I think we realized in this game that no matter what happened in the past, we have to keep building on what we have got. Knowing my coach and teammates have trust in my game helps me to play more confidently. Being able to come back and feel this energy and momentum has brought up my confidence and just being able to have fun with my teammates makes me joyful and reminds me how much I love the sport."
The Lumberjacks will go on to play two road matches next week against Idaho on Oct. 24 and Eastern Washington on Oct.26. Live coverage of both matches will be available on ESPN+ along with live stats.
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