The University of Montana volleyball team will play its second set of matches this weekend when the Grizzlies travel to Fullerton, Calif., for the Cal State Fullerton Titan Classic. The Grizzlies opened their 2010 season last weekend at the Mississippi State Maroon Classic.
Montana will play three matches over two days at Fullerton. The Grizzlies will play the host Titans Friday at 8 p.m. (MT) and Colorado at noon (MT) and Georgia State at 6 p.m. (MT) on Saturday.
Coverage: Cal State Fullerton will carry free audio broadcasts for its three tournament matches. The audio can be accessed through the “Live Audio Broadcasts” link under the homepage’s “Fan Zone.”
Video of Montana’s match against Fullerton is also available on a subscription basis through BigWest.tv.
No live stats will be available.
Last weekend: Cal State Fullerton went 1-2 at USC’s tournament in Los Angeles, Calif., finishing third out of four teams.
Colorado, which plays at Colorado State Tuesday night, opened the season 1-1 at home last weekend with a 3-0 victory over Furman and a 3-2 loss to Duke.
Georgia State went 3-0 to win its own tournament last weekend with victories over Morehead State, North Florida and Wright State.
Montana last weekend: The Grizzlies went 2-2, playing four, three-set matches, to place third out of five teams at the Maroon Classic in Starkville, Miss.
Montana defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Arkansas-Little Rock and lost to Austin Peay and tournament champion Mississippi State.
“I was so excited to see what started to occur on Saturday, and with the addition of a few days of practice, I’m excited to see where we can go now,” fifth-year coach Jerry Wagner said. “We certainly didn’t play our best volleyball, but we certainly started to play the style that we want to see as we head forward.
“We were exposed to four unique styles of play over the weekend, and I thought we grew with each match.
“Now I can’t wait to get back out there. I’m confident in our one-two punch in the middle, and our outside hitters hit way over what we asked them to hit both matches Saturday, so I think we’re on to what we need to do.”
More on Cal State Fullerton: The Titans played at USC’s tournament last weekend and came away with a 1-2 record. CSUF won its opener over Bucknell in straight sets, then gave up a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 loss to Loyola Marymount before closing the tournament with a 3-1 loss to the host Trojans.
USC is ranked No. 10 in this week’s AVCA top 25 poll.
Senior middle blocker Erin Saddler, a first-team All-Big West Conference pick in 2009, averaged 5.25 kills per set on .298 hitting over three matches.
The Titans went 18-12 a year ago, finishing fifth in the Big West with an 8-8 league record. They returned three starters plus their libero.
Series history: Montana and Cal State Fullerton have played twice, with the Titans taking both matches by 3-1 scores. CSUF won the first meeting in 1997 at Fresno State’s tournament and last year’s meeting, which also took place at Fullerton.
More on Colorado: The Buffaloes opened the 2010 season with a pair of home matches last weekend. Colorado opened with a 3-0 victory over Furman, then gave up a 2-1 lead in a five-set loss to Duke.
The Buffaloes hit just .139 in their opening two matches.
Colorado went 7-22 a year ago, finishing 10th out of 11 teams in the Big 12 with a 2-18 league record. Second-year coach Liz Kritza overhauled her roster following the season. On her 18-player roster this fall, she has two returning starters and 14 newcomers.
Series history: Colorado handed Montana a 3-0 loss in the teams’ only previous meeting at Portland’s tournament in 1991. It was one of only four losses that season for the Grizzlies on their way to a 26-4 record and an NCAA tournament appearance.
More on Georgia State: The Panthers won their own tournament last weekend by pulling out a number of tight matches. Georgia State won five-set matches against Morehead State and Wright State and won in four sets against North Florida to help first-year coach Tami Audia to a 3-0 career start.
Junior middle blocker Vineece Verdun averaged 3.50 kills per set on .352 hitting and added 1.14 blocks per set.
Georgia State went 16-14 a year ago, but closed the season with seven straight defeats and losses in 10 of its last 12. The Panthers went 3-11 in Colonial Athletic Association play to tie for eighth.
Series history: Montana and Georgia State have not met.
“This is probably one of Fullerton’s finest teams since (ninth-year coach Carolyn Zimmerman) has been there,” Wagner said about Montana’s tournament opener. “We know what to expect there, so that will be a great test for us.
“Colorado has a lot of new faces, and I don’t know a thing about Georgia State, but I don’t need to. I just need to know that as we head into a match we’re now going to be able to count on serve-receiving the ball well.
“We’ve got a pretty nice offense when we do that; an offense that can keep us around.”
Offense finds its rhythm: Montana split its two tournament matches last Friday despite hitting just .087. On Saturday the Grizzlies hit .262 in their 3-0 sweep of Arkansas-Little Rock and .217 in their loss to the host Bulldogs, out-hitting MSU in the first and third sets.
The higher numbers came mainly from increased production from the team’s left-side hitters.
In Saturday’s opener, freshman Kayla Reno, who had three kills and three errors in limited attacks in Friday’s two matches, finished with 16 kills and just two errors on 40 swings to hit .350.
Sophomore Paige Branstiter, who was held to .000 hitting Friday, had nine kills on .261 hitting.
In Saturday’s tournament finale, Branstiter had a career-high 15 kills on .312 hitting, while Reno added 10 kills on .286 hitting.
“Two things happened Saturday,” Wagner said. “One, our ball-control returned to an even higher level than it was last year. It just took us a full day of the tournament to get there. When that came around, so did the production of a talented group of left-side hitters. One wasn’t going to happen without the other.
“Both those teams we played Saturday served tough, and it didn’t matter. We had people out there stepping up their game in that department.
“You can also see what that did for (setter Kortney James’) assists. She had over 30 assists in three-set matches on Saturday and didn’t have 30 assists combined in the two matches Friday.
“Practice this week is to build in a little more right side. (Freshman) Brooke (Bray’s) been doing everything else, but we haven’t gotten that position as explosive yet as it was last year offensively for us.”
Brown taking ownership of record book: Senior Brittney Brown, the 2009 Big Sky Conference Libero of the Year, put up a pair of historically significant numbers last weekend in Starkville.
In Montana’s season opener, a 3-0 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Brown broke the Montana record for digs in the three-set match with 26. The previous record of 25 was held by Jackie White and Claire Thompson, who both recorded 25 digs in matches in 2004 and ’03, respectively.
Brown also passed the 1,000-dig mark Saturday night against Mississippi State. She finished the tournament with 1,012 career digs.
Brown totaled 436 digs as a sophomore in 2008, which ranks No. 9 on the single-season record list, and finished with 508 last year, which ranks third.
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