RMC hangs tough to sweep MSU-Northern 

11-12-10

LEWISTON, Idaho - Even with its back to the wall, the Rocky Mountain College women's volleyball team never panicked.got

Trailing late in both the second and third sets, the Bears rallied to claim a 25-8, 25-22, 26-24 sweep over Montana State-Northern University during the opening day of the Frontier Conference Tournament at the Lewis-Clark State College Activity Center on Friday.

RMC, the No. 2 seed, improves to 22-6 on the season and advances to the semifinals where it will face the winner of Friday's late match between Great Falls and Carroll. The semifinal match is at 1 p.m. Saturday and the championship match will be at 7 p.m.

Rocky Mountain, ranked No. 18 in the NAIA, swept the regular season series against MSU-Northern, the No. 7 seed, and appeared it would have its way against the Skylights after rolling easy in the first set.

MSU-Northern, which finishes the season at 11-14, got off to a much better start in the next two sets but just couldn't close out as RMC rallied for the sweep.

"The first game our serve-receive was at 2.5 but we kind of broke down after that," RMC coach Laurie Kelly said. "But the kids found a way and they know how to win. That's just what they did."

The second game was tied at 8, 16 and again at 20 as RMC rallied each time. MSU-Northern grabbed a 22-20 lead, but Rocky ran off the next five points, the final two coming on kills by Ashley Welborn, for the win.

MSU-Northern had leads of 5-1, 10-8 and 19-6 in the third set, but RMC again turned it on when it mattered and tied the contest at 20. MSU-Northern took the lead twice, the final time at 23-22, but Rocky rallied back and scored three of the final four points to close it out.

"We had 15, 15 and 18 kills (in the three sets) so I can't be mad at our offense, but our defense, passing, and especially serve receive was not good tonight," Kelly said. "That's what we just talked about. We will be a better passing team tomorrow."

Sara Brunner had a match-high 13 kills to pace the Bears, while Welborn added 12. The two also helped RMC hit .297 for the match. Brunner also had three service aces and 15 digs.. Jessica Overstreet had a big match at the net with 3.5 blocks, helping RMC to a 7-3 block advantage.

Brittany Baker paced MSU-Northern with nine kills, while Karyssa Bowron added seven along with a team-high 13 digs.

For the match, MSU-Northern hit .121 for the match and had 29 kills, compared to 48 for RMC.

Kristin Barott added 35 assists and 11 digs for RMC and played a solid match, according to Kelly.