Tech spikers down Rocky

By Bruce Sayler of The Montana Standard - 09/15/2006

Montana Tech’s Maria McNeil taps a shot past a pair of Rocky Mountain defenders during their opening game Thursday night in the Tech HPER building. Walter Hinick/The Montana Standard

Montana Tech blitzed on every play. The Orediggers brought everybody — all rushing to the front line in menacing attack mode. And a bunch of them proved to be big hitters.

The football team was in the HPER Complex Thursday night, but sitting in the bleachers. The Montana Tech squad packing the wallop was the freshman-and-sophomore-composed women’s volleyball team. The Orediggers outlasted previously undefeated Rocky Mountain 28-30, 30-17, 30-27, 25-30, 15-12 in a Frontier Conference match that served as their season home-opener.

Montana Tech’s offense registered 64 kills, eight ace serves and 59 assists, and the defense posted 13 blocks and 68 digs. The kills were blistering. But they didn’t reach the floor all that easily, an Oredigger said.

“It (the Orediggers’ kills) was surprising because they had a good block up,” said Montana Tech sophomore hitter Maria McNeil, an all-conference returnee, who sprayed 21 kills through the Bears’ defense. “It was great to look over and see our middles pushing — Cassie Hodges, Katie Daly and them.” Both Hodges and Daly are true freshmen who played their first collegiate home match Thursday night. Daly, a former Butte High standout, did so in her hometown.

And the fans turned out. Joe McClafferty, making his public event-night debut as the Montana Tech athletic director, said about 680 spectators were in the seats. Several contests and games for the fans were held during the match and in its breaks, too, as McClafferty tried out some ideas meant to increase interest in the school’s sports programs.

The crowd was the biggest, at least in recent times, for an Orediggers’ home match.

“I hope the crowd got its money’s worth,” McNeil said, smiling. “The students came and got us pumped up.” Hodges ended the match. Her kill shot at 14-12 in the tie-breaker skipped off the fingertips of the Bears’ Melissa St. John and ricocheted hard out of bounds to tally the last point of the match. The match itself was a good, long competition.

“That level of play was how we played (Wednesday),” Montana Tech head coach Marilyn Tobin said. “But we didn’t finish off against Carroll.

“Today, we dictated the tempo in the first game, even though we lost, and in the second game and the third game. Then the evil twin sisters — the we’re-not-good-volleyball-players ones — came out in the fourth game.” Montana Tech looked like it could have won the match in three games or four — but got pushed to five by a Rocky Mountain team that came in with an 8-0 record and No. 4 NAIA See TECH, Page B6 Regional ranking.

The Orediggers led much of the first game, the last time at 28-27 after an RMC hitting error. The Bears came back on an Erin Pehl kill, a kill by Swiss student Sara Schuepbach and a block by Pehl.

Montana Tech was warming, even though it let game one get away. McNeil, Hodges, Daly and CoreyAnne Russell were all on their way to double-digit kill numbers, and Janet Friesz fired up the attack earlier before her teammates broke through and around the blocks for points. Freshman setter Jodi Hogart of Butte wound up with 56 assists. Butte High grad Kristi Witt led the floor defense at libero with 21 digs.

The Orediggers led the second game from the start, a point registered when the Bears’ Sarah Madinger hit a return wide. Lacie Brenton and Jessie Conners fashioned key serving runs and Montana Tech reached game point, 29-17, on another RMC miscue. Then a McNeil serve blasted off the digging St. John and the ensuing pass was a liner that hopped out of bounds, giving Tech the game win, and squaring the match score.

“Basically, everybody came through in the clutch when we needed it,” McNeil said about the match win. “As Coach Tobin says, when a team can come back against a team like that, and Rocky is a really good team, it shows out potential.” The Orediggers wired the fourth-game win, pretty much, too. RMC pulled into a 17-all tie as Schuepbach smashed a shot home, but the home team responded with a Daly kill to take thelead for good. A Pehl tip into the net on a soft attempt brought the Orediggers to game point at 29-27 and then Brenton aced the serve to register the win.

Errors and seeming concentration lapses hurt the young Tech team in the fourth game, when Tobin’s “evil twins” took over the floor. The Rocky Mountain lead reached six points, 19-13, on a St. John tip kill and the Bears used a Jessica Eliasson kill to notch game point at 29-25, blunting an Orediggers rally. Hodges hit into the net on a shot try to end the game and bring on the tie-breaker.

The team Tobin likes better, the one that was playing well, came back for the Orediggers for the fifth game. Kristi Witt served the team out to a 5-0 lead as McNeil and Friesz tallied kills and Witt drilled an ace before the Bears suffered two consecutve errors, a missed set and a four-hit call. The Orediggers led 8-6 at the midway break of the tie-breaker, got game and match point at 14-111 on a McNeil kill and, after a Schuepbach missile, won on Hodges’ shot that glanced off St. John.

“A junior college team, that’s basically what we are,” McNeil said, referring to the roster of freshmen and sophomores. “But we’re holding our own.” “Our little freshmen and sophomores are developing and continually improving,” Tobin said. “It’s fun to see that we so many offensive weapons to win a match and it’s not shouldered by just one player. So, we try to spread it around.

“Our girls stepped it up. It was certainly a team effort. Everybody on the team played tonight and they all contributed in some facet.” The Orediggers, 1-1 in Frontier Conference play and 5-9 overall, will next tackle Lewis-Clark State but not until Saturday, Sept. 23, in Lewiston, Idaho.. Rocky Mountain is to play at Lewis-Clark State on Sunday.

.Montana Tech def. Rocky Mountain 28-30, 30-17, 30-27, 25-30, 15-12.

Kills — Rocky Mountain 57 (Sara Schuepbach 15, Jessica Eliasson 9, Erin Pehl 8, Jen Larsen 8, Sarah Madinger 7, Courtney Arthun 6, Melissa St. John 3, Jacque Walen 1), Montana Tech 64 (Maria McNeil 21, Cassie Hodges 12, Katie Daly 11, CoreyAnne Russell 11, Janet Friesz 8, Ali Fiamengo 1). Assists — Rocky Mountain 48 (St. John 46, Shanda Veldhuisen 1, Larsen 1), Montana Tech 59 (Jodi Hogart 56, Kristi Witt 2, Hodges 1). Aces — Rocky Mountain 6 (St. John 2, Walen 1, Madinger 1, Veldhuisen 1, Schuepbach 1), Montana Tech 8 (Lacie Brenton 2, Hogart 2, McNeil 2, Witt 1, Megan Wichman 1). BBlocks — Rocky Mountain 12 (Arthun 4, Eliasson 2.5, Pehl 2.5, St. John 2, Larsen 1), Montana Tech 13 (Daly 5, Friesz 3, McNeil 2.5, Hodges 2.5). Digs — Rocky Mountain 60 (Schuepbach 17, Veldhuisen 13, Madinger 12, Walen 8, St. John 6, Eliasson 3, Larsen 1), Montana Tech 68 (Witt 21, McNeil 12, Hogart 9, Hodges 8, Jessie Conners 7, Daly 3, Russell 3, Brenton 2, Wichman 2, Fiamengo 1).

Records — Rocky Mountain (0-1, 8-1), Montana Tech (1-1, 5-9). A — 680 (est.).