Sept. 21, 2010

Box Score

MISSOULA, Mont. - The Gonzaga University women's volleyball team dropped a four-set match to the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Tuesday. The Bulldogs fell 25-21, 19-25, 22-25, 24-26. Gonzaga is now 2-14 on the season and has lost 12-straight, while Montana improved to 5-8.

"Again we did nice things tonight; we just didn't do them over a long period of time," explained second year head coach Dave Gantt.

Gonzaga had two players finish in double-figure kills, compared to Montana who had four. Junior Kaprina Goodwin led the Bulldogs with a 12 and sophomore Jessie Genger added 11.

The Lady Griz was led by Amy Roberts and Jaimie Thibeault with 18 and 17, respectively. Roberts collected a double-double with 15 digs. Thibeault had a match-high .412 hitting percentage with just three errors on 34 total attempts and came alive in the crucial third and fourth sets for the Griz, tallying six kills in each set.

Redshirt freshman Meredith Crenshaw and sophomore transfer Kylie Edinger were bright spots in the middle for the Zags as Crenshaw had nine kills and a match-tying high seven block assists. Edinger added nine kills, a team-best .314 attacking percentage and one block.

"I sure like the way we got the middles involved when the first contact allowed us to do that," explained Gantt. "That has been something that has been missing in our offense and now we have to continue that. A pat on the back to both Meredith and Kylie, basically a freshman and new player to our system, they did a good job tonight."

Junior setter Denise Van de Mortel finished with her sixth double-double on the season and second-straight. She passed out 46 assists and dug 11 balls. She also added two blocks and two kills.

"Deni continues to be the heart and soul on the court," said Gantt.

For the match, the Bulldogs finished with 56 total kills, 25 errors on 176 attempts for a .176 attacking clip. The Grizzlies had seven more kills than GU at 63 with 28 errors on 184 attempts for a slightly better hitting percentage at .190.

Gonzaga held the 81-78 advantage in digs, while Montana led in blocks 12-10.

The Bulldogs now have nine days between matches. They will regroup and refocus for the start of West Coast Conference action, which begins Thursday, Sept. 30 at the University of San Diego. Match is set to begin at 7 p.m.

"It will be nice for us to get into the practice gym to work on some details in the next week and a half," stated Gantt. "Certainly the last nine matches have allowed us to create some practice design that we now have time to work on."