Lindsey Branch, UMW Sports Information
SURPRISE, Ariz. — The no. 15 ranked Montana Western women's volleyball team (8-2) finished up their preseason slate by winning a pair of matches at the OUAZ Invitational. They downed both Arizona Christian and Ottawa University Arizona in straight sets.
How It Happened vs. ACU
UMW found themselves on top early in the first set following a serving run by Taylor Ketchum who served up a pair of aces to put the Bulldogs out three early on. Two kills from Jaiden Perez paired with Firestorm errors fueled a 7-1 scoring run for the Bulldogs. The Red and Black were able to go on and hold ACU to just 13 points in the set to take a 25-13 first set win.
With set two shaping out to be a close contest, the two teams battled down the stretch with neither team taking more than a four-point lead. UMW would claim the final set win 25-23 after hitting a game-high of .294 with just four hitting errors.
Taylor Petersen found success at the service line, serving up another pair of aces for the Bulldogs to give them a five-point lead. A kill from Peyton Vogl forced an ACU timeout late in the set, but the Bulldogs proved to be too much for ACU as UMW powered on to win 25-18.
How It Happened vs. OUAZ
OUAZ errors helped UMW get out to a hot start in the first set, with UMW jumping out to a quick 9-3 lead. Despite a quick 4-1 run for the Spirit mid-set, UMW was able to get back on track following three kills from Jazi Smith down the stretch to win the set 25-17.
Errors continued to prove to be OUAZ's kryptonite in the matchup, seeing the Spirit hit a team -.032 across the match and racking up 24 errors, with nine coming in the second set alone. The Bulldogs went on to win the set 25-20.
It was Smith once more who fired up UMW, knocking down three kills in a 6-1 run to open the set. Up 14-5, OUAZ found a bit of a groove and ran behind a 7-0 run to close the gap to just two points. Leading by three, the Bulldogs allowed just two points from OUAZ at the close of the set to win 25-19.
Notables
Today's back-to-back sweeps were the first time the Bulldogs have accomplished two straight sweeps this season.
Smith and Vogl led the way in the first set with nine kills apiece and matching hitting percentages of .333 percent in the game.
Smith led the Bulldogs in game two today with 15 kills.
Kelsey Goddard led in the back row on the day, totaling 30 digs between the two matches.
Danyel Martin led in the front both games with a total of eight blocks in both matches.
Up Next
The Bulldogs move to 8-2 this season and will kickstart Frontier play on Sept. 13 against MSU-Northern at 7 p.m. for the Bulldogs' home opener.
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