By MT Tech Sports Information.
ILLINGS, Mont.- The Orediggers of Montana Tech are Frontier Conference Regular Season champs after a 3-2 (24-26,25-17, 25-23,19-25,15-9) win over Rocky Mountain College.
The Orediggers and Battlin’ Bears met three times this season, only one of those matches going four sets, and the other two went to five.
The first set truly set the tone for the match, with Rocky taking that first frame 26-24. Montana Tech had 18 kills compared to Rocky’s 11 in that first set, but that was offset by errors, Rocky with three, and the Orediggers with 10.
Montana Tech would start to get on track over the second and third sets, going up 2-1. But the Bears weren’t done. They hit .212 in the fourth, and were able to control the net to take the fourth 25-19.
The fifth and deciding set would be controlled by Tech. The Diggs hit .273 and shut down Rocky to take the match.
Montana Tech put up 63 kills over the five-set match. They were led by Maureen Jessop, who put up 20 kills on the day and finished hitting .230. As the match continued, Mo got stronger and stronger.
Olivia Muir played a big role for the Diggs as well, finishing with 15 kills overall, and getting three in the deciding fifth set. Olivia Labeau tallied nine kills for Montana Tech on the day.
Senior Jelena Jablanov is credited with 28 digs in the match and freshman setter Rhys Layon led the way in assists with 32.
A couple of other big numbers from the match shows Tech with 13 total blocks, and also six aces.
Montana Tech finished the 2023 Frontier Conference regular season at 8-2, and their overall record currently sits at 22-4. They finish the regular season as the No.10 team in the country.
They will be the No. 1 seen in the Frontier Conference this coming weekend and will play the winner of Montana Western and MSU-Northern at 5 pm on Friday Night.
You can view the full bracket on the Frontier Website.
